1960's house

There is suprisingly little information on the web about
1960's British built housing.
I think the mainstream opinion is that it was all ugly
and disastrous. In actual fact British architects in the 50's
and 60's began to create fantastically practical and
attractive living spaces like these stilt houses in Beckenham.

These are some of the Span houses

Many of these properties featured floor to ceiling
windows, integral garages,hardwood floors and
landscaped communal gardens and are only recently
beginning to receive the plaudits they deserve.

Above is the original press advertisement from
The Lewisham Gazette placed in 1961 for the award
winning crescent on Hall Drive in Sydenham .
"Hall crescent" as the residents refer to it is a very
unusual development of 20 townhouses built in a
crescent around a raised communal garden area.
Each property has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, acres of storage
space an integral garage, a back garden as well
as a large communal rear garden space.

The Sunday Telegraph declared the development it's
"House of the sixties"in 1962 (which seemed rather
an early proclamation) and it's style writer kitted out
the show home with all the latest furniture, fabrics and gadgets
and it was visited by 20,000 readers after being featured
in 2 consecutive articles in the weekly paper

Modern home buyers are starting to recognise the relative
value for money some of these properties offer.

Here is the Templemere development in Weybridge, Surrey. Another fantastic place to live.

How about these, the fantastic and outrageous
"Elephant houses"
at Apex Drive in Frimley, Surrey. I used to own one
of these in the late 90's which is where my interest
in architecture of the era began.
They are built in blocks of 4, all facing in
alternate directions spread over a landscaped estate,
each house has 3 bedrooms and a mezzanine
kitchen diner overlooking the lounge.
The semi-circle windows and circular
light tunnel running down the stairwell make
these amongst the most ambitious and unique
houses of the 1960's.

The Apex Drive development was designed by Lawrence Abbot and built by the Apex Society, founded in 1965, to provide 'affordable housing in Greater London and the Home Counties'. These unusual properties were built from grey brick and white mortar which contains sparkly quartz. Each block is a square, divided by a kind of flattened S-shaped wall which produces an interesting internal curved wall for each apartment, ending with a curved window where it meets the outside wall. The guttering is hidden within the fabric of the walls.