7 And 9 Laverockbank Avenue And 13-17 (Consecutive Nos) Laverockbank Crescent Including Lockup Garages

This is a modernist municipal housing development designed by Basil Spence and Partners, completed between 1957 and 1960. Peter Ferguson was the partner in charge, with Richard Cassidy as job architect, and T Harley Haddow & Partners as engineers. The development, located near Newhaven harbour on a steeply sloping site, comprises a six-story, eleven-bay flatted wing and a row of two-story terrace houses with basements, set at right angles and linked by a glazed staircase block. It was intended as an infill development adjacent to earlier tenements and encloses a terraced landscaped courtyard with lock-up garages.

The western range (numbers 7, 9, and 13) houses flats on the first floor and maisonettes above. A shop unit is located at ground floor level to the left (number 9), with a stair tower and internal drying areas in the outer bays. The construction incorporates a reinforced concrete frame with dressings for the maisonettes, whinstone setts for the ground and first floors and outer bays, and glazed screen walls to the lower floor of the maisonettes, some with spandrel panels. Vertical cedar boarding features above, while the rear (east) elevation has painted harl. The shop unit is faced with vertical cedar boarding. Fenestration is regular with concrete lintels and projecting cills. Angled concrete balconies with steel balustrades and timber detailing are present on the second and fourth floors of the west elevation. Cantilevered galleries with glazed steel balustrades provide access from the first, second, and fourth floors of the east elevation. A flat arched pend is located to the right of the shop unit.

The southern range (numbers 14-17) consists of a row of three, two-bay houses running east-west, with a basement flat located at the left (number 17). Cavity brick construction is predominantly harled, with vertical cedar panel boarding on the left bay of each property, a whinstone setts basecourse, and basement forestairs. The principal (south) elevation features a single entrance door to the right, sheltered by a square concrete canopy supported on slender steel piloti. Fenestration is regular. Forestairs leading to the basement at number 17 oversail the basement level. The rear (north) elevation has regular fenestration, with vertical cedar boarded aprons to the ground floor windows in the right bay of each property. Four bays to the right at basement level are partially open to form drying areas.

The glazing is predominantly replacement uPVC; however, original timber windows remain in the shop unit, ground floor stores, and stairtowers. The original two-leaf glazed timber doors with original ironmongery are retained in the common stair tower of the west elevation. Flat felt roofing covers the western range, while the southern range has a pitched felt roof.

Interior spaces, partially inspected in 2010, include four three-apartment flats and eighteen three-apartment and one five-apartment maisonettes in the western range. The simple plan forms of the flats and maisonettes remain largely intact. Common stairs feature painted brick walls with some whinstone details, concrete stairs, and steel balustrades, along with laundry drying chambers on intermediate landings, and steel mesh pram stores at ground floor level. The southern range houses three four-apartment houses and one two-apartment flat, with predominantly intact plan forms.

The eleven lock-up garages are arranged in a U-plan within the north section of the rear courtyard. They are constructed of roughcast brick and feature double-leaf vertical boarded doors.