Flats at Finsbury

Tecton Group, London, 1952

 

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Air view from the north-west The gardes between the blocks are still incomplete at this stage 

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  • Air view from the north-west The gardes between the blocks are still incomplete at this stage    
  • The four-storey blocks conform in height and fenestration scale to their context    
  • Three of the four parallel four-storey blocks seen from the main entrance    
  • The west facade, looking south    
  • One of the entrances to Kendal House, also showing the straight-jointed brickwork panels    
  • Kendal house from the south-west    
  • The southern escape staircase of Kendal House    
  • One of the entrances to Redington House    
  • Close-up of caretakers building    
  • The laundry exterior as seen from the roof of Kendal House    
  • Interior showing some of the 16 washing cubicles    
  • In Kendal the two storey entrance porches have been designed to provide an architectural contrast with the essentially celullar character of teh main bulk of the buildings    
  • Inside a typical washing cubicle    
  • A detail of the upper level    
  • Plans of alternate floors in eight storey block    
  • Plans of alternates floors in four-storey block    
  • Two room flats in four-storey block    
  • Plan of four room flat    
  • Typical flat plan    
  • Typical floor plan    
  • Street layout before demolition    
  • Progress photograph    
  • A model of one of the blocks    
  • DIagram showing main constructional features on the living room side of a typical block    

Low-cost housing scheme consisting of four and eight-storey linked blocks

The four-storey blocks which run mainly east-west, contain two room flats, the eight-storey blocks which run north-south contain four room flats, except on the ground floor where there are a few different sized units.

A single-storey structure on the west side of Kendal House contains the caretaker's three-roomed flat and his work spaces. In this block pram and bicycle stores are located on the lower ground floor of the building. The laundry is a circular single-storey structure with reinforced concrete floor, brick cavity walls and reinforced concrete roof.

Reinforced concrete cross walls and flat reinforced concrete floor slab construction is used in all the blocks. The access galleries are constructed with cantilevered reinforced concrete floor slabs with a balustrade consisting of precast units faced with Portland stone carried by concrete posts which are filled in-situ.

The entrance to the flats houses wall paintings by Felix Topolski.

Data

  • Completed: Dec 1952
  • Sector: Residential
  • Address: Collier Street, London, N1 9DD, United Kingdom

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