Camden
The borough of Camden probably has the most concentrated array of modernist architecture in the country. From pioneering 1930s modernist buildings by Wells Coates, Erno Goldfinger and Maxwell Fry through to the social housing work of the borough architect under Sydney Cook in the 1960s and 70s. Hampstead is home to a number of modernist houses from the interwar years, often by emigre architects who had fled European bringing with them the harder edged modernism previously eschewed in this country. Chief amongst these was Berthold Lubetkin, whose Tecton practice designed some of the country's first modernist public buildings at London Zoo.
The post war years saw a flowering of homes designed by young architects for themselves, as cheap land in the former industrial areas around Camden became available to build on. John Winter, Tom Kay and Ted Cullinan all built homes in the mews near Camden Town, and the 1930s houses of Hampstead were joined by new designs like the steel and glass Hopkins House in the 1970s. The post war period also saw the creation of the borough of Camden from the metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, St Pancras and Holborn. The last of these provided the new chief architect for Camden, Sydney Cook. He would go on to oversee the building of a series of innovative estates and projects, with young architects like Neave Brown, Benson and Forsyth and Colquhoun and Miller experimenting with urban living. Camden is home to a number of high tech projects like Nicholas Grimshaw’s joint Sainsbury supermarket and Grand Union housing scheme in Camden Town, the aforementioned Hopkins House and Spence and Webster's Belsize Park Gardens houses.
The buildings in the southern part of the borough, including those in the area of Euston, Bloomsbury and Holborn are covered by our Modernist London site.
The post war years saw a flowering of homes designed by young architects for themselves, as cheap land in the former industrial areas around Camden became available to build on. John Winter, Tom Kay and Ted Cullinan all built homes in the mews near Camden Town, and the 1930s houses of Hampstead were joined by new designs like the steel and glass Hopkins House in the 1970s. The post war period also saw the creation of the borough of Camden from the metropolitan boroughs of Hampstead, St Pancras and Holborn. The last of these provided the new chief architect for Camden, Sydney Cook. He would go on to oversee the building of a series of innovative estates and projects, with young architects like Neave Brown, Benson and Forsyth and Colquhoun and Miller experimenting with urban living. Camden is home to a number of high tech projects like Nicholas Grimshaw’s joint Sainsbury supermarket and Grand Union housing scheme in Camden Town, the aforementioned Hopkins House and Spence and Webster's Belsize Park Gardens houses.
The buildings in the southern part of the borough, including those in the area of Euston, Bloomsbury and Holborn are covered by our Modernist London site.