1-6 Parkleys Parade And 17-23 Dryden Court And Sculpture To North

Parade of six shops with maisonettes and estate office over, with sculpture to the north. Built 1954–55 by Eric Lyons for Bargood Estates Ltd, subsequently Span Developments Ltd. Geoffrey Paulson Townsend was the developer, G Scroble the project architect, and Leslie Bilsby the builder.

The building uses brick crosswall construction with brick rear elevations and partitions, concrete floor slabs and balconies, Eternit block and weatherboarding, and a flat felt roof with brick stacks. It is three storeys tall with a rectangular six-bay plan. The ground floor contains shops with maisonettes above, reached by external stairs in a left-hand projection. This projection contains a first-floor estate office supported on stilts or pilotis.

The first floor features a timber-fronted balcony to each maisonette and a large projecting window to the left with a single square window over infill panelling and a glazed door in return. Other windows are square with one top light. The projecting estate office has a continuous balcony with two double-width windows, one with a side casement. The second floor is set back with smaller square timber casements. The rear façade has timber balconies separated by service accommodation, with wooden pergolas over. A fully glazed staircase projects to the rear. The interiors are not otherwise of special interest.

To the north is a sculpture by Keith Goodwin, part of the group.

Lyons and Townsend met in the late 1930s and renewed their partnership after war service, developing several small private schemes in south-west London and the north Surrey borders. In 1954 Townsend established himself as a developer and relinquished his RIBA membership. Parkleys was their first mature collaboration and their first work as Span Developments Ltd.

The building stands on the site of a nursery. The development was carefully laid out to retain existing trees, and the nursery stock and its gardener were taken over as part of the scheme. The site is organised as a series of cul-de-sacs, with the shop row in pure modern design contrasting with the more traditional tile hanging of the surrounding flats. Parkleys was developed for first-time buyers, and Span was among the first companies to promote the endowment mortgage. It was also the first example of Span's residents' management company system, which has kept most of their developments in exceptional condition. Each leaseholder contributes to funding paid maintenance staff and serves as a member of the management company running the estate. This shopping parade is unique among Span's work for combining housing with shops and was the first, largest, and probably the most important of all Span schemes.