Tanner Street Barking – Peter Barber
August 17th, 2011
More cogwheel toothed grey rendered pseudo Mediterranean terraced housing by Barber. Like Donnybrook it also has next to no defensible space for the most part. 
Finsbury Health Centre – Lubetkin 1938
August 16th, 2011
UPDATE: 28th November 2014 Tonight at the Royal Geological Society John Allan gave a superb address in support of FHC and won the vote for best C20th Society building on their 100 buildings list. Tweet.
The Borough of Finsbury is notable for having a number of buildings by the same architectural practice, in this case Tecton a spin off from the MARS group of architects (Modern Architecture Research Group) formed in the 1930s by a group of forward looking Modernist architects seeking to make their mark.
Arch Street Elephant & Castle
August 16th, 2011
While trawling London’s housing estates for raw concrete on behalf of my Sheffield friend I stopped at what’s left of the Heygate and on the way from the Elephant & Castle tube spotted this . . .
. . . and was reminded of that memorable phrase “a malformed zebra that has been rolling around in poo.” taken from an article in Building Design magazine that reviewed the development.
Heygate Estate – Elephant & Castle
August 16th, 2011
Thought for the day – Regeneration is social cleansing
In my continuing quest for béton brut (raw concrete) I wandered along to what’s left of the Heygate to snatch a few shots.
Utopia London – Tom Cordell
August 13th, 2011
Composite image of architects featured in the film
“There was a time when London united around the vision of a better future. A group of young idealists were fusing science and art to build an egalitarian city. This documentary is their story.”
So runs the tag line from the trailer page of the website and this motivation comes across from the film as a whole.
Tower blocks and the density myth
August 8th, 2011
Over the years I have heard, and read, many different points of view put forward as to whether tower blocks were a good idea in terms of housing large numbers of people, owing to the space required between them to prevent overshadowing.
Red Road flats Glasgow
Sheffield – All in a day – The City – BBC 1973
July 30th, 2011
This 45 minute documentary was shot in one day on Wednesday 5th September 1973, using several film crews each with a different assignment. One to follow a man retiring on his 65th birthday, the hospital, the Police service, a funeral,
Hyde Park flats
Taylor Wimpey example of kitchen design
July 25th, 2011
I had to laugh. That’s what somebody typed into Google (in the title) before reaching my page on crap flats. I had no idea they were designed I thought they were the space left over when the requisite number of en-suite bedrooms and toilets had been put in along with the composite living/dining area. I cannot seriously imagine design ever coming into it.
Look through this blog and all the TW kitchens you’ll see here will be units stuck along a wall or around a corner or as an afterthought (mostly) without windows to look out of.
Thank you 109.149.4.xx for making my day.
Taylor Wimpey aren’t the only ones. Read my post on Kidbrooke Village – Phase One or Pepys Estate and what you find is that Berkeley Homes also regard it as acceptable not to include a separate kitchen in either their new developments or their redevelopments. They are not even pretending to approach open plan, they are just dumping a line of units along the wall in a room as an apology for a kitchen.
Pentagon Mall Chatham Kent
July 19th, 2011
Here are a few more photographs of the original Pentagon Mall at Chatham in Kent.
Sheffield: The Furnace Trail
July 18th, 2011
“Sheffield steel” is so ingrained in the language and the city that out of simple curiousity I have spent some time walking around the Kelham Island area following the history of steel-making. To this end the excellent “Furnace Trail” booklet provides an introduction.
