Thamesmead Estate, Erith
1967-1973
G.L.C. Department of Architecture and Civic Design
Wyndham and Comber Estate, Southwark
1965-67
G.L.C. Department of Architecture and Civic Design
Brandon Estate, Southwark
1960
London County Council Architect's Department
Image from RIBApix
Ackroydon Estate, Putney Heath, Wandsworth
1954
London County Council Architect's Department
Image from RIBApix
Bermondsey Underground Station
1999
Ian Ritchie Architects
Image from RIBApix
Southwark Undergound Station
1999
Richard McCormac of MJP Architects
North Greenwich Underground Station
1999
Alsop, Lyall and Stormer
A futuristic design in glass and steel amidst Georgian terraces, the Hauer King House in Douglas Road, Canonbury by Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete of Future Systems and completed in 1994. Its clients, Debra Hauer and Jeremy King. who wanted a family house close to central London, and after realising they could build their own for a similar price to buying one, approached Future Systems, and asked them to design a family home with high aesthetic value.
Built on a long, thin plot between a Georgian terrace and a Victorian pub, the house is rectangular in plan but not in form, with a long sloping glass rear facade which creates four floors of reducing length as it rises. The house is constructed of a steel frame between two side walls of stock brick with the body of the house largely formed of glass. Twenty two large panels of glass are arranged in landscape format from the sloping rear of the house, up over the top to meet the glass brick face fronting the street.
Our new Modernism Beyond Metro-Land guidebook features many architects, working in a variety of styles and materials. Walter Segal’s work is unique among them for its focus on self building and use of timber. The borough of Lewisham was the first place to embrace his ideas, which have subsequently spread around the suburbs and beyond.
After a number of years designing small projects such as houses, flats and offices, largely in brick, Segal began to explore timber construction with a temporary annexe whilst his house in Highgate was being rebuilt, devising a self build system using widely available and low cost materials, in standard units. He saw how anybody could use the system to construct their own homes, and via the anarchist writer and architect Colin Ward, found a sympathetic reception at Lewisham Borough Council. They eventually allowed him some land to start building in Forest Hill, constructing 7 homes in what would be named Segal Close.
Other houses were built in Ormanton Road and Longton Avenue, Sydenham and Elstree Hill, Ravensbourne, all using the Segal method and producing houses built with timber frames and infill panels. Another plot of land was given over for self building in Honor Oak Park, where 13 two-storey timber houses were completed in 1986, and the street named Walter’s Way.
The borough’s own architects department also took inspiration from Segal's ideas, with the scheme at Brockley Park, next to Segal Close, designed by Geoffrey Wigfall, using mono pitched homes built in brick and finished with timber cladding and grass roofs. Some of the houses feature “pods” at the front, to be used for extra living or storage space, and the estate is grouped around a large green space.
Segal passed away in 1985 but his ideas persisted with self build projects appearing all around the capital's suburbs, with collaborator Jon Broome continuing the philosophy with his own practice Architype. Self-built projects can be found at Headway Gardens in Walthamstow, Parish Gardens in Greenwich, Eridge Green Close in Bromley and opposite Segal Close in Brockley Park, as well as at many other sites around the suburbs. Walter Segal’s self-build houses will have an extended section in our Modernism Beyond Metroland guidebook, now at 94% of its crowdfunding total. Get your copy here https://unbound.com/books/modernism-beyond-metro-land/
Cripps Building, St John’s College, Cambridge
1967
Powell and Moya
Image from RIBAPix
Putney Swimming Pool
1968
Powell and Moya