Description

TQ 1771 RICHMOND UPON THAMES PARKLEYS PARADE
HAM COMMON
22-0/23/10064
Nos 1-6 with Nos 17-23 Dryden
Court and sculpture to north

GV II

Parade of six shops with maisonettes and estate office over and sculpture to north. 1954-5 by Eric Lyons for Bargood Estates Ltd, subsequendy Span Developments Ltd; Geoffrey Paulson Townsend developer, G Scroble project architect, Leslie Bilsby builder. Brick crosswall construction, with brick rear elevations and partitions, with concrete floor slabs and balconies, 'Eternit' block and weatherboarding. Flat felt roof with brick stacks. Three storeys. Rectangular six-bay plan, with shops to ground floor with maisonettes over, reached by external stairs in projection to left, which has first-floor estate office supported on stilts or pilotis. First floor has timber-fronted balcony to each maisonette with large projecting window to left; this has single square window over infill panelling, with glazed door in return, the other windows square with one top light. Projecting estate office has continuous balcony with two double-width windows, one with side casement. Second floor set back, with smaller square timber casements. Rear facade has timber balconies separated by service accommodation, with wooden pergolas over. Fully glazed staircase in projection. With this exception, the interiors not of special interest. To north, sculpture by Keith Goodwin is part of the group. Lyons and Townsend met in the late 1930s and renewed their partnership after war service. They developed a number of small private developments in the south west London and north Surrey borders, until in 1954 Townsend set himself up as a developer and was forced to give up his RIBA membership. This is their first mature work, and their first as Span Developments Ltd. It is on the site of a nursery , and the blocks of flats were carefully laid out so that the existing trees were kept, and the nursery stock and its gardener were taken over as part of the development. It is laid out as a series of cul-de-sacs, with the row of shops in a pure modern design contrasting with the more traditional tile hanging of the flats. Parkleys was developed for first-time buyers, and Span was one of the first companies to promote the endowment mortgage. It is also the first example of the system of residents' management companies set up by Span which has kept most of their developments in such exceptional condition. Each leaseholder contributes to the funding of paid maintenance staff, and is a member of the management company that runs the estate. Eric Lyons was admired for 'bridging the gap' between speculative work and the creativity most architects of his generation only found in the public sector. 'Twenty years ago he would have been regarded as barely respectable, today he is important. He may even come to be looked back upon as a key figure' (Architectural Review, February 1959). This has proved to be the case. The opportunity to work in such a close partnership with a sympathetic developer enabled Lyons to pursue his own ideas in materials, layout and design, but always subject to the price constraints of it being a speculative scheme that had to be of comparable cost with builders' work. Parkleys was the first, largest and probably the most important of all the Span schemes, and the shopping parade unique in their work for the combination of housing with shops. Source: (Architects Journal: 20 January 1955: 72; Architecture and Building: August 1955: 289-94; Architect and Building News: 27 November 1957:715-24; Architectural Review: February 1959: 108-120).

Listing NGR: TQ1781071624

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata IDs Q26302955 Q28604343

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