The spread of communism and national socialism helped to bring modernism to England and, later, America, with the emigration of important modernist designers. The presence of Moholy-Nagy, Breuer, Gropius, Lubetkin, Mendelsohn and Chermayeff strengthened the cause of the British Modern architects, which included Wells Coates, Raymond McGrath, Amyas Connell, Basil Ward and Colin Lucas. Britain formed its own Modern Architectural Research Group (MARS) in 1934, and the possibility of starting a New Bauhaus in England was discussed. Inevitably, perhaps, this happened in America, with Moholy-Nagy becoming the director of the New Bauhaus in Chicago in 1937, and Gropius and Breuer leaving England for Harvard in the same year. They were then followed by Mies van der Rohe who went to Illinois in 1938.

An example of architecture built at this time in England is the De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, by Mendelsohn & Chermayeff in 1935. This was a grand pavilion looking towards the sea. The use of cantilevering, concrete, and standardised windows and rails made this a modernist building in design and function. Likewise, Maxwell Fry’s Sun House, built in Hampstead, London, in 1936, is said to have shared many of the qualities of Le Corbusier’s Villa Stein, built in 1926, at Garches, France, with its terraces, rectilinear (and complicated) arrangement of masses and voids, making it a truly Modern structure.

A remarkable example of a modernist development is the partially completed Frinton Park Estate, in Frinton-on-sea, Essex. In 1934 a two hundred acre site on the border of Frinton and Walton-on-Naze was bought by the South Coast Property Investment Company Ltd., who planned to build a whole new small town. A management company, Frinton Park Estate Ltd., was formed. A member of the board of the company, Frederick Tibenham, who was also a head of a furniture and joinery firm, introduced the board to the architect Oliver Hill.

In 1933 Hill had organised an ‘Exhibition of British Industrial Art in Relation to the Home’ at Dorland Hall in London. Other designers exhibiting included Chermayeff, McGrath and Wells Coates. Hill was given a free reign in his design of the new residential town. He ensured that the tone of the estate would do nothing to attract day-trippers from London, keeping Frinton for the well kept and well bred, whilst making the estate a showcase for modern British design.

A detailed plan for the whole area was drawn up. The Estate company provided the layout of curved roads called ‘ways’, together with the other main services, and sold plots individually at prices from £150. A few show houses were also to be built by the Company. Eleven hundred houses were planned, grouped together according to their different styles. The best 40 acres nearest the sea were set aside for the houses of the most modern design. These houses were designed to have windows to catch the sun, spacious balconies and wide flat roofs for sunbathing. Also planned was a town hall, college, various churches, a new railway station, a large shopping complex and, most ambitious of all, a luxury hotel, to be situated at the foot of the cliffs right on the sea’s edge (fig. 3.0). This was designed in 1934 and had a 150m curved facade, 100 guest rooms, each en suite with sea views, and an entrance on the upper level, with the bedrooms below on the face of the cliff.

Many architects were invited to design houses for the estate. By September 1934 Hill had allocated sites on Easton Way to ‘the cream of our younger designers in the contemporary style’. These included Frederick Gibberd, Erich Mendelsohn & Serge Chermayeff, Tecton, Wells Coates, FRS Yorke, Maxwell Fry, W.G. Holford & Gordon Stevenson, Raymond McGrath, and Connell, Ward & Lucas.

The first building to be erected was the circular Frinton Park Estate Information Bureau in Cliff Way, now The Round House. This would exhibit products approved by Hill as well as photographs of modern houses from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA); it also acted as office for records and sales. The exhibition area, now the living room, had a mosaic floor depicting the whole layout of the estate, together with a train entering the proposed new railway station, the shopping mall and the hotel. The mosaic was designed by Clifford Ellis and made by Poole Pottery (see fig. 3.1). Unfortunately at the time of writing I have been unable to view it.

Some show houses were to be built near the estate information office, but most plots of land were to be sold with their plans and house design already drawn up but not built. This caused problems as the prospective buyers found it difficult to imagine some of the features planned and disliked the severity of the outlines. At one stage the flat roofs of the modern designs caused 18 out of 20 sales to fall through. Considerable funds had been spent on the establishment of the project, the construction of the site office, the drawing up of plans and other preliminary details, leaving the estate company short of funds. It had become apparent that the houses could not be sold in large numbers unless they were built first. The company borrowed money in order to build 36 houses. Unfortunately the building society that had advanced the funds insisted that none of the houses should be built of concrete, the material preferred by most of the architects. This caused many of the designers planned to have houses built in Easton Way to back out. Once buildings had been commissioned it was also extremely slow, as the builders were inexperienced and the details and drawings supplied for them to work from were inadequate. Another problem met the Frinton Park project in July 1935 when Tomkins Homer & Ley, the major estate agents of the area, took over the sales side of the scheme. Tomkins’ businesslike approach clashed violently with the grand utopian ideas of Hill, eventually leading to Hill’s resignation.

Today, all that stands of Oliver Hill’s impressive estate are little more than 30 modern houses, the Estate Information Bureau and part of the shopping mall, many in various states of disrepair and much altered. But the layout of the roads is still the same, and when looking at the original plans of the estate, walking along the various ‘ways’ and examining some of the more original and well-kept of the houses, it becomes easy to visualise Oliver Hill’s dream and to become excited by it.

The exterior of The Round House, 7 Cliff Way, has remained remarkably unaltered, despite its conversion from estate office (see fig. 3.2) to private house. It was designed by Oliver Hill in November 1934 but was taken over by Tomkins, Homer & Ley before its completion in July 1935. They changed the layout of the office, altered the design of the doors and windows and obscured the mosaic floor.

Looking at The Round House today (fig. 3.3), the plastic window frames and the extended front entrance are notable changes when comparing with the old photograph. The house has also been painted cream. This soft colour does not seem to lend itself very well to the harsh lines of the building. White would have suited the structure better and been more original. Also the use of a different coloured paint for frames and details would add to the character of the house.

Next door to The Round House is St. Martin, 6 Cliff Way (fig. 3.4). According to The Superior Sea-Side by Roderick Gradidge this was Stamford House illustrated in Tomkins, Homer & Ley’s brochure, and said to have four bedrooms and a maid’s room. It was offered for £2,950. This is a large house and looks somewhat unbalanced, which makes me think that the house has been extended.

Four Audley Way (fig. 3.5) looks particularly well kept with its white walls and pale blue doors and window frames. This four bedroom house was said to be designed by either Hill or Page, and was offered at £1,785. Recent Estate Agents details value it at £109,000 (see appendix I). Roderick Gradidge described it in 1980 as ‘much altered with new windows and pebble-dash walls’, but this does not seem to detract from its appearance.

Dawn, 55 Quendon Way (fig. 3.6), was designed by Oliver Hill. This looks to be entirely unaltered with original window frames and doors painted in the typically Hill-inspired colour of pale green. This house was featured in an article by Hugh Pearman in Style magazine, July 1995, entitled White House Keepers. This house was then, and still is, owned by three friends, all working in London, who use it at weekends. The photographs accompanying the article showed even the interior to be original down to the colour of the paintwork, fireplaces, doorhandles, and even the furniture by the same designer Hill had recommended. One of the rooms even housed a Marcel Breuer recliner. This looks to be the only original house left from Hill’s estate and I only hope this remains unaltered.

Off Audley Way is Graces Walk. This, along with Waltham Way, was described as ‘the cheaper end of the area allocated for houses of Modern design’. The majority of the houses here were designed by J.T. Shelton. He was the resident architect, and built more houses at Frinton Park than anyone else. Shelton was not really an architect with any modernist inclination, but under Hill’s specification he ‘used the standard components of Modern architecture: asphalt roofs, metal windows and cement render. The last, smooth finished and painted white with soffits, and Hill selected pale blue, green or pink.’ Tragically the majority of Modern houses in Graces Walk are now in bad repair or have been much altered.

Thalia (fig. 3.7), 11 Graces Walk, is by Shelton. This was originally called Hawkesley Cottage, had three bedrooms and was priced at £1,190. It has a tall, thin staircase window over the front door, which is an interesting feature. Sadly the rendering has been painted cream and the trimmings have been painted black, instead of the original white with pale pastel colours. The window frames and front door have also been replaced, with the door especially looking extremely out of keeping.

The Bungalow (fig. 3.8), 10 Graces Walk, is also by Shelton and said to be an unfinished house turned into a bungalow. The curved entrance is the only interesting original feature This is an ugly looking house, with its new sliding patio doors at the front — they reach down to the bottom of the building and right up to the corner — creating a squat building that looks too close to the ground. There is a particularly sad air of decay about this building. I found another bungalow designed by Shelton in the Estate Catalogue priced at £795 (see Appendix VII). This looks preferable to the one that was built and is certainly of a more interesting design with its corner windows and staircase, next to the front door, leading up to a roof garden.

A photograph of 9 Graces Walk (fig. 3.9) was featured in an advertisement for Frinton Park Estate (see Appendix XXII), giving me a good opportunity to compare old and new photographs (see Appendix II). The most noticeable alteration is the conversion of the garage into a fourth bedroom and the canopy covering the front door being extended into an enclosed porch. The window frames have been replaced along with the front door which is now in an extremely out of keeping Tudor style. The rendering has now been painted a strange shade of pink and the trimmings white. This really looked a much more attractive house in its original state with everything well balanced, neat and geometric, even down to the lawn, paving slabs and driveway.

This view of Waltham Way (fig. 3.10) shows how closely these houses were built together, making them look very odd, Roderick Gradidge describing them as having ‘a curiously middle eastern look’. Modern houses were also built extremely close to houses of entirely different design and with very little front garden — all this seems to contradict the modernist idea of spaciousness, light and uniformity.

Newhaven at 14 Waltham Way, and Helions at 16 Waltham Way (fig. 3.11) are original examples of a three bedroom house of the estate, probably by Shelton. They have the original window frames and doors, and are painted white with black trimmings — black perhaps not being a particularly original feature but not looking wholly out of keeping. These modernist houses in Waltham Way are priced now at about £90,000 (see Appendix III and IV).

The Leas (fig. 3.12) by Oliver Hill is the most illustrated of the Frinton Park Estate houses, probably because of its size and truly modernist concrete construction. Monolithic reinforced concrete was used, with a cavity construction, known as the Wheeler System, used for the walls. The original brochure (Appendix XIX and XX) suggests another house of concrete construction was built, but I am unable to locate this, leading me to the conclusion it has not survived. These houses have a more rectilinear appearance than the ones of brick construction and incorporate a continuous cantilevered balcony.

A photograph in the brochure shows what this house looked like in 1935, so again I can compare old and new views. The garage has certainly been altered, together with an extension to the first floor over the garage, which was carried out in 1980 when Roderick Gradidge was performing his tour of Frinton. The majority of the front windows have been replaced with sliding patio doors, even for the front entrance. The other window frames have also been changed. The steps leading up to the railed first floor balcony have been removed. The lawn has been reduced in size and concreted to create more parking space. Although this house does not seem cramped in its position and in its original photograph seems interesting and impressive, its style and character have been lost in the alterations. This house is now valued at £190,000 (see Appendix VI).

Willingale, 16 Warley Way (see figs. 3.13/3.13a), is another Oliver Hill house with five bedrooms and a maid’s room. This was illustrated as the showhouse in the brochure (see Appendix XII and XIII) equipped with modern furniture. Sadly it is now empty and in an extremely bad state of repair, but it seems to be almost entirely original apart from the removal of the balcony doors and railings on the first floor. The once grand and spacious lounge with its woodblock flooring, specified in the brochure as Deal or Columbian Pine, looks very sorry, and the room even lacks a ceiling. A planning application had been put forward to redevelop the site but fortunately the Council has ruled that the building must not be demolished because of its significant historic value. The house has recently been valued at £69,500 (see Appendix V) compared to £1,785 in 1935.

Morae (see fig. 3.14), 1 Easton Way, is a quite typical brick-built house by Hill with its curved facade, railed balcony and porthole windows. It looks well kept and original, and is complemented greatly by its wonderful sea views and large garden, an important factor that spoils many of the other estate houses.

Ten Easton Way (see fig. 3.15) was designed by R.A. Duncan. It is now painted cream rather than white, and has obviously had its windows replaced. This is an interesting building with a curved staircase tower and small windows. It was built far too close to the road and is surrounded very closely by trees. These factors give it a gloomy, imposing appearance uncharacteristic of these modernist buildings.

Twenty-one Easton Way (see fig. 3.16) is designed by Marshall Sisson. This is a particularly strange-looking house, just one simple square box with a row of five windows on the first floor at the front and six on the left side. At the time of writing this property was being renovated, but although the windows have been replaced it appears to be a sympathetic renovation. There is something rather eccentric about this building that I find rather appealing. It is certainly too close to its neighbouring buildings, and although all of its features, including flat roof, white painted cement render, plenty of windows to let in the light (including portholes and a tall thin staircase window to the right side), it does not seem altogether modernist. Later in his career Sisson turned to classical architecture and restoration work, so perhaps it is a classical influence I can see here. Jill Lever wrote in an article in a RIBA Journal in November 1979 that ‘His no-nonsense approach was disliked by the managing director who wrote to Hill that “Mr Sisson’s house... has an unfortunate exterior... (and will) be difficult to sell”.’

Other architects with houses built here are Howard Robinson, who built number 12 Easton Way, and Frederick Etchells, who built 14 and 19. Etchells was the translator of Le Corbusier’s Vers Une Architecture into English in 1931. Despite this connection with such an outstanding modernist architect and designer, I did not find his contribution to the estate particularly inspiring. His houses were described by Roderick Gradidge in 1980 as ‘dull’.

Frinton Park Court (see fig. 3.17), part of Oliver Hill’s planned shopping mall, stands on the corner of Central Avenue and Walton Road. The shops, including a dress shop and a bakery, opened here for nearly ten months before closing due to complete lack of business. Part of the building, now used as the Frinton and Walton Masonic Lodge, has been much altered but the interesting slight curve at the Walton Road end (see fig. 3.18) is still visible. The other part of the building was converted into six flats, but now stands derelict and overgrown (see fig. 3.19). Roderick Gradidge stated that ‘the rear elevations with their porthole windows are more interesting’, although today very little can be seen through the undergrowth.

One can still imagine that the large filled-in rectangles, along the ground floor of the building, were once filled with glass to let the light pour into this very Modern shopping mall.

Looking at these modernist houses today, more than six decades later, they still appear unconventional and... modern. In rural 1930s England these buildings must have looked quite shocking to the ordinary prospective buyer. It is not surprising that Frinton Park Estate was not a successful business venture and that Oliver Hill’s grand scheme was abandoned. The buildings that remain are certainly fascinating to study and leave you thinking how different Frinton would have been if the estate had met with completion. It would certainly have made a unique, perfectly planned and idealistic modern seaside town. But whether this would have stood the test of time and the changing fashions is difficult to say.

Conclusion, appendices, bibliography & book searching

	Acknowledgements
	Preface
	Chapter I: Modernism
	Chapter II: The Bauhaus School
	Chapter III: Modernism in domestic architecture: Frinton Park Estate
	Conclusion
	Appendices
	Bibliography & book searching