Description

TQ 4075 GREENWICH BLACKHEATH PARK
(South side)
786/46/10088
Nos. 1-26 Hallgate

GV II

Staggered block of 26 flats. 1958-9 by Eric Lyons for Span Developments Ltd. Brick crosswall construction with concrete facings, weatherboarding and panel infil to facades. Flat roofs. Three storeys. The accommodation grouped around five stairwells, that to Nos. 1-3 on west end; Nos. 16-20 in set-back range which incorporates passageway supported on drum columns leading through to The Hall, a slightlier earlier development not included in the listing. The flats of two or three bedrooms, in three types. Each entrance hall features glazed lobby with open well staircase and timber balustrade, the larger lobbies (not that to Nos.1-3) with horizontal panels of coloured glass at rear, and louvres on upper floor to entrance elevation. Otherwise this elevation (north) a regular rythmn of horizontal bands of glass panes and weatherboarding on north elevation, with flat panels below ground floor. The windows of timber with aluminium opening lights; a contrasting pattern of squares and rectangles, the longest rectangles divided by central glazing bar. Continuous incised fascia above upper storey windows. The south elevation has larger living room windows, dropped to floor height with sill bars continuing the horizontal line of the other glazing. The passageway to the Hall with stone flags and featuring a sculpture by Keith Godwin, 'The Architect in Society', commissioned to commemorate Lyons's planning battles with Greenwich council. According to Lyons, 'it depicts with rare and wry humour the architect's real position today under pressure on the one side by the needs of a society, on the other by the restrictions of planning authorities.' 'If it is not a good likeness, it is roughly the way I feel at times' (Architects' Journal, 10 September 1959, p.149; 8 October 1959, p.303). At Hallgate there was an argument with the LCC over the colour of paint for the development; he had two other planning decisions pending at the time, one of them the listed South Row flats.
The Hall development was the first by Lyons and Span to include both terraced housing and flatted accommodation. Hallgate shows a new sophistication in his flat design, to which its relationship to the earlier houses and the presence of the sculpture gives an added interest of the block as a gateway. The result is one of Lyons's best known works. (Architects' Journal: 10 September 1959: 149; Architects' Journal: 8 October 1959: 302-03; The Architect: July 1971: 36-8).

Listing NGR: TQ4012375878

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26284863

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)