11-15, Mayfair Avenue

Nos. 11-15 Mayfair Avenue comprise a group of four terrace houses with a detached house originally planned but not built. Constructed between 1933 and 1935 by Robert McClaren Love, FRIBA for H.W Pippett, they represent an Arts and Crafts-inspired suburban development. The houses are built of painted brick with tiled roofs. Nos. 11-14 form a two-storey range with a hipped roof, featuring a central archway on the ground floor. The inner houses (Nos. 12 and 13) have central arched door openings flanked by two-light, eight-pane casement windows; the outer houses (Nos. 11 and 14) have single windows and attached garages. Original front doors, with a circle-in-square panel below a nine-pane light (modern replacement to No. 14), are characteristic features. Two-light, eight-pane dormer windows illuminate the upper floor. Three chimney stacks rise from the roof. The rear (northern) elevation is notable for its projecting pyramidal hip to the endmost bays, dormer windows, and a raised wall to eaves level either side of the central opening. No. 15 is a two-storey house with a pyramidal hipped roof, a central chimney stack, dormer windows, and a catslide roof over the garage.

The interiors of Nos. 11 and 13 retain original features, including marble fireplace surrounds with keystone motifs and bolection-moulded frames, marble window sills, Douglas fir doors with three vertical panels, continuous skirting boards and picture rails, and closed staircases with moulded wooden handrails and railings decorated with solar and stellar devices.

This development was undertaken by H.W. Pippett, a mason who previously worked in New Delhi for Sir Edwin Lutyens and Baker. The architect, Love, was also involved in work for Lutyens in New Delhi. Originally named “The Close”, the development was incomplete, and No. 10 was built in 1966 to a separate design.

The houses are listed for their architectural quality, representing exceptional Arts and Crafts-inspired suburban houses strongly influenced by Hampstead Garden Suburb, and demonstrating interesting connections with Sir Edwin Lutyens.