Trees, Middle Drive

A house built 1967-8 by Gordon Ryder (1919-2000) of the firm Ryder and Yates, for himself and his family. It is built of load-bearing buff brick with grey-green panels (replacing the original white) with a concealed steel structure supporting the living room ceiling. The building is a long narrow two-storey rectangular structure with triangular fin-like protrusions at the centre of the long sides. The room arrangement separated parents' and childrens' areas. The east elevation is substantially glazed with grey-green panels. The windows are the same shape as the paraboloid (oval) ceiling in the living room. The north and south elevations have horizontal bands of windows. The limited fenestration aims to restrict noise from the airport. Above the projecting fins are monopitch roofs with side panels and to the sides bands of fenestration. The south façade has a porthole window. There is a door from the living room with a raised mound of earth beneath. The west façade is blank with a large garage door. Windows and doors have mostly been replaced with uPVC. Inside - the living room, entrance hall and cloakroom are divided from the dining room, kitchen and laundry by a cranked wall that forms the side of the gallery above. The entrance leads to the large double-height living space via a short flight of steps. More stairs lead down to the dining room. A narrow stair leads to the first floor bedroom corridor with a small bridge over the entrance hall to the gallery. A narrow study projects into the garden above the south entrance. The ground floor of the west half of the house has a playroom, 4 children's bedrooms, a bathroom and boiler with the garage at the end. Above is the large master bedroom and guest room, each with en-suite bathroom. The master bedroom leads out onto a terrace above the garage. Interior walls are white painted render or brick, except the curved wall in the dining room which is covered with yellow hessian. Areas of the ground floor bedroom area are covered by fair-faced brick and cork. Joinery is painted white, except the fitted cupboards which are natural timber. Ceilings and timber are detailed to accentuate the effect of shadows. During the 1970s the dining area was partitioned off with a timber screen with a door. The kitchen and laundry have been refitted. Upstairs the master bedroom ceiling has a single concave paraboloid which is shallower than the living room. The room has original fitted stencilled natural timber cupboards. The firm of Ryder and Yates was an important regional practice in the North-East, whose work is under-published. Their work was consistently of a quality and innovation comparable with firms based in London. The practice was set up in 1953 and early work included seven private houses. Trees was the last andis the most ambitious and complete. LISTED GRADE 2