Description

SK3386SE PARK LANE
784-1/34/10069 Sheffield
20-DEC-00 (South,off)
1

II

House and studio. 1959-60 by Patric Guest for David Mellor, the metalware designer and manufacturer, with additions c.1965.

Loadbearing crosswalls, fair-faced light-brown facing brick, and painted sand-lime brick, with timber joists and flat roofs. Single-storey. Long plan on sloping site. Two bedrooms were added to the main house on Mellor's marriage in 1965. The original plan can still be readily determined. 'L'-shaped living room incorporating former kitchen area, set behind glazed entrance - itself formerly the receptionist's office; drawing room, now kitchen; and down the corridor are a store and photographic studio, whence steps lead down to the principal workshop.

Double-glazed windows in thick varnished and stained cedar frames, sliding openings. Large glazed doors. Deep timber fascia. Projecting screen walls at the upper end give added privacy to the garden.

The interior still reflects the combination of house and studio for which it was designed. The walls are of painted brick, with the entrance hall and adjoining corridor area divided only by large glass panels, that to the lounge with blinds and that between the corridor and the former drawing office (now kitchen) tiled on the rear. Teak strip floors to living areas and corridor, with marble inset slab in front of living room stove (renewed) and mosaic bathroom floor. Softwood timber ceilings. Solid teak doors the full height of the rooms, hung on pivots. Metal workshop area with cupboards. Five steps lead down to larger workshop - the continuous roofline makes this space the tallest in the building. The plan and design of the space also reflects the heavy machinery and industrial plant required for a metalware designer and producer, compared with the facilities required, for example, an artist.

David Mellor was born in Sheffield and studied at the Sheffield College of Art and at the Royal College of Art, London. He emerged in the 1960s as one of Britain's leading designers of tableware and street furniture, his gentle modern style at the forefront of the British 'Look' so internationally significant at the time. He later established his own manufacturing and retail business, which secured him a broader reputation as a designer and gave him added importance as a patron of modern architecture. This commission, in which Mellor collaborated with the architect Patric Guest of Gollins Melvin Ward, is the first example of this patronage. This house is not only a fine modern design, early in its use of naturally finished, overscaled timber, but is important as a landmark in Mellor's career. There was space here for Mellor to work with four or five assistants, and here he produced all his designs, limited editions and prototypes between 1960 and 1972, the years in which he established his international reputation. `How pleasant for one's house to be acomplete refection of one's practical work and philosophy of design' (House and Garden).

Sources
Architectural Design, October 1961, pp.455-6
House and Garden, November 1963, pp.64-5
David Mellor, Master Metalworker, Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, 1998
Information from David Mellor

Listing NGR: SK3400386496

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26539118

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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