Ossulston Estate

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Levita House, Ossulston Estate Levita House, Ossulston Estate.jpg
Levita House, Ossulston Estate

The Ossulston Estate is a multi-storey council estate built by the London County Council on Chalton Street in Somers Town between 1927 and 1931. It was unusual at the time both in its inner-city location and in its modernist design, and all the original parts of the estate are now Grade II listed buildings.

The estate was built to rehouse those poor who were not being served by the LCC's new suburban estates, [1] and was significantly denser to suit the urban site. It was located on the site of the Somers Town slum, [2] between Euston and St Pancras stations. The original proposal made in 1925 was for 9-storey blocks on the American model, which would have required lifts, and with more expensive flats for private tenants on the highest floors. This was rejected and the height reduced to a maximum of 7 storeys, [2] [3] with fewer lifts and no private flats. The provision of central heating was also eliminated, but the buildings were unusual in providing electricity from the start, [4] and Levita House had the first central heating system installed by the LCC. [5]

Levita House, front Levita House, Ossulston Estate 2.jpg
Levita House, front

The design, by G. Topham Forrest, chief architect of the LCC, and his assistants R. Minton Taylor and E.H. Parkes, [1] was influenced by Viennese modernist public housing such as Karl Marx-Hof, [3] [6] which Forrest had visited. [4] The estate consists of blocks grouped around three courtyards, and small greens, reached by archways from Ossulston and Chalton Streets; some of the original plantings survive. The buildings have some neo-Georgian features in the treatment of roofs and windows, [7] [8] but are modernist in being of steel-frame construction with unornamented roughcast walls, the facades instead enlivened by spatial features such as the archways in front of the balconies which lead to the individual flats. [1] [2] Chamberlain House, three blocks of flats, was built in 192729; Levita House, south of it and named for Cecil Levita, who was chairman of the LCC's Housing Committee in the 1920s, was built in 193031 and consists of the 7-storey section and wings enclosing a grand courtyard [1] which was originally intended to lead to the premium flats. [4] Walker House was begun in 192930, but the other side of the courtyard was completed in 193637 with more traditional brick 6-storey buildings. [4] The total number of flats was 310. [9] Chamberlain House, Levita House, the southern part of Walker House and the associated shops and The Cock Tavern public house are all Grade II listed buildings. [5] [10] [11] [12] [13]

In 200407, Levita House was extensively refurbished by Sprunt Architects, which included creating larger flats, external refurbishment of the fabric and transformation of the courtyard areas. [5]

Related Research Articles

Somers Town is an inner-city district in North West London. It has been strongly influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston (1838), St Pancras (1868) and King's Cross (1852), together with the Midland Railway Somers Town Goods Depot (1887) next to St Pancras, where the British Library now stands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keeling House</span> Residential maisonettes in London, England

Keeling House is a 16-storey block of flats located on Claredale Street in Bethnal Green, London, England. It was designed by Denys Lasdun and completed in 1957 as a cluster of four blocks of maisonettes arranged around a central service tower. A radical renovation in 2001 added a penthouse storey and concierge service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downham Estate</span> Housing estate in Downham, London

The Downham Estate is a London County Council cottage estate in Downham, south east London. It is mainly in the London Borough of Lewisham and partly in the London Borough of Bromley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick, Hove</span> House in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex

Brunswick Town is an area in Hove, in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. It is best known for the Regency architecture of the Brunswick estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbeystead House</span> Historic site in Lancashire, England

Abbeystead House is a large country house to the east of the village of Abbeystead, Lancashire, England, some 12 km south-east of Lancaster. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lichfield Court</span> Historic site in London , England

Lichfield Court, in Richmond, London, consists of two Grade II listed purpose-built blocks of flats. Designed by Bertram Carter and built in fine Streamline Moderne style, it was completed in 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucknam Park</span> Restaurant in nr. Bath, England

Lucknam Park is a luxury hotel, spa and restaurant in west Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Corsham and 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Bath. The core of its building is a Grade II listed country house built in the late 17th or early 18th century. The hotel's restaurant has held one star in the Michelin Guide since 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker's Buildings, Chester</span> Historic site in Cheshire, England

Parker's Buildings is a block of flats off the north side of Foregate Street, Chester, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cranbrook Estate</span> Housing estate in Bethnal Green, London

The Cranbrook Estate is a housing estate in Bethnal Green, London, England. It is located next to Roman Road and is based around a figure of eight street called Mace Street. The estate was designed by Francis Skinner, Douglas Bailey and an elder mentor, the Soviet émigré Berthold Lubetkin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buildings and architecture of Brighton and Hove</span>

Brighton and Hove, a city on the English Channel coast in southeast England, has a large and diverse stock of buildings "unrivalled architecturally" among the country's seaside resorts. The urban area, designated a city in 2000, is made up of the formerly separate towns of Brighton and Hove, nearby villages such as Portslade, Patcham and Rottingdean, and 20th-century estates such as Moulsecoomb and Mile Oak. The conurbation was first united in 1997 as a unitary authority and has a population of about 253,000. About half of the 20,430-acre (8,270 ha) geographical area is classed as built up.

George Topham Forrest, F.R.I.B.A. FGS FRSE was a Scottish architect who became chief architect for the London County Council and was responsible for the design of many public housing estates, and also co-designed two bridges over the River Thames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spa Green Estate</span> Housing estate in Clerkenwell, London

Spa Green Estate between Rosebery Avenue and St John St in Clerkenwell, London EC1, England, is the most complete post-war realisation of a 1930s radical plan for social regeneration through Modernist architecture. Conceived as public housing, it is now a mixed community of private owners and council tenants, run by a resident-elected management organization. In 1998 this work by the architect Berthold Lubetkin received a Grade II* listing for its architectural significance, and the major 2008 restoration brought back the original colour scheme, which recalls Lubetkin's contacts with Russian Constructivism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goodwyns</span> Human settlement in England

Goodwyns is a housing estate in Dorking, a market town in Surrey, England. It is on the return slope of one of two hillsides of the town and adjoins North Holmwood, a green-buffered village. The town centre is about 1.7 miles (2.7 km) away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caledonian Estate</span> Housing estate in Islington, London

The Caledonian Estate is a Grade II listed, early Edwardian estate towards the northern end of the Caledonian Road in Islington, London. It is situated next to Pentonville Prison. The Estate was built on the site of the classical Caledonian Asylum from which the Road took its name.

The scissor section flat is a distinctive way of arranging the flats in an apartment block that was developed in the 1950s by London County Council Architects department. The interlocking design provides a way of maximising the space given to flats in any building volume by reducing the space needed for entrance corridors and providing a dual aspect for each dwelling. When used in high rise tower blocks, the scissor arrangement also makes the lift installation cheaper as a landing is only required every three levels. But the design does have accessibility issues and the complex arrangement has caused confusion for emergency services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Diplock & Associates</span>

Russell Diplock & Associates was a British firm of architects, founded by Philip Russell Diplock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public housing in the United Kingdom</span> British government and local authority housing programmes

Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. Dwellings built for public or social housing use are built by or for local authorities and known as council houses. Since the 1980s non-profit housing associations became more important and subsequently the term "social housing" became widely used, as technically council housing only refers to housing owned by a local authority, though the terms are largely used interchangeably.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalcots Estate</span> Housing estate in the London Borough of Camden

Chalcots Estate is a council housing estate on Adelaide Road and Fellows Road in Swiss Cottage in the London Borough of Camden. It was designed by Dennis Lennon and Partners. The Chalcots Estate was built on land owned by Eton College, which is reflected in the names of the individual buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brandon Estate</span> Housing estate in London

The Brandon Estate is a social housing estate in London Borough of Southwark, south London. Situated to the south of Kennington Park, it was built in 1958 by the London County Council, to designs by Edward Hollamby and Roger Westman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalton Street</span>

Chalton Street is a street in the Somers Town neighbourhood of London, England. Chalton Street is over a kilometre long and stretches from Euston Road to almost Camden Town, before taking a hard right turn and terminating at St Pancras Hospital.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, London Volume 4: North, The Buildings of England, Harmondsworth: Penguin/New Haven: Yale University, 1998, ISBN   978-0-14-071049-6, p. 380.
  2. 1 2 3 John Bold, Tanis Hinchcliffe and Scott Forrester, Discovering London's Buildings: With Twelve Walks, London: Frances Lincoln, 2009, ISBN   978-0-7112-2918-1, p. 69.
  3. 1 2 Cherry and Pevsner, p. 66.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Cherry and Pevsner, p. 381.
  5. 1 2 3 "Making a 'slum' into family homes again", Press release, London Borough of Camden, 8 May 2007, updated 9 May 2007, retrieved 3 March 2011.
  6. Judith Lever, Greater London Council Dept. of Architecture and Civic Design, Home Sweet Home: Housing Designed by the London County Council and Greater London Council Architects 1888-1975, London Architectural Monographs, London: Academy, 1976, ISBN   978-0-85670-276-1, p. 38.
  7. Ian Colquhoun, RIBA Book of British Housing: 1900 to the Present Day, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007, ISBN   978-0-7506-8254-1, p. 53, with picture of the entire estate p. 54.
  8. Norbert Schoenauer, 6,000 Years of Housing, Rev. ed. New York: Norton, 2000, p. 390 in fact regards Ossulton [ sic ] as "reflect[ing] a traditional domestic style".
  9. Michael Stratton and Barrie Stuart Trinder, Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology, London/New York: Taylor & Francis, 2000, ISBN   978-0-419-24680-0, p. 140, according to which the original phases were completed in 1934.
  10. Historic England. "Levita House (1113232)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  11. Historic England. "Chamberlain House (1139057)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  12. Historic England. "Walker House, Southern Block (1139058)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  13. Levita House, Attached Shops, Screen And Somers Town Coffee House; Chamberlain House]; Walker House Southern Block Including The Cock Tavern Public House were all listed 13 December 1996. "The Ossulston Estate is the most important inner-city estate of the inter-war period, representing the most considered attempt by the LCC to inject new thinking into inner-city housing estates."

Coordinates: 51°31′47″N0°07′45″W / 51.5297°N 0.1293°W / 51.5297; -0.1293