When the Architectural Review featured the finished block of three terraced houses at Willow Road in 1940, the article was accompanied by a robust defence of formal street architecture, at the time considered very unfashionable by both home-buyers and architects. It also praised the 18th-century terrace, where each individual house is considered an integral part of a greater whole.

While 1-3 Willow Road may have adhered to certain classical values, the terrace has an uncompromisingly modern look. Concrete construction and continuous windows gave greater light than earlier terraces. With the main sitting rooms on the first floor, much of the ground floor could be occupied by entrance hall and garage space.

Goldfinger also added a design feature - a detail omitted by other Modernists in their quest for geometric purity - that proved a big advantage for coping with the vagueries of the British weather. To give a visual termination to a modern façade, he added a stone coping course on the parapet, neatly preventing weather-staining on the brickwork and making the Willow Road houses relatively easy to maintain.

With no other buildings in view and directly overlooking Hampstead Heath, the Willow Road terrace offered the modern architect's ideal - the benefits of the country in the town. Large windows further enhanced the sense of freshness and space, one of the key factors in Modern Movement architecture.

The influence of August Perret, Goldfinger's tutor at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris, is also apparent, particularly in the articulation of load-bearing members. Goldfinger, however, did not want to create what he considered the 'concrete boxes' of continental Modernism. The floors, stairs and inner leaf of the walls are in concrete, but outside brick is the dominant material on the elevations.