Summary
Two identical blocks each containing twelve flats for Span Developments Ltd, designed by Eric Lyons, built 1959-1961, and three rows of contemporary and near-contemporary garages.
Reasons for Designation
Applecourt, two identical blocks each containing twelve flats for Span Developments Ltd, designed by Eric Lyons, built 1959-1961, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is by one of the most significant and influential architects of the post-war period, whose Span schemes bridged the gap between speculative development and architect-designed houses, establishing a style of architecture that was the dominant form in the years 1965 to 1975;
* it is a successful and well-preserved Span scheme exemplifying Lyons’ approach through landscape – the design of buildings within an environment – which he saw as the starting point of his design process;
* it sensitively responds to the mature planted grounds of the site, which include an old pear orchard, with its low-rise H-shaped blocks in scale with the surroundings and carefully oriented to ensure that the natural green setting is an integral part of the experience of living at Applecourt;
* it is well-proportioned and architecturally reticent in character, with building materials of a subtle and coherent palette which combine to create a textural pattern of considerable aesthetic interest;
* it has good quality detailing in the internal spaces, including floors of grey terrazzo and communal doors with coloured glazing. A number of the flats retain some of their original kitchen and bathroom fittings, providing significant examples of mid-C20 interiors.
Historic interest:
* it was the home of Nicholas Wilde, an author of international reach, who found inspiration and solace in Applecourt where his writing was done. His flat is one of the least altered, thereby directly illustrating the link between the building and his creative process.
History
Applecourt was built in 1959 to 1961 to the designs of Eric Lyons (1912-1980) for Span Developments Ltd. The contractor was Wates Ltd. Span Developments Ltd was a development company formed in 1957 by the architect Eric Lyons, the property developer (and former architect) Geoffrey Townsend, and the builder Leslie Bilsby.
Geoffrey Townsend (1911-2002) and Eric Lyons (1912-80) met when studying architecture part-time at Regent Street Polytechnic in the mid-late 1930s. Townsend set up his own practice in 1937 and was joined by Lyons a year later. Their work was interrupted by the war, but in 1945 they renewed operations and began to develop small infill sites in the Twickenham and Richmond areas. Most were short terraces of houses to a standard design, with a couple of larger developments of flats (one with shops) in Richmond. However, until 1982 the RIBA did not allow its members to act as both architect and developer on the same project and, unable to find a client in tune with their ideas, in 1953 Townsend resigned his membership to work full-time as a developer. They continued to work together, with Lyons providing most of the subsequent designs for Span housing while continuing in independent practice.
Lyons and Townsend’s first large-scale scheme was Parkleys, Richmond-upon-Thames, 1954-1955 (listed at Grade II), which brought them to wide attention. Townsend devised a system of covenants and management whereby every leaseholder belonged to a management company responsible for the maintenance of the estate through a committee elected from among its number. The three elements of a simple modern design, lavish planting and a strict programme for continued management and maintenance were all rolled out across subsequent estates, which share a strong common appearance. The residents’ associations are the chief reason why nearly all the estates have a very strong sense of community and survive little altered.
Landscape was fundamental to the ideology which underpinned Span developments. For Lyons, landscape was not just the treatment of the spaces left between buildings, it was the arrangement of the buildings to create spaces, ‘visual spaces and functional spaces’. He stated that ‘landscape should be the functional design of the space, not just a matter of bringing in a landscape-decorator to sprinkle some trees and cobbles around the place’. (Eric Lyons and Span, p 40). Thus Span landscapes were approached holistically, with Lyons contributing to the spatial decisions early on in the planning stages. Lyons was also responsible for the signage on Span developments, usually using a Clarendon typeface, and he designed a low mushroom topped aluminium light to illuminate the footpaths. A few of these survive on some Blackheath estates but most have been replaced.
Span arose from the dissatisfaction with the domestic building process and its restrictions, and the desire to find alternatives to the semi-detached plan form so popular in the pre-war period. It aimed ‘to span the gap between the suburban monotony of the typical speculative development and the architecturally designed, individually built residence that has become (for all but a few) financially unattainable’ (Span promotional literature c1960s, quoted in ‘Eric Lyons and Span’, p 35). At a time when most speculative housing was of poor quality, Span established an enviable reputation with a style that was humane, appropriate to its setting, and beautifully planted. Above all, Span established a standard of high quality, well detailed housing at moderate cost which was highly successful and widely influential. The critic Ian Nairn was one of the first to recognise the importance of Span’s work. Following an influential article, ‘Spec Built’, that denounced private developments, he singled out ‘a few successes’, including two schemes by Lyons ‘whose housing for Span Developments stood alone for so long and to whose pioneer work the other schemes illustrated clearly owe much’ (Architectural Review, March 1961, p 170).
Applecourt was the first of Span's developments in Cambridge and it adopted a different solution from their well-known courtyard plans, instead consisting of two H-plan blocks. Each contains twelve flats of the Type ‘A’ layout used in Parkleys, although they have a more generous floorplan and feature neither chimneys nor piped gas, given their innovative ‘all-electric’ design. The sales brochure describes the accommodation as having a ‘hall with ample room for cloaks’; an ‘elegant living room zoned into leisure and dining areas’; ‘two double bedrooms, each with a deep wardrobe cupboard’; a ‘well-equipped and part tiled bathroom’; a ‘lobby with heated linen cupboard’; and a ‘private drying balcony’. In the ‘planned kitchen with breakfast corner’, the ‘equipment includes stainless steel sink with double teak draining boards and cupboard unit, table top, glazed china cabinet and large larder and storage cupboard’’. A photograph of the wall divider between the kitchen and living room shows that it had a row of cupboards with a fixed electric heater, and above a fitted shelving unit with sliding glass doors underneath. The brochure also includes mention of ‘important attributes such as efficient thermal insulation for warmth and efficient sound insulation for quietness’. The development was covered favourably in Cambridge New Architecture: A Guide to Modern Buildings (1964). A furnished show flat was made available in Applecourt for people who were interested in buying a flat in Span’s next development, the Grade II listed Highsett on Hills Road in Cambridge.
Whilst many of Span’s developments were built in mature planted grounds, Applecourt is the only example set within a wooded garden, over which the vast majority of the flats have a direct view. As the sales brochure states, ‘they have been sited strategically for maximum sun, light and air’. The development was built on land formerly in the curtilage of the Evelyn Nursing Home, and some of the original landscape features and many established trees, including an old pear orchard, were carefully retained. Lyons enhanced the existing grounds by planting a row of apple trees along the southern edge of the development and herbaceous borders by the access road to the west. The garages were purposefully built out of sight at the far rear of the development, behind the North Block. The sales brochure pointed out that ‘even the roads and pathways are planned with an eye to aesthetics and convenience and screened or emphasised as necessary’. The garages were built in two stages: the first garage yard had double-leaf wooden doors, and then a third row was built to a similar design to the north-east soon after.
From the beginning Applecourt attracted academics, writers, scientists and collectors amongst its residents. Perhaps one of the better known is the writer Nicholas Wilde whose literary output was influenced by the peaceful nature of the development and its woodland setting. In 1972, Nicholas Wilde became Head of German at The Leys School in Cambridge where he was regarded as a brilliant and influential teacher before retiring in 2000 (as Head of Modern Languages) in order to focus on his writing. Whilst living at Applecourt, he wrote and published six books, the first of which was “Sir Bertie and the Wyvern” (1982), the first fictional book ever published by Debrett’s. Two of his novels were nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and his work has been translated into six languages and adapted for the stage, BBC radio, and ITV television.
Over the years Applecourt has been subject to some changes. In many of the flats the original kitchens and bathrooms have been updated, and the wall dividers (part glass, part wood) which separate the kitchen from the living area have either been replaced or, as in six of the flats, removed altogether to create an open plan. The original wooden-framed windows and external doors have been replaced with uPVC windows and doors (maintaining a similar layout).
Applecourt used to have its own teak postbox, located inside the entrance of the right block (Flats 13-24). This has been removed from its original location, but remains on the site.
Details
Two identical blocks each containing twelve flats for Span Developments Ltd, designed by Eric Lyons, built 1959-1961, and three rows of contemporary garages.
MATERIALS: brick cross-wall construction with tile-hanging and brown brick end walls laid in stretcher bond.
PLAN: two H-shaped blocks with staircases in the centre of the crossbar of the H. A carefully tended garden surrounds the blocks which are linked by a paved forecourt retaining pre-existing trees, including apple and pear trees situated on a straight diagonal axis. The gardens retain the mushroom topped aluminium lights designed by Lyons for Span. Three rows of contemporary garages are located to the north of the flats.
EXTERIOR: Applecourt is in the British Modernist style. The three-storey blocks each contain twelve flats under flat roofs with a broad white cornice (replaced). The long outer elevations facing east and west have a marked horizontal emphasis created by the continuous bands of windows alternating with the two bands of diamond tile-hanging which separate each floor. The elevations are framed by concrete pilaster strips. The fenestration has been replaced with uPVC but is similar to the original pattern of large windows, mostly without glazing bars, set flush in the wall. (Historic photographs show that the original windows had a central pivot, whereas the current ones are top-opening.) The band of windows is only interrupted by the deeply recessed balconies which have simple tubular rails and inbuilt plant ledges faced with a plain horizontal board, painted white. In place of a balcony, the ground-floor flats have a uPVC door with two glazed panels, and floor to ceiling picture windows in the living room giving views across the communal gardens.
The flats are accessed on both the north and south sides of the crossbar of the H, which continue the horizontal emphasis with wide storey bands, painted white. The elevations are divided into three distinct bays: the wide central bay lights the communal staircases, and the outer bays are filled with unglazed terracotta louvres of rectangular hollow tiles, designed to ventilate the drying rooms on each landing. The window bays on the entrance elevations are given slightly different treatment. Those facing into the central courtyard have four wide transoms to the upper windows and a glazed ground-floor; whilst those facing outwards have four vertical windows with top-opening panes to each floor, and a ground-floor projection faced in hollow tile louvres, originally designed to house prams. The entrance doors on the right of this have been replaced with uPVC but the inner doors to the communal staircases are original. These wooden doors have five horizontal panels, most of which contain green glass. The return walls have the same external treatment as the long outer elevations facing east and west. The end brick walls are blind.
INTERIOR: in the communal areas, the hall and landing floors are laid in grey terrazzo. The storage rooms originally designed to store prams retain their original single-glazed windows and lights. The staircases provide access to galleries which lead east and west past utility rooms to two flats at each end. The straight flight stairs have grey terrazzo treads, a wide teak balustrade and metal tubular handrail, painted white. The wooden doors to the flats are painted blue and have two panels of Stippolyte glass; they retain the original letter boxes and most retain the original numbers. The adjacent doors to the drying rooms on each landing have six horizontal panels of blue glass (replaced on one of the doors).
The flats have the same basic layout consisting of an entrance hall with fitted cupboard, a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a lobby containing an airing cupboard. The original wall divider between the kitchen and living room had a row of shallow, teak-veneer cupboards with a green leatherette top, and a fixed electric heater. Above this, it had a glazed panel on the left; and on the right, a fitted shelving unit with sliding glass doors underneath. The wall divider was designed to demarcate each space whilst retaining an open feel and maximising the light. The original kitchen fittings consisted of a larder and wooden base cabinets, painted white; a worktop covered in green leatherette; wall-mounted open teak shelving; a small wall-mounted, folding, formica table; and teak draining boards either side of a stainless steel sink with arched taps. The original bathroom fittings included an enamel bath with a black panel and corner taps, black square wall tiles, and a mirror with large chrome-topped screws. The doors leading into the living room from both the hall and the landing had two large glazed panels, whilst the other doors had a teak veneer. The door frames incorporated three mouldings on each side. Both bedrooms had fitted wardrobes, those in the smaller room had mirrors on the inside of the door with large chrome-topped screws, and those in the larger bedroom had sliding doors.
Many of the flats have been subject to varying levels of alteration, involving the removal of the wall divider, and the replacement of kitchen and bathroom fittings. Out of the twenty-four flats, fourteen have been inspected internally, and sale particulars for two other flats include photographs of their interiors. Based on this evidence, the flats that have survived with the least alteration are numbers 17, 19, 21 and 24 which all retain their wall divider, kitchen and bathroom, with some limited modifications in each case, along with their internal doors, hall cupboard, airing cupboard, and fitted wardrobes. Flats 7 and 14 retain part of their wall divider; and Flat 11 retains the original bath, hand basin and black tiles. In the majority of the other flats that were inspected, some of the original joinery survives, including doors, door frames, fitted cupboards and wardrobes, some with mirrors.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to the north of the blocks are three rows of garages, totalling nineteen. They are constructed of brown brick laid in English bond with flat roofs and a wooden cornice. In the original garage yard, five of the garages retain the original double-leaf wooden plank doors, painted dark blue, with strap hinges. The other garage doors have been replaced with up-and-over doors, also painted dark blue. In the row to the north-east, added slightly later, the up-and-over doors appear to be original, with one replacement.
