14-35 (Inclusive Nos) Claremont Court, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

Basil Spence and Partners (Peter Ferguson, partner in charge; Richard Cassidy, job architect; T Harley Haddow, engineers), 1959-62. Modernist style municipal flatted housing scheme, predominantly 4 storeys and basement, partially carried on pilotis, consisting of 2 L-plan blocks with flats and maisonettes in separate wings; and two short rows of single-storey cottages to SW of flatted blocks partially enclosing 2 separate landscaped courtyards; canopied walkway to NW at courtyard entrance; lockup garages to SE of housing site. Ground falling away to NE revealing basement faced in granite setts.

FURTHER DESCRIPTION: painted reinforced concrete frame construction forming dressings and courses, with external infill walls of exposed red and brown brick, painted brick, harled brick and vertical painted timber boarding. Timber door, upper part glazed, with large glazed sidelight and rectangular fanlight to common entrance stairs of N-S flatted wings. Single-leaf, glazed doors to concrete balconies. Concrete cills. Partially open common concrete staircase at apex of L-plan to link wings; steel balustrades with gridded insets and dominant timber handrail.

L-PLAN BLOCK TO N: N-S flatted wing (nos 1-13): supported on pilotis, with ground floor set back. 15-bay stepped banded fenestration to W (Claremont Street) elevation with recessed drying areas. Timber canopy, with raised timber lettering 'CLAREMONT COURT', supported on slender painted steel columns projecting from S elevation. Regular fenestration to E (courtyard) elevation with recessed drying areas. Partially open staircase linked wings. E-W maisonette wing (nos 14-35): 13 bay, regular fenestration to N elevation; recessed at ground and 2nd to form external walkways. S (courtyard) elevation: near-symmetrical, maisonettes divided by full height brick pilasters, continous balconies at ground and 3rd and individual balconies at 1st and 3rd floors, banded fenestration.

L-PLAN BLOCK TO S: of similar design to N block, abutted to it at NE corner and connected by external cantilevered walkway at 2nd floor. N-S flatted wing (nos 38-46): 3-storey. Battered, squared rubble basement, projecting at W elevation, incorporating fragment of earlier building, with round arched, brick headed opening to right. Partially open staircase linked wings. E-W maisonette wing (nos 47-60): stair tower in outer left bay of N elevation.

COTTAGES: NOS 36-37 AND 61-63: 2 short rows of 2-bay, assymetrical, single-storey cottages to S and N . Harled and brick with granite sett gables (E and W elevation). Rectangular window to left bay, square window to right bay, off-centre entrance door.

Predominantly replacement uPVC windows but roughly following, original glazing pattern, evident at properties No 7, No 27 and No 58. Flat roofs to flatted blocks, with drying areas to maisonette wings; pitched copper roofs to cottages. Original door fittings to common entrance doors. Some original letterboxes with stamped and painted numbers.

INTERIORS: (partially seen 2010) simple plan-forms of flat and maisonettes intact. Some service hatches between kitchen and living room; some original ironmongery and door fittings remain. Pram stores to basement.

LOCKUP GARAGES: row of 8 lock-up garages to NE. Painted brick and vertically boarded timber doors.

Statement of Interest

Basil Spence's Claremont Court development is an important example of Scottish post-war housing. This scheme is a smaller-scale example of the innovative mixed development post-war housing schemes. Different dwelling types (flats, masonettes and cottages) are combined around a landscape courtyard to create a community. Together with the scheme at Laverockbank Avenue, this development marked a new approach to housing for Spence's practice, one of concrete frame construction and flat roofs. Like all Spence's later housing schemes, Claremont Court combined practicality and modernity through the provision of basement stores, drying areas to the roof space and in-built storage to properties. Designed for the City of Edinburgh Corporation Housing Committee this scheme is representative of Edinburgh embracing mainstream Continental Modernism as the 1950s drew to a close.

Claremont Court provided 63 homes through a inward-looking design of two L-plan blocks containing 30 flats and 28 maisonettes and two terraces of cottages, arranged around landscape courtyards. Constructed on a former industrial site the architects were given a relatively free hand in the design, though the budget eschewed lifts and therefore determined the maximum height. While the cottages here are similar to the OAP housing at Spence's Sunbury scheme, the main blocks appear inspired by the apartments by Mies van der Rohe for the Weissenhof Siedlung (1927) at Stuttgart, which Spence had visited in 1934. The design appears to have been entirely generated in Spence's Edinburgh office, and it is interesting to contrast this with the Gorbals development, which was being designed by the architect's London team at around the same time.

Peter Ferguson, was a partner in the firm of Basil Spence and Partners from 1952 until his death in 1969. Ferguson was responsible for a wide variety of work including housing, universities, airports public buildings and hospitals. He believed in a completely integrated approach to his work and he 'embraced the problems of clients, designers and contractors with a sureness that won admiration'.

Sir Basil Spence was one of Scotland's most accomplished and prolific 20th century architects. He leapt to prominence during the Festival of Britain in 1951 as chief architect for the Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow. Some of his most renowned works include Coventry Cathedral and the British Embassy in Rome. The practice was also profuse in the design of housing schemes, such as Dunbar Harbour Housing (1949-52, extended 1953-6) and Great Michael Rise, Newhaven, Edinburgh (1957-9) (see separate listing).

Claremont Court was part of the City of Edinburgh Corporation Housing Committee's post-war housing drive. The practice was one of a number of firms commissioned to design housing schemes in order to ease the workload of the City Architects Department during the 1950s and 1960s. However, most of the 23,886 permanent homes produced between 1944 and 1965 were traditional types. Spence's work at the Canongate (1961-9) (see separate listing) and Laverockbank, Newhaven (1957-60), and the City Architect's Dumbiedykes flats were the exceptions in this period.

Many of the original windows and doors have been replaced with a variety of materials and glazing patterns. The original glazing pattern predominantly consisted of a tilt and turn window adjacent to a fixed pane, and sometimes with top hung hopper. It is evident in photographs taken after completion from the Sir Basil Spence Collection and Spence, Glover & Ferguson Collection.

Listed as part of the Sir Basil Spence thematic listing survey (2009-11).

External Links

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