Selwyn Street

Character

Restoring the integrity of the two streets they face, the two new terraces contribute significantly to the local urban character, their house fronts facing onto streets and private gardens to the rear. End units are three-storey marker dwellings with corner bays, all other houses being two-storeys in keeping with surrounding streets.

The new houses, with their larger windows, differ substantially from older housing opposite, showing that original street patterns can successfully accommodate different house types and enable all to fit happily into the urban scene.

A similar red brick used for ground floor elevations is the only reference to neighbouring houses, all above this level providing a new context for the area. First floors and above are rendered white, and monopitch gables add a striking element to the streetscape. The park's use of unexpected materials, such as limestone gabion walls, reflective stainless steel panels on the seating walls and resin bonded coloured ground surfaces, introduces welcome elements of contrast and colour into the local environment.

Roads, parking and pedestrianisation

The scheme closely fronts onto and overlooks the streets, from which it is separated by a small space with a steel railing, providing a degree of privacy absent from neighbouring houses.

The bays and windows of taller end houses overlook the park, but a stronger housing presence could have been achieved through the use of single aspect units facing onto the park although this might have resulted in overshadowing of the gardens immediately behind.

Large plot sizes and wide frontages of individual units have generously allowed two gated covered car spaces per plot, necessary since narrow streets with just 11.5 metres between house fronts have to accommodate parked cars of older dwellings. The resulting congestion has the consequent benefit of calming traffic, assisted by speed humps in Lee Street. The established street pattern relates logically to the topography and is easily legible.

Design and construction

An "excellent" Eco Homes standard is achieved through high insulation, traditional brick and block walls, timber floors and nailed truss roofs covered with artificial slates. Cost considerations prevented the intended use of timber frames and natural slates; stained timber windows are on Eternit cement cills.

The back gardens of houses facing Chelmsford Street are five metres above those on Lee Street, the level change achieved by a Timbacrib retaining wall which encourages climbing plants, and allows gardens on both rows to enjoy more privacy than is usual with only 20m between habitable room windows.

The relatively narrow block has led to wider plots than is usual in new housing, with units 10m wide and only 8m deep, although single-storey kitchens extend about 3m into back gardens. The wide frontages permit front doors, car ports and large windows on the street.

Floor layouts carefully maximise privacy between rooms which was an important requirement for some residents. Separate dining rooms open off kitchen corridors where a more conventional plan might combine these two rooms to give a more open layout. Bedrooms permit varied furniture arrangements and non-load bearing internal partitions allow for later adaptation. Ground floor doors and toilets are wheelchair accessible.

Featuring motifs inspired through the community consultation process, gates and railings plus decorative tiles were designed by the landscape architects who also created the pocket park. House fronts on Lee Street and rear windows on Chelmsford Street as well as the new end houses overlook this valuable local space which is designed to be low maintenance: steel ‘cages’ protect the box hedges growing through them and generally robust materials have been used throughout. Permeable hard surfaces preclude the need for surface drainage, and the park benefits from several mature trees planted some twenty years ago.

Environment and community

South East-facing monopitch roofs accommodate solar panels connected directly to all hot water tanks, which are topped up by condensing gas boilers when required. These should provide 90% of hot water in summer and 60% in winter, reducing average energy bills by up to 60%.

Prevailing wind conditions restricted electricity-generating wind turbines to the higher houses on Chelmsford Street where at one of the highest points in Oldham they should provide up to 1kw of power. The client and HMR shall be carrying out research on the effectiveness of the renewable energies over the next 12 months.

In back gardens, which are orientated to avoid overshadowing, water butts collect rainwater from flat kitchen roofs. Ten houses are for affordable rent, four are shared ownership and four have been sold outright. Opposite on Lee Street is a remarkable variety of small shops with others, including a post office, nearby which will all hopefully benefit from the development and the increase in population. Many residents walk through the new park to a primary school located within 325m of the scheme, bus stops are within 200m and the town centre is only ¼ mile away although the topography makes the walk seem longer.