Details
22/0/10173
27-JAN-04
SHEEN ROAD
(North side)
1-211 Lichfield Court and 1-17 Lichfield
Terrace
II
211 flats in two blocks linked by gates and set over seventeen shops (some now combined). Designed 1933, built 1934-5 by Bertram Carter and Sloot. Partial steel frame. Concrete floor slabs, projecting as balconies with white-painted concrete balcony fronts, red brick walling, flat roofs. Seven storeys, the lowest forming a lower-ground floor on falling site, the upper two set back. Art Deco style.
Lichfield Court comprises two blocks with a driveway between them that leads to rear car parking. The large block (flats 1-152) is a rectangular block with semi-circular stairwells projecting into internal courtyard. Four entrances - one at upper ground level, the others at lower-ground level, all with lifts and stairwells. All flats accessed by galleries that run around the internal courtyard. Boiler house behind south elevation, which has shops (Nos.1-8) on upper ground floor. Shops, too (Nos.9-17), to south elevation of smaller block, which is U-shaped with carriage entrance into inner courtyard at lower ground level, and one entrance on each of the ground levels. Flats again reached via galleries around the courtyard.
All corners curved, with curved windows. Balcony fronts are curved at one end, and have roll-stops where they abut the brickwork of the building at the other, for the corners to the entrance project, while the rest of the main facades are set back behind the line of the shops. The diagonally opposite corner at the rear of the main block is similarly set forward, as is the centrepiece of each long side wall. Opaque glass screens separate the balcony areas to each flat. All windows are Crittall metal frames with strong horizontal glazing pattern, save for five flats that have windows renewed in UPVC, four of them discretely at the rear. Conservatory abutting fifth set (at front corner) not of special interest. Entrances to block have ribbed surrounds and keystones; double part-glazed oak doors. The first entrance from the driveway is reached up broad steps with curved balustrade. Cast-iron railings with strong horizontals lead down to entrance on west side, where a carriageway under the building leads into the internal courtyard. This courtyard - and that to the smaller block, is dominated by the concrete balcony fronts and stairwells, which form a strong pattern of horizontal and verticals, and whose whiteness contrasts with the dark brick of the flats behind. Painted coats of arms on balcony fronts.
Big ribbed cornice over shops. Nos. 1 and 9 Lichfield Terrace retain 1930s' shopfronts whose banded upper lights reflect the pattern of the cornice above; these units are prominent and significant as they are set at the corners of each block. Ribbed, too, are the gatepiers, each comprising two linked shafts, and over them is fixed the sign 'LICHFIELD COURT'. Art Deco cast-iron gates, for cars in the centre and pedestrians to the sides, to the main carriageway and to that at the west at the site.
Interiors. All entrance halls have ribbed architrave surrounds to inner openings that lead to lifts and, in the big block, to semi-circular staircases with Art Deco cast-iron balustrade. In both blocks similar mouldings form pilaster surrounds to the radiators, which are inset behind art deco grilles. Interiors of flats not inspected.
Internal courtyard to larger block has circular central fountain, and service lifts so that trades access could be separated from that of residents. The block has its own heating system and originally its own drinking supply and a separate garage.
Lichfield Court was built on the site of Lichfield House, and was noted for its convenience to the town centre and for commuting by train. The design was originally to have been higher and entirely of exposed concrete, but a compromise was reached that was more harmonious with the existing scale of the town. The result is a block of small flats of exceptional quality and completeness, with elaborate ribbed mouldings and Art Deco details.
Sources
Sales Brochure, 1935
Architect and Building News, 13 September 1935, pp.303-6
