Building Name

Crenden, 190 Birkby Lodge Road, and Azo House, 90 Birkby Hall Road. Huddersfield

Date
1903
Street
Birkby Lodge Road, Birkby Hall Road
District/Town
Birkby, Huddersfield
County/Country
GMCA, England
Architect
Client
Joseph Turner and W H Hughes.
Work
New Build

A pair of semi-detached houses designed for Joseph Turner and W H Hughes. Azo’s unusual name derives from a range of synthetic dyes produced by the important local textile chemicals firm of Read Holliday, of which Turner was chief chemist and later chairman. The houses present a front onto the garden, and appear to be one mansion, with asymmetrically-place windows and entrances, although the internal plans of the two houses are in fact almost identical. They turn their back on Birkby Hall Road, where there are small service yards bounded by a low range which housed servants’ toilets, coal houses and bicycle sheds. Accommodation consisted of a hall, dining and drawing rooms, kitchen and scullery on the ground floor, three family bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor, and two attic bedrooms, probably for servants. Wood’s characteristic large gables, canted bays breaking through the line of the eaves, and porches supported on scrolled brackets, are in evidence, as well as leaded glass and decorative door furniture.