Architecture & Design 2: 1920s and 1930s 

Inter-war architecture: 1920s and 1930s

The interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s saw development continue and Chalkwell gradually filled with large, detached homes with sizeable gardens on Seymour Road, Drake Road, Galton Road and Chalkwell Avenue. The roads leading down from Kings Road to the estuary along with Crosby Road filled in with smaller detached homes and detached bungalows on large plots.  Notable among the bungalows are two on the north side of First Avenue, close to the junction with Chalkwell Avenue, which feature prominent Dutch gables.

Among other trends in suburban development that are seen in Chalkwell is the rustic English Cottage style, which was adopted for a pair of semi-detached houses on Meadway, which, though of slightly later date, are typical of those being built in the Garden Suburbs.

There are a few examples to be seen of European Modernist architecture, which is characterised by white stucco walls, flat roofs, horizontally framed windows and a complete absence of decoration.

The flats at the eastern end of Undercliff Gardens, built in the late 1990s, represent a sympathetic recreation of this style – replacing an original Modernist building. There is also an original Modernist house at the eastern end of Second Avenue. This has been altered, but the original window configuration is still visible, including an angled window that tracks the internal stairs (pictured).

There are also a few instances of Moderne homes on the Estate. These may be seen in The Crossways (though substantially altered in recent years), on the east side of the junction of Leasway and Kings Road, on the south side of The Ridgeway and at the south-west end of Crowstone Road. A late twentieth-century apartment block on the south-eastern corner of Crowstone Avenue and Western Esplanade is a later representation of this style. The Moderne style itself is a softening of European Modernist style, typically using string courses to emphasise horizontal lines, colourful Spanish tiles (green or red) and pitched roofs.

Building was almost complete by the outbreak of World War 2, apart from isolated plots.

Below, left: Pair of Arts & Crafts cottages, Meadway; centre: European Modernist-style home in Second Avenue; right:  pair of semi-detached Moderne-style homes, junction of Crowstone Road and Victory Path