Talking houses in Dulwich Village

Following on from his popular architecture talks, Dulwich Society chairman Ian McInnes will lead an architectural walk around Dulwich Village this Sunday. Here, he tells us about a few of the interesting houses he’ll introduce.

Crossways, 1 Dulwich Village (architect – Ellyatt & Porter)
The original Georgian house on this site was known as ‘The Hall’. It had

Crossways

become very run down during WW1 and was finally demolished in 1925. Crossways dates from 1926-27 and was designed and built as his own residence by Mr G F Ellyatt, one of the most successful speculative builders on the Dulwich Estate – responsible for houses in Burbage Road, Alleyn Park and Red Post Hill between 1910 and 1925. The value of the house was just over £2000 and was Mr Ellyatt’s second house in the area. He built Whitecroft in Village Way in 1909.
He moved to another house he built in Streatham in 1933. Visit www.ellyatt.co.uk to see an original perspective view of the house.

24 Dulwich Village (architect – R S Bowers)
Up until the early 1920s, the west side of Dulwich Village was mostly let as playing fields to Messrs J Sainsbury. There had been some development at the northern end in 1902-03 and there was an old house called Warigul still standing, roughly opposite where the the C of E school is now.

24 Dulwich Village

This unusual cottage style house, now No. 24 but formerly No. 20, was designed as his own house by the architect R S Bowers, a partner of the practice Culpin & Bowers, and it was completed in January 1922 for his own occupation. He also designed the six houses to the south of it and these were finished in December 1922.
Culpin & Bowers were a well known firm in the 1920s. Ewart G Culpin, the senior partner, was very influential in the town planning movement and also a long standing member of the London County Council. Amongst many other projects the firm designed Transport House in Smith Square and Poplar Town Hall.

North & South House, 93 & 95 Dulwich Village (architect – C E Barry)
These two houses were built in 1934-35 and replace Cedar House, a plain early Georgian house which shared a party wall with Woodlawn, 97 Dulwich

North House

Village. Cedar House had been difficult to let for many years and the Estate finally sold the site to the builders, Messrs Rider and Dove, who were very much the up-market builder/developers in the area. North and South House were sold for £4500 each – a substantial sum in those days.
The demolition of Cedar house proved to be major headache as the work affected the structural stability of the party wall between it and Woodlawn. The Estate Surveyor had to have several interviews with the District Surveyor (Building Control Officer) on the site, as the builder had discovered that there were no foundations under the wall. Woodlawn had to be shored up and carefully underpinned to prevent it collapsing. Understandably Rider and Dove were not best pleased and only agreed to carry it out only on the basis of actual cost plus 15%. The Estate had no choice but to agree and they also had to pay for a new brick boundary wall to the front as the large number of raking shores used to hold up No. 97 during the work had effectively destroyed to original oak paling fence.

74 Dulwich Village

72 to 76 Dulwich Village

Although this property is now a house, it was originally a laundry run by a Mr R Edwards. In November 1910 he could not pay his rent and he abandoned the premises, leaving behind some items of furniture and laundry machinery. On learning what had happened, the Dulwich Estate Manager went to the shop and found a Mr Cudlip and his men on the premises removing the machinery, which had been hired out to Mr Edwards. He also found a note to the effect that the furniture was left behind to cover rent. Mr Cudlip offered to pay the Governors’ claim for outstanding rent as long as he could remove the hired machinery – a deal was quickly agreed.

35 & 37 College Road (architect – Frederick Austin Vernon)
This house and the matching one facing Frank Dixon Way (now both substantially extended) were designed early in 1954 by Austin Vernon, the Dulwich Estate’s consultant architect. He preferred this type of white cement render and pitched roof appearance. Both houses were built by a small local builder/developer, Mr Styles, and not completed until late in 1955.

Frank Dixon Way was the first major post WWII housing development on the Estate. The gates next to the houses were taken from No. 1 Crescent Wood Road.

For the Dulwich village walk, meet outside North Dulwich Railway station on Sunday 15 March. The walk will leave at 2.30pm. Tickets £4, or £3 for Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery.