I’d love to live in a Span House. When I say that a lot of people go, “Huh? What’s one of them?”

Parkleys, Ham - Photograph by Tim Crocker

Span Houses were the brainchild of architect Eric Lyons OBE (1912–1980). Built after WWII (almost entirely by Span Developments Ltd.), Lyons aim was to provide affordable well designed family housing situated in a landscaped environment that fostered the idea community living. Together with fellow architect Geoffrey Townsend, and landscape architects Ivor Cunningham and Michael Brown, Eric Lyons created a set of houses that introduced European Modernism to the masses.

Examples of Span House estates include New Ash Green in Kent, Templemere in Surrey and numerous parts of the Cator Estate in Blackheath .

New Ash Green, Kent - Photograph by Tim Crocker

Today these aims and the houses that embody them are just as desirable. They are sustainable, modern, community-spirited, light filled, open plan and are just great looking places to live. Unfortunately, a lot of other design minded individuals think so too so they aren’t as affordable as they were in the 1950s and 1960s!

Last year RIBA had an exhibition that we missed on Span Houses and their creator Eric Lyons. It was just after we bought this place, so we were probably a little distracted at the time. Never mind, a lovely book of the exhibition was produced and on the RIBAPix website there is a whole gallery of wonderful black and white photographs of Span in all their modernist glory. Tim Crocker also has a beautiful gallery of Span photographs in colour. Resident of New Ash Green, Patrick Ellard, and James Strike of Fieldend, Twickenham have both written articles and books on Span from a residents perspective.

If you have a recent Lottery win burning a hole in your pocket I’d suggest looking at The Modern House estate agent site. It has examples of some of the best modernist houses in the UK for sale. I drool. This one in particular in Blackheath really is a gorgeous example of Span housing.

Brooklands Park, Blackheath

Oh, well I’d better push off to buy that Lottery ticket.

A funny design genius.

Any man who can have this on his website* is OK by me:

“We believe that when it comes to decorating, the wife is always right.
Unless the husband is gay. “

I think I might have to buy his book, ‘My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living’.

*His online store delivers internationally too, not that I am encouraging you or anything.

We’re a thirtysomething couple, Bobble and Bubb*, living in London and we’ve just bought out first flat. The idea for this blog was born from our frustration at not being able to find stylish, ‘green’, and affordable things for our home - that fit.

London is currently the fifth most expensive city to live in worldwide (third if accommodation costs are taken into account), and affordability is a major issue for first time buyers. Something, of course, has got to give and that something is either location or square meters.

The first House Price Per Square Metre Survey of London conducted last year showed that prices per meter squared varied between £2,013 to £6,033 across the city. Apparently, the average size of a London abode is 93.3 square meters (really?) which in Kensington & Chelsea would cost a tidy £562,998. Not surprising then that trying to buy an ‘averaged sized’ house in one of the ten most popular boroughs of London is beyond most first time buyers. Where did we put that £300,000 again, Bubb?

Anyway, what do most London buyers do? They look at their bank balance, their commute time, the walking distance to the nearest tube and then lastly consider how many square meters they might get - just like we did. Talking a quick straw poll of friends, our two bedroom flat of 60 square meters is the real average. On the plus side if we ever move to Manhattan or Tokyo we’d feel right at home…

As we said at the start our major problem is finding affordable stuff we like at a size to fit our living space. Oh, and not hurting the planet would be good too.

If you look at most design magazines or interior design shows and you’ll see marvellous stuff in inspirational homes that make you want to run to Habitat and grab the latest must have lamp. But wait, that kitchen island or that modernist sofa you’ve fallen in love with… it’s designed for a much bigger house…

We both love the midcentury modern aesthetic - originally made for larger post-war homes. After a succession of rented flats comprising wall to wall IKEA veneer and dodgy landlord carpets we long for some nice pieces in our home which really reflect our tastes and our individuality.

Using our own flat as a ‘test-lab’ we want to explore clever ways to create a dream living space. Ours may not be a grand design (we love you Kevin) but it’s a great little one. Fancy coming along for the ride?

(*Yeah, we like computer games too.)