CIVIC TRUST AWARDS IN WOLVERHAMPTON

Bantock Gardens, Finchfield Road

The Civic Trust commendation given in 1966 notes the owner and contractor as John McLean & Sons Ltd., and the designer as John F. Phillips and Associates.  

The comment reads:  "This scheme made good use of a very attractive and well wooded site.  The flats are well grouped and the landscaping excellently handled.  Nonetheless the design of the windows, together with the layout of the roads and visitors' car parks (which allowed the parked cars to be too dominant, despite the fact that most of the garages were grouped away from the flats) left much to be desired."

It is surprising that an award was given for flats which seemed to have so many defects in important areas.  But the design did preserve a lot of trees and the flats seem to have weathered well;  they remain what the estate agents call "sought after".  The "visitors' car parks" are still full of residents' cars.  It is odd that there was this sort of provision of car parking - there is a garage block on the other side of the access road behind the camera in the photo above.  But even much more recent designs have not resolved this problem.