World’s End Chelsea
September 19th, 2011
Great estate, love the burnt umber bricks, so much better to look at than raw concrete. Lovely use of communal garden space within the courtyard level above the car park at 1st floor level. Have some doubts about the – bordering on – single aspect tower block flats,but they have at least been designed so that every flat has a SW facing window even if it’s only one, and they are popular.
Pullman Court Streatham
September 19th, 2011
Sunday afternoon, the 159 from Brixton tube station and a 15 minute bus ride takes you to the bus garage beside which stands Pullman Court.
Fabrik Coldharbour Lane Brixton SE5
September 19th, 2011
Does London really need more single aspect flats with low ceilings, inadequate windows, surplus ensuites and minimal storage?
Brentford walk(ing) in the rain
September 19th, 2011
Some years ago one lunchtime, while working in a building near Kew Bridge [*], I took a walk along the high road to Brentford and unexpectedly came across some attractive old houses – in disbelief – because they didn’t quite match the somewhat industrial and commercial appearance of the High St.
Alexandra Road – interior
September 19th, 2011
UPDATE 19th March 2018: How I wish I had taken those photographs from 5’6″ and not 6′. Here’s a tip, if you’re photographing interiors and you’re tall, lower the camera.
The owner kindly opened her original and attractive dual aspect flat to the public for a day. Beautiful and well appointed 1970s flat flooded with light, lots of wood on display, large windows, intelligent use of sliding screens to separate kitchen / diner from living room (architect Neave Brown).
Streets in the sky – Park Hill – The One Show
September 10th, 2011
While attending the Sheffield Heritage Open Day (HOD) I chanced upon Roy Hattersley seated outside the main entrance to Park Hill . . .
Simon Gawthorpe with Roy Hattersley at Park Hill
Hope VI – or go away you’re poor II
September 1st, 2011
UPDATE 22/9/17: Now it’s Choice Neighbourhoods HT @robbins_glyn
Everything that’s happening here now with so called regeneration has been happening in the USA before with the Hope VI programme and all its negative consequences which boil down to a net loss of housing for the poor.
Some have criticized the new developments, because they do not require a “one-for-one” replacement of the old housing unit—the new unit does not have to house the same number of tenants, which results in a net loss of housing for the poor.[11]
Some critics have said that local authorities use the program as a legal means to evict poor residents in favor of more affluent residents in a process of gentrification.[13][15] They have said that less than 12% of those displaced from old housing eventually move into the replacement housing.[9][10][13]
Wikipedia? Ok I’m desperate.
The first article in the series linked below:-
Comprehensive Estate Initiative – research notes
August 25th, 2011
UPDATE: 21/11/16 Buy the book – “The Dynamics of Local Housing Policy” by Keith Jacobs. (At the time of writing available second hand for £22.52 – 21/11/16) HT @municipaldreams
In the early 1990s I would periodically return from a long trip overseas to notice fewer and fewer tower blocks standing on an estate once well known to me as a carpenter with the GLC . . .
Read Hansard on Trowbridge
. . . I would drive past on the Eastway and the Trowbridge Estate would have lost a couple more of its tower blocks. I began to forget how many there were to start with.
Opposite, between Eastway and the factories along the railway and the cut, the G.L.C.’s Trowbridge estate left only the north-south line of Osborne and Prince Edward roads from the centre of the old street pattern. First opened in 1965 and completed in 1969, the estate included 117 bungalow homes but was most striking for its seven 21-storeyed towers, (fn. 68) with mosaic facings and glass balconies.
From Here to Modernity
August 22nd, 2011
Click image to see full Wordle
Kirsty Wark charts the rise and fall of the Modern movement from the 1930s to its fall from popularity, in three half hour programmes made for the Open University.
Here follows a comprehensive list of the buildings featured in the programme, in the form of stills. It is not by any means a review of the programme but rather intended as an introduction by way of showing the content.
Title shot – click above for larger image
The link to the Open University details about the series is here:-
Fleet Road by Neave Brown – Camden
August 20th, 2011
The architect Neave Brown lives within the estate he designed which stands in the rectangle formed by Fleet Road to the north, Southampton to the East, Dunboyne, private and within estate to the South, and Parkhill to the West. He refers to it as Fleet Road so that’s the one I’ll go with.
