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To the south-east of the central squares there is an effective contrast of informal closes. Southway begins with some early houses, the most attractive being number 10, a gem of small scale dignity by Geoffrey Lucas, a square block with a canted studio window to the ground floor and a big central chimney. Bigwood Road has some attractive mansard-roofed houses of 1909 by Michael Bunney (numbers 6-8, 12-14); he also did the neat white gabled grouping of number 17 with number 18 Southway (number 18 Bigwood Road is similar, but tile-hung).
Hurst Close leads back towards South Square. It is flanked by two small Curtis Green houses (numbers 9 and 11 Bigwood Road) and consists otherwise of smaller cottages by Parker and Unwin, T M Wilson and H T Morgan. At the corner of Meadway there are some good austere houses with white gables by S B K Caulfield (numbers 1-3 Bigwood Road and numbers 45-47 Meadway). Numbers 41-43 Meadway are a nice pair by T M Wilson combining roughcast walls and thin oriels in the centre with rusticated neo-Georgian brick flanks (fine chimneys).
Ruskin Close is a twin to Hurst Close and has simple white houses by C M Crickmer, leading to a good pair by Dawber with tall half-hipped gables. These two closes have a particularly good relationship between houses and trees and between enclosure and openness, forming a total environment which is superior to any of the individual elements.
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