The book’s primary goal was to provide readers with a concise and insightful overview of the post-war architecture of Britain, highlighting the key design principles and the significant shifts in housing and urban planning that occurred during this period. The author’s writing style was clear, engaging, and accessible to a broad audience, making the information readily digestible. The book’s focus on examples from the 1950s to the 1970s, alongside the historical context of post-war architecture, resonated with readers who were interested in the evolution of urban development and the impact of industrialization on housing. The book’s tone was optimistic and forward-looking, acknowledging the challenges and opportunities of the post-war era.
Homes designed by architects including Denys Lasdun and Ernö Goldfinger feature in author Dominic Bradbury’s latest book Post-War Homes: Mid-Century British Architecture. Here, he picks the most influential.
The book showcases homes from the 1950s to the 1970s, focusing on 30 key examples ranging from homes in new towns to inner-city designs that sought to challenge convention.
For the book, Bradbury chose mid-century buildings that he believes can teach us something today.
“The choice was really driven by selecting exemplary case studies of houses and housing which still have lessons to teach us today and this was really the driving ethos behind the book as a whole,” he told Dezeen.
The author argues that there has been a major reassessment of post-war architecture, including housing, in recent years.
He believes the buildings from the post-war years can teach us something about building lasting homes, and sees parallels between the period and the housing situation in Britain today.
“It’s very noticeable that architects, planners and policy makers are all busy looking back to the 1950s and 60s, when we were building homes in the kinds of numbers needed today,” Bradbury said.
“One of the biggest lessons is that we need homes that will last into the future and that means creating new communities that are not only well designed and sustainable, but also have the kinds of amenities that make us want to live in a neighbourhood – parks, gardens, playgrounds, nurseries, schools, libraries and infrastructure.”
Read on for Bradbury’s pick of key post-war homes:
**Keeling House, Bethnal Green, London, by Denys Lasdun, 1959**
“Although best known today as the architect of London’s National Theatre, Lasdun worked on a number of early housing projects as part of Berthold Lubetkin’s Tecton and later with his own practice.
“Commissioned by Bethnal Green Borough Council to provide new housing in the East End of London, Lasdun decided to step away from linear housing blocks and try something completely new.
“The resulting ‘cluster blocks’ saw Lasdun grouping towers hosting apartments and maisonettes around a central service and circulation unit holding the lifts and stairs. Following on from two earlier prototypes, Lasdun perfected the idea of the cluster block at Keeling House, where four separate, matching towers holding stacked maisonettes are arranged around the service core, accessed by bridges.
“For Lasdun, the arrangement of the maisonettes offered a reinterpretation of a traditional, two-storey terraced house, complete with an upstairs and a downstairs plus a private ‘back yard’ around the entrance to each one, situated alongside the service core. More than this, the maisonettes had their own balconies and, for the uppermost residences, open views across the neighbourhood.
“When Keeling House was threatened with demolition during the 1990s, Lasdun himself played a key part in defending the building, which was then listed, saved and refurbished, with the building now providing private residential accommodation.”
**Spence House, Beaulieu, Hampshire, by Basil Spence, 1961**
“Architect Basil Spence endured both harsh criticism and generous praise during his long and productive career. Projects such as Hutchesontown C tower block in the Gorbals, Glasgow, and Hyde Park Barracks were to prove deeply controversial.
“Yet Coventry Cathedral is regarded as his undoubted masterpiece while his own home in Hampshire was also widely lauded.
“Given his love of sailing, Spence settled on an enticing site for his own country home alongside the Beaulieu River in Hampshire. Here, on a gentle hillside overlooking the water, Spence created a family retreat where the living room was placed within an elevated piano nobile that made the most of the views, while part of the ground floor was originally devoted to boat storage.
“Both the exteriors and interiors were designed with a strong Nordic flavour, while Spence’s friend and colleague, the Anglo-Danish structural engineer Ove Arup, collaborated on the construction of the brick and timber building, as well as advising on the realisation of the bespoke concrete fireplace, which forms a focal point in the living room.”
**Fieldend, Teddington, London, by Eric Lyons and Span, 1961**
“The many British estates designed by architect Eric Lyons and the development company Span, which he co-founded, were not only highly popular among home buyers during the post-war period but are still regarded with much affection by current residents.
“Lyons and his colleagues designed Span communities with careful attention to landscaping and communal spaces, as well as offering buyers private gardens alongside a choice of close variants upon standardised, modern residential designs.
“One of the most accomplished fusions of architecture and landscaping can be seen at Span’s Fieldend in Teddington. Here, Lyons and landscape designer Michael Brown created just over fifty homes arranged around communal spaces and verdant planting, while pushing cars to the periphery.
“The resulting garden courts offered a safe space for children to play and for their parents to spend time with one another, encouraging the sense of community commonly found within so many Span estates.
“The T7 and T8 houses within the development placed a kitchen towards the front of each residence with an open plan dining and living room to the rear, leading out to the back garden. Like the living spaces, the bedrooms and family-sized bathroom upstairs included fitted storage and fully integrated services throughout, meaning that new residents only had to worry about their choice of loose furniture.
“Span’s landscape designer, Michael Brown, loved Fieldend so much that he decided to live here himself.”
**Brooke House, Basildon, Essex, by Anthony B Davies, 1962**
“Basildon was one of the post-war new towns conceived just after world war two as a fresh way of meeting Britain’s desperate need for housing. Spence served as a consultant planner for Basildon, as well as designing housing here, while the town’s chief-architect-planner Anthony B Davies created its most dramatic focal point, Brooke House.
“This listed high-rise sits alongside Basildon’s town square, with the building serving a beacon marking the centre of the community. The distinctive residential block was raised above the ground plane and the growing townscape upon a series of epic, V-shaped pillars, which created a sheltered undercroft for pedestrians as well as framing the main entrance to Brooke House itself within an inviting, glass-sided atrium.
“Fourteen floors of apartments were arranged on the floors above, consisting of one and two-bedroom flats, with timber-panelled living rooms and fitted kitchens.
“Davies added a further layer of dynamism to the design with his ribbon fenestration, arranged in a characterful zigzag pattern, where each pair of aluminium-framed windows projects outwards from the facade at an angle. Brooke House not only provided Basildon with a focal point, but brought residential living right into the heart of the town, with shops and amenities close to hand.”
**Trellick Tower, Kensal Town, London, by Ernö Goldfinger, 1972**
“Following on from the completion of Balfron Tower in East London, Goldfinger went west to design and build his most famous project. Informed by time spent living in one of Balfron’s apartments, the Hungarian-born architect developed and refined his ideas for Trellick Tower, which formed part of a large-scale housing development initiated by the Greater London Council.
“This distinctive landmark holds over two hundred flats and maisonettes within a 31-storey building. Here, as with Balfron, Goldfinger decided to create a separate service and circulation tower alongside the main block, holding the lifts and other amenities, with the idea that this would help reduce noise and disturbance for residents.
“Bridges connected the service tower to the main block at every third floor, backed up by secondary staircases connecting those floors without their own bridge.
“Goldfinger devoted particular attention to the layout of the apartments, which included integrated balconies, while communal services such as a residents’ nursery were added around the base of the building.
“Trellick Tower suffered notorious neglect and deterioration during the 1980s before a slow process of revival began, with listing following in 1998 and a major refurbishment completed in 2008. Apartments in this revived London landmark are now much in demand as Trellick Tower has become a key exemplar of mid-century modern housing.”
**Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, London, by Patrick Hodgkinson, 1972**
“Many large-scale post-war housing projects were not only about providing much-needed new homes but were also about place making. One striking example is Patrick Hodgkinson’s Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, which offered around 560 apartments in central London along with a cinema, restaurants, shops and communal spaces. It was, in a way, a mid-century modern village set within the existing cityscape.
“The project was first initiated as a privately funded development, but the London Borough of Camden became a key partner as it took long leases on the flats for use as a council housing.
|Hodgkinson placed two vast A-framed superstructures holding the apartments to either side of a central plaza placed upon a podium, with parking placed beneath, while shops and restaurants lined the resulting piazza.
“The apartments within the superstructures were tiered, forming ziggurats looking outwards to the surrounding streetscapes. They featured balconies and integrated winter gardens, offering residents outdoor rooms and sunlit spaces, while they also benefited from easy access to the new amenities arranged around the central plaza.
“The Brunswick Centre was listed in the year 2000 and is now regarded as one of the more successful modern interventions within the historic surroundings of Bloomsbury.”
**The Barbican, The City, London, by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, 1976**
“Following on from a 10-year project to design and deliver the Golden Lane Estate in the City of London, architects Peter (‘Joe’) Chamberlin, Geoffry Powell and Christoph Bon were tasked with an even more ambitious project nearby.
“While Golden Lane combined a range of new housing with fresh communal amenities, the Barbican became an entirely new combination of high-rise apartment buildings, housing and educational buildings together with a major cultural centre, holding a concert hall and theatre. As such, the Barbican was one of the most comprehensive, all-encompassing and multi-layered projects of the post-war period.
“Chamberlin, Powell & Bon developed a master plan for the 35-acre site, which had been devastated by wartime bombing, which created a pedestrianised neighbourhood, complete with open plazas, integrated gardens and a mixture of towers as well as mid-rising housing, plus a YMCA and the new Barbican Centre.
“Purposefully, the architects opted for a mixture of building uses and functions throughout, rather than creating separate quarters for residential, educational and artistic purposes.
“The dominant element of the residential Barbican Estate is a triptych of high-rise towers of just over forty storeys, known as Cromwell Tower, Lauderdale Tower, and Shakespeare Tower. These apartments were designed to attract young professionals who might want to live and work in the city, with high standards of fixtures and finishes, as well as the extraordinary views from what – at the time – were some of the tallest residential buildings in Europe.
“The listing of the complex in 2001 included the public spaces and landscaping, while the apartments are still highly desirable, particular for aficionados of sophisticated mid-century architecture and interiors.”
**Alexandra Road Estate, Camden, London, by Neave Brown, 1977**
“Following on from seminal early projects such as Fleet Road in Gospel Oak, Neave Brown was entrusted by Camden’s borough architect Sydney Cook with one of north London’s most ambitious housing projects of the post-war period.
“Beginning in the late 1960s and completed around a decade later, Alexandra Road was the most complete and rounded realisation of Brown and Cook’s shared vision.
“Here, on the borders of Swiss Cottage and St John’s Wood, Brown designed a new estate of around five hundred homes plus communal amenities, including a community centre, youth club and nursery. The site itself presented challenges, being situated alongside a railway line, but Brown also wanted to provide open space and pedestrianised plazas, while pushing cars to the edges of the community.
“The architect’s solution was two distinctive, serpentine ziggurats holding banks of flats and maisonettes. The taller of the two turned its back to the railway, while buffering the sound of the trains, while looking out across a long, curving central walkway towards the terrace opposite. ‘We were trying to come up with a proper English modernism,’ said Brown. ‘We wanted to do housing that acknowledged our traditions and made a piece of city.'”
Homes designed by architects including Denys Lasdun and Ernö Goldfinger feature in author Dominic Bradbury’s latest book Post-War Homes: Mid-Century British Architecture. Here, he picks the most influential.
The book showcases homes from the 1950s to the 1970s, focusing on 30 key examples ranging from homes in new towns to inner-city designs that sought to challenge convention.
For the book, Bradbury chose mid-century buildings that he believes can teach us something today.
“The choice was really driven by selecting exemplary case studies of houses and housing which still have lessons to teach us today and this was really the driving ethos behind the book as a whole,” he told Dezeen.
The author argues that there has been a major reassessment of post-war architecture, including housing, in recent years.
He believes the buildings from the post-war years can teach us something about building lasting homes, and sees parallels between the period and the housing situation in Britain today.
“It’s very noticeable that architects, planners and policy makers are all busy looking back to the 1950s and 60s, when we were building homes in the kinds of numbers needed today,” Bradbury said.
“One of the biggest lessons is that we need homes that will last into the future and that means creating new communities that are not only well designed and sustainable, but also have the kinds of amenities that make us want to live in a neighbourhood – parks, gardens, playgrounds, nurseries, schools, libraries and infrastructure.”
Read on for Bradbury’s pick of key post-war homes:
Keeling House, Bethnal Green, London, by Denys Lasdun, 1959
“Although best known today as the architect of London’s National Theatre, Lasdun worked on a number of early housing projects as part of Berthold Lubetkin’s Tecton and later with his own practice.
“Commissioned by Bethnal Green Borough Council to provide new housing in the East End of London, Lasdun decided to step away from linear housing blocks and try something completely new.
“The resulting ‘cluster blocks’ saw Lasdun grouping towers hosting apartments and maisonettes around a central service and circulation unit holding the lifts and stairs. Following on from two earlier prototypes, Lasdun perfected the idea of the cluster block at Keeling House, where four separate, matching towers holding stacked maisonettes are arranged around the service core, accessed by bridges.
“For Lasdun, the arrangement of the maisonettes offered a reinterpretation of a traditional, two-storey terraced house, complete with an upstairs and a downstairs plus a private ‘back yard’ around the entrance to each one, situated alongside the service core. More than this, the maisonettes had their own balconies and, for the uppermost residences, open views across the neighbourhood.
“When Keeling House was threatened with demolition during the 1990s, Lasdun himself played a key part in defending the building, which was then listed, saved and refurbished, with the building now providing private residential accommodation.”
Spence House, Beaulieu, Hampshire, by Basil Spence, 1961
“Architect Basil Spence endured both harsh criticism and generous praise during his long and productive career. Projects such as Hutchesontown C tower block in the Gorbals, Glasgow, and Hyde Park Barracks were to prove deeply controversial.
“Yet Coventry Cathedral is regarded as his undoubted masterpiece while his own home in Hampshire was also widely lauded.
“Given his love of sailing, Spence settled on an enticing site for his own country home alongside the Beaulieu River in Hampshire. Here, on a gentle hillside overlooking the water, Spence created a family retreat where the living room was placed within an elevated piano nobile that made the most of the views, while part of the ground floor was originally devoted to boat storage.
“Both the exteriors and interiors were designed with a strong Nordic flavour, while Spence’s friend and colleague, the Anglo-Danish structural engineer Ove Arup, collaborated on the construction of the brick and timber building, as well as advising on the realisation of the bespoke concrete fireplace, which forms a focal point in the living room.”
Fieldend, Teddington, London, by Eric Lyons and Span, 1961
“The many British estates designed by architect Eric Lyons and the development company Span, which he co-founded, were not only highly popular among home buyers during the post-war period but are still regarded with much affection by current residents.
“Lyons and his colleagues designed Span communities with careful attention to landscaping and communal spaces, as well as offering buyers private gardens alongside a choice of close variants upon standardised, modern residential designs.
“One of the most accomplished fusions of architecture and landscaping can be seen at Span’s Fieldend in Teddington. Here, Lyons and landscape designer Michael Brown created just over fifty homes arranged around communal spaces and verdant planting, while pushing cars to the periphery.
“The resulting garden courts offered a safe space for children to play and for their parents to spend time with one another, encouraging the sense of community commonly found within so many Span estates.
“The T7 and T8 houses within the development placed a kitchen towards the front of each residence with an open plan dining and living room to the rear, leading out to the back garden. Like the living spaces, the bedrooms and family-sized bathroom upstairs included fitted storage and fully integrated services throughout, meaning that new residents only had to worry about their choice of loose furniture.
“Span’s landscape designer, Michael Brown, loved Fieldend so much that he decided to live here himself.”
Brooke House, Basildon, Essex, by Anthony B Davies, 1962
“Basildon was one of the post-war new towns conceived just after world war two as a fresh way of meeting Britain’s desperate need for housing. Spence served as a consultant planner for Basildon, as well as designing housing here, while the town’s chief-architect-planner Anthony B Davies created its most dramatic focal point, Brooke House.
“This listed high-rise sits alongside Basildon’s town square, with the building serving a beacon marking the centre of the community. The distinctive residential block was raised above the ground plane and the growing townscape upon a series of epic, V-shaped pillars, which created a sheltered undercroft for pedestrians as well as framing the main entrance to Brooke House itself within an inviting, glass-sided atrium.
“Fourteen floors of apartments were arranged on the floors above, consisting of one and two-bedroom flats, with timber-panelled living rooms and fitted kitchens.
“Davies added a further layer of dynamism to the design with his ribbon fenestration, arranged in a characterful zigzag pattern, where each pair of aluminium-framed windows projects outwards from the facade at an angle. Brooke House not only provided Basildon with a focal point, but brought residential living right into the heart of the town, with shops and amenities close to hand.”
Trellick Tower, Kensal Town, London, by Ernö Goldfinger, 1972
“Following on from the completion of Balfron Tower in East London, Goldfinger went west to design and build his most famous project. Informed by time spent living in one of Balfron’s apartments, the Hungarian-born architect developed and refined his ideas for Trellick Tower, which formed part of a large-scale housing development initiated by the Greater London Council.
“This distinctive landmark holds over two hundred flats and maisonettes within a 31-storey building. Here, as with Balfron, Goldfinger decided to create a separate service and circulation tower alongside the main block, holding the lifts and other amenities, with the idea that this would help reduce noise and disturbance for residents.
“Bridges connected the service tower to the main block at every third floor, backed up by secondary staircases connecting those floors without their own bridge.
“Goldfinger devoted particular attention to the layout of the apartments, which included integrated balconies, while communal services such as a residents’ nursery were added around the base of the building.
“Trellick Tower suffered notorious neglect and deterioration during the 1980s before a slow process of revival began, with listing following in 1998 and a major refurbishment completed in 2008. Apartments in this revived London landmark are now much in demand as Trellick Tower has become a key exemplar of mid-century modern housing.”
Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, London, by Patrick Hodgkinson, 1972
“Many large-scale post-war housing projects were not only about providing much-needed new homes but were also about place making. One striking example is Patrick Hodgkinson’s Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury, which offered around 560 apartments in central London along with a cinema, restaurants, shops and communal spaces. It was, in a way, a mid-century modern village set within the existing cityscape.
“The project was first initiated as a privately funded development, but the London Borough of Camden became a key partner as it took long leases on the flats for use as a council housing.
|Hodgkinson placed two vast A-framed superstructures holding the apartments to either side of a central plaza placed upon a podium, with parking placed beneath, while shops and restaurants lined the resulting piazza.
“The apartments within the superstructures were tiered, forming ziggurats looking outwards to the surrounding streetscapes. They featured balconies and integrated winter gardens, offering residents outdoor rooms and sunlit spaces, while they also benefited from easy access to the new amenities arranged around the central plaza.
“The Brunswick Centre was listed in the year 2000 and is now regarded as one of the more successful modern interventions within the historic surroundings of Bloomsbury.”
The Barbican, The City, London, by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, 1976
“Following on from a 10-year project to design and deliver the Golden Lane Estate in the City of London, architects Peter (‘Joe’) Chamberlin, Geoffry Powell and Christoph Bon were tasked with an even more ambitious project nearby.
“While Golden Lane combined a range of new housing with fresh communal amenities, the Barbican became an entirely new combination of high-rise apartment buildings, housing and educational buildings together with a major cultural centre, holding a concert hall and theatre. As such, the Barbican was one of the most comprehensive, all-encompassing and multi-layered projects of the post-war period.
“Chamberlin, Powell & Bon developed a master plan for the 35-acre site, which had been devastated by wartime bombing, which created a pedestrianised neighbourhood, complete with open plazas, integrated gardens and a mixture of towers as well as mid-rising housing, plus a YMCA and the new Barbican Centre.
“Purposefully, the architects opted for a mixture of building uses and functions throughout, rather than creating separate quarters for residential, educational and artistic purposes.
“The dominant element of the residential Barbican Estate is a triptych of high-rise towers of just over forty storeys, known as Cromwell Tower, Lauderdale Tower, and Shakespeare Tower. These apartments were designed to attract young professionals who might want to live and work in the city, with high standards of fixtures and finishes, as well as the extraordinary views from what – at the time – were some of the tallest residential buildings in Europe.
“The listing of the complex in 2001 included the public spaces and landscaping, while the apartments are still highly desirable, particular for aficionados of sophisticated mid-century architecture and interiors.”
Alexandra Road Estate, Camden, London, by Neave Brown, 1977
“Following on from seminal early projects such as Fleet Road in Gospel Oak, Neave Brown was entrusted by Camden’s borough architect Sydney Cook with one of north London’s most ambitious housing projects of the post-war period.
“Beginning in the late 1960s and completed around a decade later, Alexandra Road was the most complete and rounded realisation of Brown and Cook’s shared vision.
“Here, on the borders of Swiss Cottage and St John’s Wood, Brown designed a new estate of around five hundred homes plus communal amenities, including a community centre, youth club and nursery. The site itself presented challenges, being situated alongside a railway line, but Brown also wanted to provide open space and pedestrianised plazas, while pushing cars to the edges of the community.
“The architect’s solution was two distinctive, serpentine ziggurats holding banks of flats and maisonettes. The taller of the two turned its back to the railway, while buffering the sound of the trains, while looking out across a long, curving central walkway towards the terrace opposite. ‘We were trying to come up with a proper English modernism,’ said Brown. ‘We wanted to do housing that acknowledged our traditions and made a piece of city.'”
