Architect
Chamberlin Powell and Bon
Developer
City of London Corporation
Contractor
G Wimpey and Co Ltd,
Gee Walker Slater
Planning Authority
City of London Corporation
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If the 'Highworth House' was to prove a model for rural housing, then the Golden Lane Estate was to become equally influential in developing the concept of the high density 'urban village'. But, just as the imitators of Chick's prototype often failed to understand the subtlety of his solution, so the lessons of Golden Lane went unheeded in too many subsequent schemes.
Geoffry Powell formed the practice of Chamberlin Powell and Bon on the back of his 1952 competition win for this blitz-flattened site on the northern edge of the City of London. From the start, client and architect were agreed that the scheme should provide a complete range of amenities to compensate for the high density of 200 persons per acre. So there's a swimming pool, tennis and badminton courts, shops, a nursery, a pub and a community centre.
Not surprisingly, the flats are highly sought after today. But it's not just these precious facilities in the heart of the City that make Golden Lane such a magnet. The planning and detailing of the flats and maisonettes; the quality of the landscaping and planting, and the attention given to preserving the privacy of the residents within a densely trafficked urban area all make the estate a byword for city-centre living.
Nowhere is this better seen than in the ground floor maisonettes to the lower blocks. An entrance door, screened from the public (but monitored from the kitchen window) gives on to a living room with a staircase rising in a two storey slot to bedrooms above. A touch of the finger raises a counterbalanced storey height sash to form the entrance to a balcony, steps, then another terrace, then a slight change of level, then down again to a communal garden.
A simple, effective gradation of privacy, achieved without walls, gates or railings. The architects went on to grander things with their huge Barbican development down the road, but it could be argued that they never again achieved quite the same fresh, effective simplicity as they displayed in this trailblazing scheme.