Landfall and attached screen walls and terrace

Landfall and attached screen walls and terrace

House, built 1936–1938. Designed in the modernist style by architect Oliver Hill for film director Dudley Shaw Ashton. Fitted furniture designed by Betty Joel.

The building is constructed of rendered brick with a bitumen-covered roof. The external staircase and rooftop sunroom are of reinforced concrete. Flooring is Danish beech wood laid in narrow strips, and joinery is of red cedar. Windows are Crittall metal-framed.

The house is a two and three-storey detached building with a flat roof and parapet, arranged on a long, narrow plan comprising a central hall with principal living rooms and bedrooms laid out along the garden (south) elevation. The garage, attached to the north elevation, creates an L-shaped footprint. A paved terrace extends to the south, beneath which sits an air raid shelter. A curving screen wall attached to the south-west corner forms a barrier between driveway and garden, extending along the western road front.

The north elevation features a curved entrance block rising to form the rear wall of the rooftop sunroom. The timber entrance door has a round, porthole-style window above a curved step; to its left are two further round windows, all beneath a curved canopy. Above are a series of round stair windows and a four-light strip window lighting the first-floor landing. The two-storey walls either side are slightly set back. The right block has an eight-light strip window to the ground floor and four-light strip window to the first floor. The left block has a porthole window to the first floor, with the garage extending northwards from the ground floor, fitted with a folding and sliding timber door.

The east elevation features a three-light cedar-framed window to the ground floor with a sliding central pane, and a five-light cross window to the first floor.

The south (garden) elevation comprises a left block with a five-light cross window and two circular windows to the ground floor and an eight-light cross window to the first floor. The centre and right sections form a deeply recessed area creating a long loggia at ground floor with a balcony above, supported by slender steel columns on each floor. The roof extends to match the balcony projection, providing cover, and both balcony and roof terrace have tubular steel railings. The ground floor hall and living room walls are fully glazed with full-height cedar-framed sliding doors. The principal bedrooms at first floor have doors with horizontal glazing bars opening onto the continuous balcony, which connects to the ground floor terrace via a flying curved staircase with curved steel rails. The rooftop sunroom has a curved south wall with three full-height panes of plate glass and a metal-framed door with horizontal glazing bars. The formerly paved roof terrace has been covered with bitumen.

The west elevation has a set-forward entrance with a four-light cross window to the right. Extending westwards is a single-storey ancillary block housing a WC and former coal store, with a two-room plan. The first floor has four-light and three-light cross windows.

The small entrance lobby provides access to a downstairs lavatory, projection room, and circular hall. The lavatory door is inscribed with autographs of mid-twentieth century figures from the arts and society. The projection room contains two circular holes for camera projectors enabling films to be shown in the hall. The hall appears circular due to the outer wall curvature, the staircase, and a curved suspended ceiling soffit extending around two sides; the south-facing soffit houses the projector screen. Double doors lead west into the dining room; folding and sliding doors on the opposite side, offset to the garden side, lead to the living room. The south wall of both hall and living room is fully glazed with sliding doors running on tracks, allowing them to push back sequentially. Radiators are retained in front of fixed glass panes. Low curved bookcase fittings by Betty Joel line the north wall of the living room either side of a stone fireplace (later replacement); the west wall has a combined radiogram and drinks cabinet. A single door from the west side of the hall leads to the refitted pantry (also accessible from the dining room) and modernised kitchen, which retains the box for the electric bell system. The north side contains the former maid's sitting room; its fitted furniture is not original.

The curved staircase leads to the first-floor landing with its internal north wall curved. Two fitted cupboards are at the landing; some bedrooms have fitted cupboards, washbasins, and fitted beds with drawers beneath. Bathrooms have been modernised. The principal bedroom's en-suite bathroom has been reconfigured and an archway created between it and the former bedroom to the west; the north doors to both are retained at the landing but blocked internally with plasterboard. An open staircase leads to the rooftop sunroom. Throughout are plain cedar doors with original metal furniture; ground floor door handles are coloured green, first floor handles are blue.

The curving screen wall at the west end is in two sections, forming a barrier between driveway and garden. A paved terrace curves around the external staircase on the garden elevation, with steps to the garden at the west end. Beneath the terrace lies an air raid shelter. These subsidiary structures contribute to the special interest of the principal building and are included within the listing.