Saint House and surgery (Ryder House)

Ryder and Yates designed 14 private houses across the North. 12 were built. They all shared characteristic themes in plan, form and use of materials. But the houses were specific to each client and site. The houses were generally narrow and linear in plan. Secondary spaces were housed in linked pods. Entrances were marked by some sort of sculptural element. Spaces were divided by columns or staircases. All houses had a dominant fireplace. External columns allowed facades to be entirely glazed. Roofs were always flat and animated by roof lights, canopies, chimneys and water tanks. A mixture of old and new materials were used. The Saint House was more complex than the previous houses (Woolsington, Walker, Beadnell, Scotby, Brampton, Hayton and Hayton Head) and was built in 1956. It created family living accomodation and a separate doctor's surgery for Dr. Thomas Saint. Gordon Ryder designed a single-aspect house (because it was overlooked by houses and flats) on one side of the site, looking into a walled garden. The rectilinear house, surgery and garage blcoks were simple in form and flat-roofed. It had plain white walls of concrete using various forms - concrete bricks, patterned blocks and slabs cast in-situ. The entrances features white timber boarding and concrete canopies with waterspouts. The house was two storeys. It had a linear plan of kitchen, dining room, hall and a living room, with a glass garden wall and cubist fireplace. A partial lobby linked the entrance hall to the other rooms. There was a steel spiral staircase with rubber coverings on the steps. The staircase was enclosed in a concrete drum with a circular roof light over it. The surgery was lit by clerestory windows on the front and back and by roof lights. The surgery has been demolished but the house remains, renamed Ryder House.