Description

Matthew Steele, 1932. Crescent of 3 Local Authority tenements comprising 2 large 3-storey, L-plan blocks with 3-bay canted corners flanking 2-storey rectangular-plan piend-roofed block on higher ground. Cement render on red and white brick base reaching ground floor cills. Larger E and W blocks with slightly projecting vertically aligned chimney-headed entrance bays, consisting of moulded pier rising through eaves as battered stacks with stylised crenellated pediment; N block with red brick door margins extending to 1st floor banded cill course and vertically emphasised shaped stair window over door. Shaped doorheads to decoratively-astragalled part-glazed timber doors. Some stone-pedimented windowheads breaking eaves at rear. Regular fenestration comprising single and bipartite windows.

Multi-pane glazing patterns retained to stair and some rear elevation windows, mostly uPVC windows. Grey slates. Stylised entrance bay stacks, coped red brick stacks, some shouldered, with cans.

BOUNDARY WALLS: coped rubble and semicircular-coped rendered boundary walls to rear.

Statement of Interest

: Remarkable local architect Matthew Steele had produced early Modern Movement, Charles Rennie Mackintosh influenced and Voyseyesque designs for Bo'ness before moving to an Austrian Secession bias for these and slightly later (nearby) local authority flats. 1923 and 1924 saw new legislation in 2 new Housing Acts, the influential later Act programming regulated stages towards completion in 1939. This date was clearly significant to the succession of local authority commissions awarded to Matthew Steele whose repertoire included Harbour Road housing scheme 1932, distinctive flats in Cadzow Crescent 1935, Deanfield Road development (with John Taylor) 1936, and the Old Grange housing scheme 1936. These flats at Corbiehall are known locally as 'Coffin Square', a reference to the distinctive shape of the doorways.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17816263

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
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  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)