In 1937 Townsend formed his own architectural practice, Modern Homes, in Richmond, London and Lyons worked there, the pair designing small housing schemes until the outbreak of war.
In 1948 they completed Oaklands, a small housing development of four, two-storey, six-apartment blocks set in landscaped grounds in Whitton that was the prototype of their future success.
[6] Bargood Estates went on to build 12 townhouses at North Walls and Chapel Street, Chichester which incorporated Span features such as openness, light and community with a Residents' Association, 1963.
[7] As the project progressed, Townsend and Cushman were joined by Leslie Bilsby, another former Regent Street Polytechnic student, to form Priory Hall Ltd..
The ambitious New Ash Green project, an entire village, hit substantial financial difficulties, causing Lyons to withdraw and Bilsby and Townsend to resign.
Bilsby and Townsend reunited in the late 1970s and formed SPAN Environments Ltd working once more with Lyons and Cunningham as consultant architects and Gostling, the builder from New Ash Green, doing the construction.