HERITAGE STATEMENT

Six Pillars House Crescent Wood Road Sydenham SE26

1 Index:

Section Content Page Number

1.0 Site History 3 1.1 Introduction 1.2 English Heritage Listing 1.3. Site Background 4 1.4 Proposal Summary 5

2.0 History and Heritage Assets 6 2.1 Crescent Wood Road 2.2 Estate 2.3 Six Pillars House

3.0 Property History 7 3.1 Planning History 3.2 Historic Plans 3.3 Summary of Historic Alterations 8

4.0 Design Proposal 10 4.1 Proposal 4.2 Impact 11 4.3 Existing Drawings 12 4.4 Proposed Drawings 13

5.0 Planning Policy 16 5.1 Dulwich Estate Neighbourhood Plan 5.2 Southwark Local Plan: Listed Buildings 5.3 Southwark Local Plan: Conservation Area 17

6.0 Conclusions 18

7.0 Appendix 1 Photographic Survey 19

2 1 Site History

1.1 Introduction

This Heritage Statement has been prepared in support of a full planning and listed building application for works at Six Pillars, Crescent Wood Road, London. Historical research from archival and secondary material and a site inspection have formed the justification for this proposed scheme.

Six Pillars is widely regarded as one of the most important and successful examples of the Modern Movement in Great Britain. It was designed in 1932 by Valentine Harding and Tecton, a London-based architectural practice led by Berthold Lubetkin and became a Grade II* listed building in 1981. It is located adjacent to the Dulwich Estate in Sydenham, within the Dulwich Wood Conservation Area.

Figure 1: Six Pillars Building Profile - The Modern House in , F.R.S. Yorke 1.2 English Heritage Listing

List Entry Number: 1385456 Listing Grade: II* County: Greater London Authority District: Southwark (London Borough) Date first listed: 16-Jan-1981 Statutory Address: SIX PILLARS, CRESCENT WOOD ROAD

House. 1935. By Harding and Tecton. Stock brick and concrete. Named for the 6 cylindrical piers which support an overhanging first floor and divide the ground floor into 5 unequal bays. Central feature is a cylindrical brick stair shaft which rises to give access to a roof terrace and is seen through a balconied space in the tall concrete parapet. Concrete also the first floor and the canted, recessed ground- floor right bays which hold angled front door and a shaped, tapered seat. First floor has continuous strip of top glazing. More conventional windows of differing sizes in brick left section of ground floor. Brick garage extension at left. INTERIOR: severe, with detail deliberately suppressed. Stair well lit by a large 2-storey rear window. Figure 2: Six Pillars Front Elevation Photo 3 1.3 Site Background

Six Pillars in , South London was originally built in 1935 for John Leakey, headmaster of Dulwich College Preparatory School. It was one of two houses designed by Tecton partner Val Harding Six Pillars is the only modernist house in its street, alongside more before his early death in 1940 (the other being his own family home at ordinary town houses or Victorian villas. Other notable residences Burnham Beeches, Bucks). along the street include Beltwood House, a Grade II* Listed three storey mansion built in 1851, and the Peckarmans Wood Development, It is conscientiously Corbusian in appearance, with pilotis and strip designed by Austin Vernon & Partners, and considered to be the finest windows on the street front, and an ensemble of terraces at the rear. of all the 1960s Dulwich houses.

Figure 3: Six Pillars Front Elevation Photo - The Modern House in England, F.R.S. Yorke The property has seen one major renovation it its life, by architect John Winter and Associates in 1996, comprising concrete repairs, replacement of the rotten wooden windows with aluminium, redecoration inside and out, as well as resurfacing of the terrace and roof, amongst various colour changes. Most significantly was the addition of a second garage of pre-fabricated construction.

4 Figure 4: Crescent Wood Road 1.4 Proposal Summary

The forthcoming proposal is based on the advice and approval of Southwark Council Planning Authority by way of pre-application advice from Catherine Jeater (head conservation officer), Historic England, the Access C20 Society and also the Dulwich Society. All internal layout is determined by the DDA guidelines for spatial The proposed alterations to the property entail construction of a arrangement and access for maximum mobility within the space. sensitively designed, well insulated and comfortable temporary addition Access to the extension will be via an entrance flush with the existing to the house, incorporating a kitchen, bedroom, lounge and accessible ground level, and access to the main property remains unchanged. bathroom.

In light of exceptional circumstances, the property must accommodate the client’s son who was recently paralysed from the chest down and is now in a wheelchair, and the additional requirements of allowing him to be cared for at home with specialist living space including necessary accessible equipment that will allow him some freedom and autonomy alongside a live-in carer.

The proposal is considered an immediate and necessary alteration to the property, providing a means to an end in assisting with the client’s son’s recovery over the next 5-10 years.

Amendments to the original building are minor, with three new openings for passage of a wheelchair into the disabled bathroom and rehabilition gym from the proposed extension.

Due to the existing structural layout of the building and ancillary nature of the propsed scheme, no structural elements are affected by the proposed works.

Materially, the scheme uses painted white render, London stock brick and painted metal windows to match existing.

5 2 History and Heritage Assets

2.1 Crescent Wood Road

At the inception of Crescent Wood Road, along the ridge of Sydenham 2.3 Six Pillars House Hill, there was a conscious effort made to preserve the former common and woods but also to create generous size building plots where In 1933 Valentine Harding, a member of Berthold Lubetkin’s Tecton houses would not impair the views. practice, was commissioned to build a house on the Dulwich Estate for the headmaster of Dulwich College Preparatory School. The Managing director and surveyor to the Crystal Palace Company, estate’s trustees were anxious that the house not be ‘injurious to the Francis Fuller, had the intention to build on the site as part of his amenities of the neighbourhood’ and initially objected to his radically Sydenham Place Estate, and leased 105 acres of land on the west side modernist design in the Georgian and Victorian setting. They eventually of Sydenham Hill from the Dulwich Estate. consented but insisted on a location at the very boundary of the estate and only after London stock brick was incorporated into the By the 1930’s, the houses he built were too large for less affluent construction of the facade. single families, the cachet of living in the area had long since gone and the houses were mostly let out into flats. During WW2 many were empty and let by the Dulwich Estate to store the furniture from bomb damaged or abandoned houses. Some of the houses themselves were bomb damaged, left unrepaired and suffered deterioration.

Of the original houses, only number.1 and 3 remain, No. 5 was replaced in the late 1930s by the current house on the site, while the remainder were demolished in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the construction of Peckarmans Wood.

2.2 Dulwich Estate

The Dulwich Estate, previously the Estates Governors of Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift at Dulwich, is a registered charity in England, one of the successors to the historic charity Edward Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift that was founded in 1619. It owns the freehold of around 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) in Dulwich, South London, including a number of private roads and a tollgate. The estate properties range from Regency and 19th century buildings to distinguished modernist 1960s buildings.

6 Figure 5: Dulwich Estate Map 3 Property History 3.2 Historic Plans

3.1 Planning History

REF: 00/AP/0311 25.04.2000 GRANTED

Details relating to Georgian wired cast glass condition 3 of planning permission dated 9.3.99 Reg No.9801838 for erection of extension at rear of garage, replacement of windows and terrace screens at rear

REF: 99/AP/1036 15.09.1999 GRANTED

Details relating to the glazing and frames condition 2 of planning permission dated 9.3.99 for erection of extension at rear of garage, alterations and minor works.

REF: 98/AP/1838 09.03.1999 GRANTED

Erection of extension at rear of garage, replacement of windows & terrace screens at rear, replacement dwarf wall at front of property plus other minor works.

REF: 95/AP/0418 29.06.1995 GRANTED

External and internal restoration works, including windows, and alterations to 2 window openings.

Figure 6: Original Plans - The Modern House in England, F.R.S. Yorke 7 3.3 Summary of Historic Alterations

Figure 7: Original Front Elevation - The Modern House in England, F.R.S. Yorke Extension to rear of garage

Additional garage Glass railings Figure 8: Existing Plan Figure 9: Existing Elevations 8 Figure 10: Photo of Living Room, Dell & Wainwright, 1934 Figure 11: Photo of Central Hallway, Dell & Wainwright, 1934 9 4 Proposals

4.1 Proposal Internally the extension allows a bedroom for the disabled occupant, a The drawings show a proposal for the sensitive addition of an living room for necessary guests, a shower room and a small kitchen accessible extension to the property in place of the second non-original with rise and fall worktop for ease of use from a wheelchair. garage that is in keeping with the existing front elevation. All internal layout is determined by the DDA guidelines for spatial The property must accommodate the client’s son in his wheelchair, arrangement and access for maximum mobility within the space, as alongside additional requirements allowing him to be cared for at well as level access from the front and into the main house and garden home. The extension must be a well-insulated and regulated specialist through a rear door and an existing side door. living space with necessary accessible equipment that will allow him some freedom and autonomy alongside a live-in carer who will reside On account of the lack of mouldings in the modernist house, new in the main house. openings can be finished exactly as existing, to echo the character of the original house. The proposal is without doubt an immediate and necessary alteration to the property, providing a means to an end in assisting with the The proposed internal walls will be insulated stud walls, finished in client’s son’s recovery over the next 5-10 years. a plaster skim and painted white. There should be no noticeable difference between the current finish and the proposed infill sections. As such the addition is designed to be to be subservient to the main house; the design will incorporate painted white render at the front to All internal layout is determined by the DDA guidelines for spatial match existing on the main house. To the rear, the wall will be finished arrangement and access for maximum mobility within the space, as in painted white render to match the main house at lower level in well as level access from the front into the main house. keeping with the rear elevation. The original garage will become accessible bathroom and rehabilitation The current opening is retained as the main entrance to the extension, gym. New doorways will be required for access here (DG03, DG04 and whilst an additional opening is proposed to maintain a route to the rear DG05). garden, both of which to match the existing doors and fenestration for minimal visual interference Externally the existing and non-original glass balcony is replaced with a handrail to match that found on the rear elevation, the thick concrete There are four additional windows on the front elevation, two to the coping will be replaced with a thinner coping as per the original side, accessable bifolding doors and a ribbon window on the rear drawings, and two rooflights are proposed at first floor level over the elevation to match existing. The windows will be designed to follow the bathroom and rehabilitiation gym, to allow passage of light without aesthetic and rhythm intention of having a minimal visual impact but unnecessary facade alterations. still allowing ample light into the extension. The re-insulated garage door will be repainted to its original colour All details have been extensively discussed and agreed with Catherine 10 Jeater and the Southwark Conservation Office, the dialogue has been extension, in the same white painted render as existing. very constructive and extremely effective. Interior 4.2 Impact Internally the garage is divided with a stud wall to become a rehabilitiation gym and accessible bathroom which will be critical to the Exterior clients son’s recovery and freedom in the house. Doorways introduced The proposed extension will be timber framed and clad in render for access to these will be in the same style as the existing main panels, sitting upon concrete pad foundations. This will enable a house with minimal decoration. Alterations to the plan are therefore durable, ultimately temporary construction that will have a minimal considered sensitive and unobtrusive the the original design and a lasting impact on the site. necessary step in improving accessibility for the disabled inhabitant.

Externally, the proposal following the existing material palette of the The extension will be highly insulated to create a regulated internal original house and garden and without attempting to imitate, replacing environment to enable the specialist recovery of the disabled inhabitant the redundant nonoriginal garage formulate an empathetic extension over the forthcoming 5-10 years. with minimal impact on its surroundings.

Front elevation

Original features such as the railing at first floor level, the garage door at ground floor level and the coping over all external walls are restored to that shown in the original drawings, reinstating the original design and character of the building.

The extension is minimal in form and partly obscured from the street by landscaping and vegetation such that it appears as a sensitive and authentic addition to the original house, adjoining the ancillary section and replacing a non-original garage. The extension is no higher than the existing fence.

Rear elevation

The extension to the rear incorporates a ribbon window onto the proposed kitchen, in the style found to the front of the existing house, as well as bi-folding doors to allow maximum passage of light to the living area. The current garden wall and landscaping are not protected as part of the original design and are altered to accomodate the new

11 4.3 Existing Drawings

Figure 12: Site Plan Figure 13: Existing Plans

12 Figure 14: Existing Elevations Figure 15: Existing Elevations 4.4 Proposed Drawings

Figure 16: Proposed Plans 13 14 15 5.0 PLANNING POLICIES

The proposed development has taken into careful consideration all aspects of Southwark’s planning policies with reference to the council’s design guidance P18 Listed buildings and structures

The relevant policies that have been considered for this application 1. Development relating to listed buildings and structures will only are stated below, their impact on the design has been discussed in the be permitted if it conserves and enhances the special significance of accompanying design and access statement: listed buildings and structures and their settings by conserving and enhancing: AV.07 Dulwich Area Vision 1. The historic fabric, architectural style and features, curtilage, site layout, plan form and readability, and land use; and Development in Dulwich should: 2. The contribution of the building to its setting or its place within a group; and • Preserve and enhance the character of Dulwich; 3. Views that contribute positively to the significance of the building or • Provide as many homes as possible across a range of tenures structure or their setting; and including social housing; 4. The viable use of listed buildings and structures that is consistent • Prioritise walking and cycling and improve public transport to reduce with their on-going and long term conservation. pressure on car parking and improve accessibility; 2. Any harm to the significance of the listed building or structure that • Protect the independent character of shops and services in the results from a proposed development must be robustly justified. Dulwich area; • Support improvements to local connectivity and accessibility including Reasons enhanced public transport, walking and cycling routes; Heritage assets are irreplaceable and we recognise the importance • Support improvements to local services to meet local needs, including of Southwark’s built heritage as an essential community asset. We for school places and GP provision. will seek the conservation and enhancement of this asset as required by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Growth opportunities in Dulwich: Southwark has around 2,500 listed buildings which define local • Whilst development opportunities in Dulwich are relatively limited, character, providing a sense of place and enrich the townscape. Dulwich has the potential to contribute towards meeting Southwark’s housing need. Most new homes will be built on infill sites.

16 P19 Conservation areas

Development relating to conservation areas will only be granted where: 1. The development conserves and enhances the significance of conservation areas, taking into account their local character, appearance and positive characteristics published in Conservation Area Appraisals and Conservation Area Management Plans; and 2. The development conserves and enhances the significance of a conservation area’s setting, including views to and from the conservation area. 3. The demolition of buildings or structures that make a positive contribution to the historic character and appearance of a conservation area will not generally be permitted. Any replacement buildings or structures must conserve and enhance the conservation area’s historic character and distinctiveness.

Reasons We recognise the importance of Southwark’s built heritage as a community asset and will seek the adequate safeguarding of this asset. These areas help define local character, provide a sense of place and enrich the townscape. The control of external appearances is important within conservation areas and where the quality of the environment is particularly high. Our published conservation area appraisals include detailed evaluations of the character and special features of each conservation area and provide additional supplementary guidance for developments affecting conservation areas. We are keen to encourage a high quality of design in conservation areas. This may include the use of modern materials or innovative techniques on new developments as they can sustain or enhance the character or appearance of the Figure 17: Dulwich Village and Dulwich Wood Conservation Areas conservation area.

17 6.0 CONCLUSIONS

6.1 The proposed alterations to the property on Crescent Wood Road are considered sensitive and necessary adjustments with the fundamental intention of allowing the client’s disabled son to return to the family home.

6.2 Due to the self spanning concrete structure of the house, there is no structural impact to the building, with all partitions proposed to be removed being non-load bearing.

6.3 The proposed external structure satisfies the ancillary nature of the Eastern wing of the house, as a secondary accommodation for a disabled inhabitant.

6.4 Significant areas of the original design’s character are the pillars from which the property finds its name, the original fireplace, the central stair double height space and the long ribbon windows, all of which remain unchanged.

6.5 As is the nature of the proposals, using materiality to match existing and significant landscape / vegetation screening Top Left: Pillars at from the road, there will be minimal impact on the front of house surrounding conservation area, or indeed the local environment Above: Central around the property. hallway

Left: Original living 6.6 Owing to the severe design, the proposed alterations and room and fireplace restoration of original features will not only conserve but Dell & Wainwright, 1934 contribute to the style and legacy of minimal modernism pursued by Tecton and Lubetkin at the property’s inception in 1934.

18 7.0 PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY

Figure 18: Front elevation showing original garage and pillars Figure 19: Existing non-original garage rear photo Figure 20: First floor terrace and non-original glass screen

19 Figure 21: Front elevation Figure 22: Rear elevation

20 Figure 23: Side of property showing pre-fab construction of second garage Figure 24: External photo of former Servants Quarters and terrace

21 Figure 25: Rear Elevation, Dell & Wainwright, 1934 Figure 26: Street Elevation, AJ 1996

22 23