32 Victory Avenue, Gretna

32 Victory Avenue, Gretna is part of a terrace of 2-storey housing designed by Raymond Unwin and Courtnay M Crickmer in 1916. The building is constructed of red brick, an unusual residential material in Scotland.

The housing forms a U-plan arrangement around a courtyard with three rows: a symmetrical south row of 9 bays and east and west rows of 8 bays each. The south row features a pair of advanced central gables topped with ball finials as decorative elements. Most ground floor windows have segmental-arched openings. Entrance doors are fitted with consoled flat canopies. The roofs are piended with grey slates and corniced ridge stacks.

Many windows and doors have been replaced in various non-traditional materials and glazing patterns; the original windows were small-pane timber sash and case windows. Nos 46-52 have later pebble dash render applied over the red brick.

The U-plan grouping is significant as the only surviving example of this housing type in Gretna, which was designed along Garden City principles. The town was built from 1916-18 to house workers at a nearby munitions factory that produced Cordite explosives during the First World War. The township was planned with green spaces, a central street containing shops and community facilities, and curving residential streets. Raymond Unwin, a leading figure in early 20th-century British town planning, oversaw the design; Crickmer acted as resident architect. The town also included churches, a dance hall, school, and cinema to serve workers and their families. The munitions factory was dismantled after the war.