East Tilbury: 4 & 6 Bata Avenue

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 20 Oct 2016

Along with the shoe factory, Tomáš Baťa also planned housing, schools and shops for his employees. 4 and 6 Bata Avenue, seen here, is now a Grade II Listed Building and the Historic England website describes it thus:- "Semi-detached houses. 1930-33. Designed by Vladimir Karfik and Frantizek Gahura, and built by various local contractors. Flat roofed. Hybrid construction with concrete poured in lifts of roughly one metre in height to front and side walls; interior partition and rear walls of brick faced with concrete. Two storeys and two-window range to the pair; rectangular bay to each sitting room; entrances on the returns with one small window to each floor. Four-window range to the rear. Stack to party wall. International Style. Nos 2-34 (even) Bata Avenue form a group." Curiously only the houses on the north side of Bata Avenue merit Grade II Listing. The other one in the pair of gateway buildings and the odd numbered houses do not.

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