Span Developments

Built in the 50s and 60s, Eric Lyons' quietly successful Span developments are attracting a whole new generation of design-savvy buyers. Here's what's on the market...

Modernist architecture, not least the idealistic developments of the Sixties and Seventies, have usually been dismissed as a blight on the urban landscape.

But the developments constructed by Span, the brain-child of architect Eric Lyons and developer Geoffrey Townsend, cleverly combined the principles of the English garden suburb with modernist innovations to create some of the most successful housing developments of the era.

With modernism now being revaluated and British buyers much more aware of architecture and design, the developments have enjoyed something of a revival in recent years.

Estate agents say trendy young professionals are moving in; the Royal Institution of British Architects held a retrospective exhibition and published a book in 2006 (se below); and Grand Designs magazine devoted a good section of their current issue to the whole Span phenomenon.

More recently, The Guardian Weekend Newspaper, in one of its magazine inserts 'The Retro Issue', had a feature about Span Housing and how they are attracting more and more interest amongst professionals, architects, and first-time buyers - who still find them an affordable alternative, as Span Houses tend to be undervalued in most parts of the country, compared with more 'traditional' properties around. (However, this looks set to change as the word spreads about Span's special design and beautiful grounds, and prices increase accordingly).   

Books Devoted to Span

Eric Lyons and Span

Editor: Barbara Simms

Brand new from RIBA Publishing, Eric Lyons and Span...

Link to sellers: Click here for RIBA website

Lavishly illustrated and deeply researched, this book celebrates the work of the architect Eric Lyons OBE (1912–1980), whose famous post-war housing – that today would be marketed as ‘lifestyle housing’ – is as well loved today as it was vibrantly successful when first constructed. Built almost entirely for Span Developments, its mission was to provide an affordable environment "that gave people a lift".

Influenced by Walter Gropius, Lyons brought a commitment to high density housing and the idea of fostering community into his Span work without compromising his intuitive sensitivity for landscape. His success brought the practice an impressive array of awards and led to a term as President of the RIBA. The enduring success of his design philosophy can be traced forward to 2005, when Span received a special Housing Design Award given to schemes that meet the current Sustainable Communities Plan. Indeed, the concept of Span mirrors current best practice thinking in housing design and continues to offer a fresh, relevant challenge to volume housebuilders in Britain today. This book serves as a lively reminder of that fact.

Written by distinguished historians, practitioners and Span enthusiasts, the book has been researched using the archive compiled by Ivor Cunningham, one of Lyons’ ex-partners while a detailed gazetteer contains scale plan drawings of many of Span’s housing templates.

RIBA Publishing November 2006

The Spirit of Span Housing

Author: James Strike
Paperback, 165 x 210mm, 80 pages
ISBN 0-9549822-0-7

This is a self-published book by James Strike, an architectural historian and resident of Fieldend, a span estate.

Span was a housing developer that operated between 1948 and 1984. Their various schemes consisted of simple, modern houses set in well-considered landscaped areas and focused on providing a sense of community.

This small book aims to capture the spirit of Span housing, detailing all the estates and focusing on Fieldend as a typical example. The book brings together material from various sources and this is treated in such as way so as to emulate the ephemeral/vintage feel of the content; black and white images appear as halftone dots and slides and colour photographs appear as objects to give a sense of belonging. The book is simply laid out, produced and bound, in sympathy with the span ideals.

The book is for sale at £10 including postage and packing.

To order a copy, please download the PDF order form. Order Form:  

published by Strike Print,

jamesstrikeatblueyonder.co.uk , (replace at with @)

Eric Lyons

Eric Lyons was born in 1912. His father was a toy designer. In 1930 he was articled to the architect Stanley Beard while attending evening classes at Regents Street Polytechnic (where he met Townsend). After qualifying he worked for T.P. Bennett and then Gropius and Fry. In 1938 he designed a small office behind the Odeon, Leicester Square for Andrew Mather and later that year Lyons and Townsend formed an architectural practice.

During the War Lyons worked for Harry Weedon designing factories and hostels. After the War he resumed his practice with Townsend. The housing scheme he devised with Townsend in 1948 in Twickenham demonstrated how the landscaping of the common space could provide a visual link between the four maisonette blocks.

During the 1940’s Lyons designed the best selling Tecta Range for the furniture manufacturer Packet. With Townsend as developer and Lyons as consultant architect the building of Parkleys begun in 1954. By the early 1960’s Lyons had designed housing schemes for SPAN at Blackheath, Beckenham, Twickenham, Teddington, Putney and Cambridge. Eric Lyons and Partners had also been involved in the design of high density housing estates for local authorities in London and Southampton.

Lyons' approach was all embracing. He believed that the architect should provide a service to society. He was convinced that residents’ societies helped engender a sense of belonging and community. Lyons performed the function of ‘architectural generalist’ taking an active involvement in the design, town planning and landscaping requirements of the SPAN housing schemes.

After a nine year break, Leslie Bilsby and Geoffrey Paulson Townsend formed SPAN Environments Ltd. As before Lyons, now practicing under the name of Eric Lyons, Cunningham Partnership, was appointed as consultant architects. Construction work was to be carried out by E Gostling (Builders Ltd) formerly known as Building Span when working on New Ash Green. Both Bilsby and Townsend had been previously involved in various development projects independently, with Bilsby living in Paris for a period of time. Eric Lyons, Cunningham Partnership had been designing housing schemes for a number of London boroughs. Other projects included the design of Fieldend-Telford New Town and the new holiday town of Vilamoura in Portugal.


Ivor Cunningham (Eric Lyons and Partners)

Ivor Cunningham was born in Kent in 1928. He went to Dartford Grammar School and then pursued an architectural course at Medway School of Art. After attending the Architectural Association he studied for a Landscape Diploma at King’s College, University of Durham. In November 1955 Cunningham was invited to join Eric Lyons and Partners on the strength of his landscaping expertise.

Mallard Place, Twickenham: Design For Homes 2005

Designer Eric Lyons, Cunningham & Partners Developer Span Environments Contractor E Gostling Planning Authority Borough of Richmond upon Thames

Span & its Legacy

2005: The concept of a historic award for schemes that meet the current Sustainable Communities Plan of places where “people want to live... now and in the future” underlines why the enduring appeal of good design will prove the test of what those plans procure.

This year’s historic award goes to Mallard Place by Span Environments and the Span legacy. In the postwar period there were few opportunities for young people to buy affordable imaginatively designed houses and flats. Rigid professional codes separated architects from developers and there was little incentive to pay good designers out of their margins in a sellers’ market.

Span set a gold standard for innovative private development from 1961 onwards. The results were achieved by a design-educated business directed by Geoff Townsend, a former architect who resigned from professional practice and appointed his former partner Eric Lyons to provide full design services.

The prime movers were great entrepreneurs with vision and a keen eye for house and estate forms which young people could enjoy and just about afford. Span's later work included more upmarket schemes on prime sites but they all demonstrated Eric Lyons and Ivor Cunningham's determination to build and landscape unique housing concepts with attention to every detail. The success of the concept is still evident today and the visionary approach to effective long-term estate management by resident association has served residents well and maintained the quality of environment that they enjoyed at the start.

Span recognised the saleability of well thought out economic plans offering good day-lighting, orientation and views onto lush gardens. Above all, they were planned with private roads and footpaths which escape the dead hand of adopted road standards.
 

An irresistible Higher Density Model

Think span, think 1960s. Flat roofs, glazed porches, painted timber, Formica worktops and parquet floors. Those who know a little about Span assume it all ended in tears with New Ash Green, the end of the decade and of a vision.

Mallard Place was completed in 1984 and won a Housing Design Award in 1985, five years after Eric Lyons died. Surviving partner Ivor Cunningham says he and Lyons had “a Damascene moment” after they won a competition to design an Algarve resort. They thought their Villas Moro so much fun that they wanted to repeat the vibrant designs in Britain.

The Twickenham site fronts a quiet stretch of the Thames and has its own moorings. The scheme contains two apartment blocks of one and two-bed flats, one with parking inside its perimeter and the other without. The latter has a patterned brickwork bridge cutting over a fish-filled pond in an exotic garden upgraded for the millennium with ravishing planting.

There are also 45 townhouses of three and four bedrooms. These step off tree-lined lanes up to piano nobiles where the luckiest on the Thames side have views onto the river. The sections are stepped so that kitchens on this floor are higher than the living space, which give great views over to the river from the dining area.

Outside your eyes are hypnotised by the rich natural clays of the hand-made hanging tiles: there are four different tile shapes, each used to create swirling geometry patterns similar to the Moorish patterns the architects would have admired on the Iberian peninsula. Another hint of influence is the dark hardwood balconies.

But the chief clue to the Algarve’s impact is the residents' swimming pool – outdoor, heated and popular. In most schemes, this would have sent charges soaring, but not here. Income from the moorings, few maintenance issues arising from Cunningham's skilful hard landscaping, and a proudly close-knit community that self-polices the 102 homes means charges are low.

Here is a scheme built at just under 58 homes to the hectare, with one- and two-bed flats, two, three and four-bed houses, Kew-like planting, charming architecture and unparalleled amenity. Local agents say people queue to pay over the odds to live here. Anyone seeking an irresistible higher density model need look no further.
 

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