42 and 44 Victory Avenue, Gretna

42 and 44 Victory Avenue, Gretna

This is part of a U-plan group of terraced housing designed by Raymond Unwin and Courtnay M Crickmer in 1916. The group comprises three rows of two-storey terraced houses arranged around a central courtyard, forming the only surviving example of such planned groupings in Gretna.

The buildings are constructed in red brick, an unusual residential material in Scotland at the time. The south row is symmetrical with nine bays and features a pair of advanced central gables with ball finials as decorative elements. The east and west rows each contain eight bays. Ground floor window openings are predominantly segmental-arched. Entrance doors have consoled flat canopies. The roofs are piended with grey slates and corniced ridge stacks.

Most of the original windows and doors have been replaced with non-traditional materials and glazing patterns. Early photographs show the original glazing consisted of small-pane timber sash and case windows. Later pebble dash was applied to numbers 46 to 52.

The housing forms a significant part of the streetscape of Gretna, the planned munitions factory town constructed from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War. The town was designed along Garden City principles, with green spaces accessible to residents, a wide central street with shops and community facilities, and curving secondary streets. Raymond Unwin, one of the most important figures in early 20th century British town planning, was the overseeing architect. Courtnay M Crickmer, a London-based architect who had also worked with Unwin at Letchworth and Hampstead Garden Suburb, served as resident architect. The U-plan grouping exemplifies a key Garden City principle: small housing groups with accessible green space. This is the only such group surviving in Gretna and thus represents a key element of the town's overall planning. The township also included churches, a dance hall, school, and cinema to serve the thousands of workers and their families employed at the nearby munitions factory, which stretched nine miles along the Solway and produced Cordite explosives. After the war the factory was dismantled, with only a few remnants remaining.