Key Details

Overview

Lynton House is an apartment building at Hallfield Estate in Bayswater, London W2.

The Hallfield Estate is a post-war housing estate, built on a 17 acre site which was originally laid out with brick and stucco terraces and villas, but was cleared following war damage.

The estate was built between 1951-59 by the architectural practice Drake and Lasdun and comprises fifteen blocks and a primary school. It was designed as a deliberate contrast to the architectural fabric of nineteenth century Bayswater and was intended as a radical model for the borough of Paddington's post-war re-housing programme.

The ten and six storey blocks are laid out on a grid at 45 degrees to the surrounding roads. They are set in an attractive landscape setting, which includes chestnut, sycamore, mountain ash and mulberry trees and also magnolias and catalpas.

The 6-storey houses are sixteen metres high and on an roughly north-south axis with the living room facade facing roughly east.

The block has one central lift while stairways at the south and northern ends are open and accessed from the west side of the block.

Front Elevations

The gable walls and columns on the access galleries are clad with precast panels. Between the columns the
perforated balustrade panels are of dark brick this is not as original and was altered c.1985. Detailing was originally as seen in Figure 9 in perforated concrete. The walls behind the access galleries and the east-elevation are faced with red Dunbricks.

Window openings are all steel, either three panel with casements to either side and a top hung light to the centre or single panel with top hung light (the latter design is positioned next to door openings).

The ground floor is set back, creating an overhang, with upper stories supported on columns.

Reverse Elevation

This elevation has very distinctive private balconies, but only to the third and fifth floors to prevent overshadowing. These balconies form one of the distinctive features of the estate - their angular form, with a cut-out for railings, is a playful feature of much the same spirit as the
screens to the ten storey buildings.

All window openings to the reverse elevation are coupled, three panel steel windows. All flats with balconies have floor-to-ceiling glazing consisting of a pair of French doors with window light and full length margin panel. Two transoms create fixed middle glazing section which runs across all three panels.

Transport
The nearest tube station is Bayswater on Queensway (5 minutes' walk. Paddington Station is 10 minutes' walk from here.

Source: Conservation Area Audit 2008, westminster.gov.uk