At least they look like real houses!

The ones I posted above have the affordable 2 bed semis at £350,000 and the 4 bed detached at offers over £998,000. Absolutely incredible. There are only 8 detached and 4 semis on the development and are still being advertised. I guess not quite as popular or as affordable as they hoped.

 

They are awful! They look like coverted containers.

 

Not sure they are as substantial as that!

This is the floor plan of the 4 bedroom, 1 million pound one!



The ones in my photo are the 4 bed ones. They should open up a shrinks office on site too, for those who have bought one!

 

I'm glad some of our social housing has some style. Old photo so apologies for quality!

 

Gordon Bennett! Anyone would be mad to pay that for a box!

 

Naah, they look better!

 

I think the design these days is dictated to a great extent by fact that until you get to the quite high levels, they are all assembled as pre-fabricated sections. The bathrooms and kitchens are all made by a company oop north and just dropped in. They refer to them as tin boxes and they come in a range of sizes.

 

So a quick rip through the nice little village of Ewell, much favoured by Henry VIII, who stayed there on hunting trips and of course built Nonsuch Palace nearby as a rival to the great French palaces. An estate agent has at least half of this Dutch barn-style place:

_7180468 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

I can only imagine from the ornate design that the Neapolitan Kitchen was once a pub:

_7180472 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

_7180498 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

 

I had to look Ewell up. I'm enjoying seeing all these places. I've taken more pictures of Chester as a town this month than in the nearly 40 years we've lived here despite always having intended to make a record.

 

Ewell is blessed with a by-pass, which has kept a lot of the village in a reasonable state. Also blessed with the last station in Zone 6, before prices jump up and Oyster is unusable at Epsom.

 

All together now........."Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of ticky-tacky
Little boxes, little boxes, and they all look just the same................." Malvina Reynolds

Lynn

 

The Market Square by SteveH, on Flickr

The old Staines Town Hall before squatters moved in and broke windows (which ended up boarded up) and developers covered it in scaffolding to turn it into 14 luxury flats, with parking for 8 vehicles.

The Town Hall (John Johnson, 1880), the War Memorial (1920) and the two phone boxes (type K6, designed 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott) are all Listed Grade II. As is the Blue Anchor pub (early to mid C18) just cut off on the left and the old Fire Engine Shed (circa 1880) round the right hand side of the Town Hall.

 

Ex-council houses on the Glasshouse Lane estate in Exeter. This particular design was popular all over the country at one time and I believe it dates from the late 1940s but you may know better...

 

On Exeter Cathedral Green, Richard Hooker sits in contemplation of the buildings that form the north eastern wall of the close. To his left is the boarding that protects the on going rebuild of the Clarence Hotel (more or less wiped out by a fire in 2016). Above the boarding and to the left of Moll's Coffee House (the tall white building) you can just see the tower and main window of St Petrock's church...

 

There seems to be a bit of a Dutch influence in Exeter, not that two pics is statistically significant .

Probably all them Viking raids. Or something...

 

Off hand I can't think of any other such buildings though there a couple of much later buildings that have smatterings of the style. This one for instance that stands on the corner of North Street and High Street...



The council houses seem to have been a national style; perhaps designed by the Ministry of Housing as part of the post war rebuild.

 

Yes, well, I suppose (from a quick Google) that Topsham, just down the road from Exeter, has a lot more in the way of Dutch influence - lots of Dutch gables and so on.

And I think, wouldn't swear to it, that those council houses were based on Dutch Colonial?

 

Oh yes. Despite now being part of the unitary authority Topsham residents will tell you they are nothing to do with their big neighbour up river to the north. Be that as it may I'd describe the dominant style as "Devonian Confused" ...

 

The next corner in Ewell has buildings facing eachother that are a little like the Dutch-ish style you were discussing earlier, but I'm sure a lot older;

_7180493 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

_7180474 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

_7180497 by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

 

Is that how they pronounce that well known brown bread in your neck of the woods