The Hallfield Estate is one of several modernist housing projects in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 designed in the immediate post-war period by the Tecton

Tecton Group

The Tecton Group was a radical architectural group co-founded by Berthold Lubetkin, Francis Skinner, Denys Lasdun, Godfrey Samuel, and Lindsay Drake in 1932. The name Tecton came from architecton, the Greek word for architecture...

 architecture practice, led by Berthold Lubetkin

Berthold Lubetkin

Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin was a Russian émigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint housing complex, London Zoo penguin pool, Finsbury Health Centre and Spa Green Estate.-Early years:Berthold Lubetkin was born in Tiflis into a Jewish...

. Following the dissolution of Tecton, the project was realised by Denys Lasdun

Denys Lasdun

Sir Denys Lasdun CH was an eminent English architect. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.Lasdun studied at the...

 and Lindsay Drake in the 1950s. Construction took place in two phases during 1951-55 and 1955-58.

The estate is at , south of the Bishops Bridge Road in Bayswater

Bayswater

Bayswater is an area of west London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the west . It is a built-up district located 3 miles west-north-west of Charing Cross, bordering the north of Hyde Park over Kensington Gardens and having a population density of...

. It comprises 15 blocks spread over roughly 17 acres (68,796.6 m²), a laundry (now used as the local Estate Office), and the Hallfield School, also by Lasdun. Architecturally, the design shares much with similar Tecton projects of the period, including the Priory Green and Spa Green

Spa Green Estate

Spa Green Estate between Rosebery Avenue and St John St in Clerkenwell, London EC1, is the most complete post-war realization of a 1930s radical plan for social regeneration through Modernist architecture. Originally conceived as public housing, it is now a mixed community of private owners and...

 Estates, and the Finsbury Health Centre

Finsbury Health Centre

The Finsbury Health Centre in the Finsbury area of London, England, built in 1935-38, was designed by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton architecture practice...

.

Hallfield was designated a conservation area by Westminster Council in 1990, and the majority of Estate buildings were listed Grade II in June 2011.

John Penrose, the Minister responsible for the 2011 listing, commented:
"These blocks show real flair and beauty, and all the more so considering the post-war era in which they were conceived.  Sixty years on, they have become a distinctive part of the London landscape, still looking good and remaining popular with residents and visitors alike". 
 

Hannah Parham, the English Heritage Designation Advisor, responded to the 2011 listing decision by adding:
“The estate presents a convincing riposte to criticism that post-war council housing is grey, drab and utilitarian. At Hallfield, the exteriors of each block are treated like works of abstract art - some are patterned with a chequerboard of blue and red brickwork; others have a zigzagging screen of white concrete panels.  The estate now exists amongst an elite group of 16 listed post war housing estates estate in London – estates that are successful as places to live and are cared for by their residents”.

External links

• Design Museum page about Berthold Lubetkin
• Westminster Council conservation pages including this plan (pdf
  Portable Document Format
  Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
  
  )
• Westminster Draft Conservation Area Audit Report for Hallfield
• English Heritage 2011 Listing