Frederick Gibberd and The Modern Flat

Pullman Court, Streatham. Image from RIBApix.

Frederick Gibberd was born in Coventry on January 7th 1908. Throughout his career, he and his partnership designed a wide range of buildings, including houses, factories, offices, colleges, libraries, hospitals, power stations, airports and even cathedrals. But the one building type he was most associated with was the flat. After gaining his architectural qualifications at Birmingham School of Art he worked for the firm of E. Berry Webber, best known for their municipal projects in the interwar years, but was laid off as the Great Depression meant construction work dried up. Gibberd then travelled Europe, visiting Prague, Vienna and Budapest, studying the new architecture of the time, before setting his own firm and designing a series of innovative speculative apartment blocks in the 1930s. 

Pullman Court as featured in The Modern Flat book in 1937.

As well as his practical work, Gibberd also provided theoretical weight to the idea of the apartment, a relatively new typology to the British urban fabric in the interwar years. Alongside fellow architect F.R.S. Yorke (who was his roommate at Birmingham), Gibberd produced The Modern Flat, a book that provided a survey of modernist apartment blocks from all over the world, including examples from Britain, such as the Isokon flats by Wells Coates and Kensal House by Maxwell Fry and Elizabeth Denby, as well as three examples by Gibberd himself. 

Gibberd's birds eye view of the Pullman Court scheme. Image from RIBApix.

The first of those three examples was Pullman Court in Streatham (1935), Gibberd's first major commission, at the age of just 27. The scheme consists of three blocks, two long ones which mirror each other and a taller one at the back of the long, thin plot. The blocks are constructed with reinforced concrete frames infilled with modular panels, the engineering overseen by L.G. Mouchel and Partners. Gibberd arranged the blocks to get maximum light to each apartment, with south-facing balconies and roof gardens on each block as well. The estate also had an open air swimming pool, located at the end of the northern block, now unfortunately filled in. Like many of the new blocks built in the interwar years, it was designed to be occupied by single people or couples, with a range of labour saving devices like refrigerators and fitted kitchens provided. 

Two of the Park Court blocks, pictured after completion. Image from RIBApix.

Gibberd also designed Park Court (1937), a speculative estate on the edge of Crystal Palace Park in Sydenham, in a similar fashion. The estate has seven blocks arranged in a semi circle on a triangular piece of land between two roads. The ranges are three storey high and contain 54 four-bedroom flats, built with a reinforced concrete frame and brick infill, painted white to fit the modernist ethos, and steel framed windows. Unfortunately this aesthetic was undermined by the mansard roofs added in the 1980s. 

The interior of one of the Ellington Court apartments. Image from RIBApix.

In the north London suburb of Southgate, Gibberd designed Ellington Court for Wells, Wells and Diplock (1937). Unlike Pullman Court and Park Court, Ellington Court forgoes the bright white render or exposed concrete construction in favour of a more suburban brick finish. Formed of two linked blocks, this building's modernity is saved for its bold concrete balconies and curved cantilever porches, along with its mixture of horizontal and vertical window strips. Unfortunately this careful detailing has been somewhat undermined by the exterior service pipes (stipulated by the council in the original planning agreement)  and the more recent additional penthouse floor. 

The Lawn, Harlow. Image from Conway.

In the post war years Gibberd’s firm expanded greatly, designing larger and more complex projects all over the country. However, one of his most notable projects in immediate post war years was another flat design, The Lawn at Harlow New Town (1951). Gibberd was the master planner of the new town in Essex and designed much of the housing. The Lawn was the first point block in the country, with the flats, specified for single people and couples, arranged around a central service core. The flats were also arranged in a butterfly plan, allowing every apartment a south facing living room. 

His partnership would design a range of estates in the post war years featuring tower blocks and lower rise ranges of flats with schemes found in Hackney, Stoke Newington, Enfield, Leamington Spa, Harlow and elsewhere. Gibberd's career would also include prestigious projects such as Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Didcot Power Station and Heathrow Airport, but it was with the humble flat that he had his biggest influence. 

Pullman Court, Park Court and Ellington Court are all featured in our Speculative Suburban Apartments mini guide alongside many other examples from all over suburban London. Get you copy right HERE