"The houses are slightly staggered to maximise light and privacy, and are set behind courtyard gardens at the front."
This excellent group of houses on Dartmouth Road in Forest Hill was built to a design by Norman Starrett in 1964 by the well-regarded development company Hyndewood. This three-bedroom house, flanked by two gardens, is deceptively unassuming from the outside. Inside however it is an incredibly successful example of the extraordinary care the young architect gave his designs, and retains its best original features.
History
In the 1960s, Norman Starrett was an ambitious young architect who had learned his trade working in the practice of renowned Modern architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. This development is one of a small number in the Southeast London area designed by Starrett for Hyndewood, a development company that is perhaps only rivalled by Span in the postwar era for the quality of its housing. Their project at Greatwood was given a Civic Design Award in the 1960s, and was recently protected by a local listing but this group of houses has remained lesser-known. In Hyndewood, Starrett was lucky enough to find a development company that shared his progressive ideas. Together they wanted to see housing in the UK keep pace with architectural advances in Scandinavia, America and elsewhere.
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