Seaspan, 4 Audley Way, Frinton (EHER 39416)

Modernist House, built in 1934 and built in 1935 to designs by Oliver Hill.

Listed building description The house was built in 1934 to 1935 to designs by Oliver Hill. In 1934 the South Coast Investment Co. Ltd bought land straddling the railway line to the NE of Frinton. An ambitious development, the Frinton Park Estate was to include 1100 houses, a town hall, college, churches, a shopping complex and hotel. The 40 acres closet to the seafront was designated as a showcase for modern houses and Oliver Hill was chosen as principal architect. He employed a number of progressive architects including Thomas Tait, Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry, Fredrick Eschells, Marshall Sisson and others. By 1935 the project had foundered and Hill resigned in August of that year. Its demise was due to a conflict between idealism of the architects, profit and the conservatism of the buying public. Only 40 modernist houses and part of the shopping centre was built. Oliver Hill designed 12 houses of which 10 survive, including the Round House (EHER 34738) and 55 Quendon Way (EHER 39298). The house is painted white. The front elevation contains strip windows around the curve to ground and first floor, with regularly spaced vertical glazing bars. To the south-east of the curve is a garage with balcony over; the door to the balcony is narrow, with horizontal glazing bars. Beside this is a later single storey garage erected in the 1970s. To the north-west of the curve are narrow doors to ground and first floor, one above the other, again with horizontal glazing bars. The upper door is flanked by side windows and fronted by a balcony with tubular steel railings. The back elevation has an irregular stepped pattern of three triple glazed windows, and two slender windows to the ground floor. There are two single storey projections, the larger containing the garages, the smaller a back door porch and store. The original metal ladder rises from the garage roof to the roof of the house. The front door gives access to a hall with parquet floor, from which all other rooms on the ground floor can be reached directly. To the right is a long narrow lavatory, stairs and kitchen, to the left the L shaped living room and dining area. The front door has a port-hole window, and next to it is a similar window looking through into the garage. Immediately opposite is another in the door to a cupboard. The parquet floor continues into the living room, at the far end of which is a fireplace with a marble effect surround, edged in silvered trim. The dining area is connected to the kitchen by a small serving hatch. The kitchen is fitted with modern kitchen units, but retains its original tiles. Beyond the kitchen, on the opposite side of the back door, is accommodation for a maid, now used as a storage/utility room. The stairs contain a series of curves: around the end of the wall at ground floor level, around the stairwell, and in the solid balcony and handrail where it turns around the stairwell to meet the first floor corridor: the window lighting the staircase has its original marble sill. There are five bedrooms set around the landing and corridor. The three south facing all have access to a balcony, with the south-east balcony shared between two. Two of these contain their original built in cupboards. In the bedroom with the curved windows, this broad sweep is reflected by a tighter curve in the opposite corner. Diagonally opposite, in the north bedroom, is a smaller curved window. The bathroom walls are covered in vitriolite tiles, not original to No.4 Audley Way, but reclaimed from another Oliver Hill house on the estate. <1>