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A rare opportunity to purchase a three-bedroom Span apartment, located on the sought-after Cator Estate in Blackheath. The house was designed by the architect Eric Lyons and built by the company Span in the early 1960s. The apartment can be found on The Hall, a quiet and secluded location, and is set in immaculately maintained gardens. It has direct access to a south facing lawned garden with mature trees and shrubs. All gardens are communal. The property also has the benefit of a garage and storeroom that are separate to the apartment.
History
The development company Span built 30 housing estates between 1948 and 1984. In his bookThe Spirit of Span Housing, James Strike says: "Span housing was the inspiration of two young men, who, during the 1930s, met as architectural students at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Eric Lons and Geoffrey Townsend both had a keen interest in modern architecture[…] They believed that there was a market for well-designed houses in carefully designed landscapes for the sort of people who recognised good design when they saw it – and they were right."
Span housing was the subject of a recent exhibition at the RIBA, and the accompanying book, entitled Eric Lyons & Span (ed Barbara Simms), gives a comprehensive survey of its history. "The work of the architect Eric Lyons," it states, "is as well-loved now 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'."
Outlining the background to the Span Estate at Blackheath, it says: "Span's attention had turned to the Cator Estate in Blackheath, a charming preserve of late 18th-century and early 19th-century terraces and villas[…] The area's history was stoutly defended by the Blackheath Society, founded in 1937, and Blackheath Park – the core of the Cator Estate – was becoming admired for its 'Regency character'. But many of the houses had been damaged beyond repair, and the long gardens and backland nurseries of Blackheath Park and the roads immediately to its north and south were ripe for speculative development."
The book continues: "Today, the area takes its distinctive character from the combination of Regency and Span developments, and the mature landscaping of both. That Span estates were not diluted in their execution was due to Lyons's sheer determination to defy the planners, termed by him 'aesthetic controllers', and restrictive building regulations[…] He won around 20 housing medals from the MHLG [Ministry of Housing and Local Government], three in 1964 alone."
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