Single Aspect Blog

UPDATE: 20/3/18 I’d feel happier about this block in rapidly gentrifying Brixton if https://www.frendcastle.co.uk/developments/ weren’t taking an interest in it. Are others too?

UPDATE: 7/2/14 I heard yesterday that Southwyck House has been refused listing by EH and so we can no doubt look forward to London’s only barrier block being “redeveloped” at some stage for the benefit of an increasingly gentrified Brixton.

While going to see Peter Barber’s Donnybrook this afternoon (26/6/2010) I came across the longest line of single aspect houses I’ve ever seen, 270m according to Google Earth, and less than 200m from Donnybrook.

Taken from the footbridge, click photo for larger image

It’s like a smaller version of the Byker Wall in Newcastle, built to shield the residents from a dual carriageway, the motorway was never built.  Not having studied it myself I am informed by a commentator today (3/10/2010) that the flats have windows overlooking the road (see Comments below). A quick Google of the road adjacent shows it to be Lefevre Walk.

The backside, as it were, shielded from the traffic noise but single aspect

I feel naive and out of touch posting this, they’ve obviously been there for some years and are presumably all inhabited though I didn’t stop to check.  They are all either W or SW facing as is clear from the Google Earth image below. It is an area I once knew well.  Thirty years ago (1978-80) I used to drive the Eastway (Old Ford, East London) on a daily basis.

London’s Byker Wall from Google Earth – what to say?

This is the most difficult housing project to comprehend I’ve come across since beginning this blog.  There they stand, 270m of inhabited single aspect houses with one solitary 1 foot square window each facing the traffic, presumably a toilet window although I honestly don’t know. It has to be there for ventilation otherwise they’d surely be illegal.

Ollerton Green maisonettes on the Locton Estate

Within 100m of Lefevre Walk stands Ollerton Green on the Locton Estate, Parnell Road.  A block of maisonettes set back from the Eastway with a green divider providing visual and spatial separation.  Quite why the architects of Lefevre Walk could not have done the same is beyond me.  They would then have been able to avoid single aspect housing.

UPDATE: There’s another one here, Southwyck House in Brixton.

https://lovelondoncouncilhousing.blogspot.com/2011/05/brixton-barrier.html

I should have known, I used to drive past it regularly but in those days I wasn’t blogging housing.  Still probably a better candidate for London’s Byker wall than Lefevre.  Never mind, so that’s two London’s Byker Walls then …