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Some 30 years after completion, one of London’s most iconic postwar schemesis being refurbished by Levitt Bernstein, with its original architect, PatrickHodgkinson, on board as a consultant. Bruce Stewart describes the plans andasks what the impact of the renewal of the building might be on residents andon the immediate local area.

The design of the Brunswick Centre leaves no room for indecision:people either love it or hate it – there seems to be no middle ground.

Home Run

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Situated in the centre of London’s Bloomsbury is one of the city’s and, indeed, the UK’s most iconographicpostwar housing schemes. With Trellick Tower by ErnöGoldfinger in west London, and Alexandra Road byNeave Brown in north London, the Brunswick Centre –or Foundling Court – by Patrick Hodgkinson is now oneof a growing number of Modernist buildings that havebeen awarded listed-building status. This is recognitionthat many buildings, of all types, constructed in theyears following the Second World War are of significantarchitectural importance and need to be protected aspart of our ongoing cultural history. Opinion on all ofthese buildings is quite firmly divided – people eitherlove or hate them.

Conceived in 1959, the Brunswick Centre was finallycompleted in 1972 after many changes to both thedesign and the personnel involved. The aim of theoriginal scheme was to test the possibilities of high-density, low-rise urban housing combined with acommercial centre. Initially working with Sir LeslieMartin, Hodgkinson sought to provide the 20th-centurysuccessor to John Nash’s Regent’s Park terraces of theearly 19th century. The residential accommodation wasto take the form of high-quality speculative apartments,of several plan types, positioned above retail units andbasement garaging. However, a change in thefreeholder of the site, with Camden Council becomingleaseholder for the housing, dictated a greatlysimplified arrangement of studio, one- and two-bedroom flats for low-income residents.

Consisting of two large, stepped wings flanking anopen central piazza-esque space, the building wasconstructed by the McAlpine Design Group and is areinforced-concrete frame ‘with a surprising amount of structural brickwork’.1 The flats themselves are allsingle aspect with reasonable-sized balconies, theirmost distinctive feature being the large area of glazingto the living space, known as the ‘winter gardens’.2

Though the apartments were eventually finished inrendered blockwork, the grey concrete ‘superblock’3

was originally to be substantially longer and finishedwith a buttery cream paint to echo the Nash terracesHodgkinson so admired.

This incomplete scheme is now undergoingrefurbishment by the current freeholders, Allied Land.Using the architectural practice of Levitt Bernstein, with Patrick Hodgkinson as a consultant, plans havebeen agreed to radically remodel the commercial areasof the ground floor and to upgrade the residentialaccommodation. (Interestingly, both David Levitt and David Bernstein worked with Hodgkinson on theoriginal project and are therefore very familiar with the evolution of the development.)

Granted grade II listed status in 2000, the buildingnow looks tired and frayed at the edges. Nearly all of

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TopThe building has not weathered well, with large areas of the render nowmissing, exposing the structural brickwork and the steel reinforcing mesh.

BottomThe entrance into the piazza from Brunswick Square shows themonumental scale of this Modernist masterpiece.

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the units on the retail level are empty, and the remaining onesare, for the most part, budget shops and cheap cafés, plus aMorrison’s/Safeway supermarket. Possibly the most successfulcommercial venture on the site has been the Renoir Cinemathat nestles beneath the heroic columns on the entrance fromBrunswick Square. Above the shopping arcade is the ‘podium’level, which houses a large open area and a few office units, as well as the first of the housing units. The building’snorth–south flanks were originally connected to each other by three bridges at this level, but these are no longer present,having been removed for safety reasons. Walking around the

building it is easy to see quite large areas where therender has come away, revealing both the structuralbrickwork and the steel reinforcing mesh. In addition,many of the residents have painted the exterior of their homes, which has led to a patchwork of variousshades of white and cream covering the building.

In the new plans, both the residential and retailareas of this large building will be upgraded, though the main focus will be on the retail zone. A newsupermarket unit will close off the northern end of thesite, and the shop units will be upgraded. Currentlyaccessed from within the colonnades that define theedge of the upper podium level, the shopfronts will bebrought forward, thus removing the covered walkwaysprovided by the colonnades. The piazza will be upgradedand a new series of water features are being designedin conjunction with the artist Susannah Heron. Theresidential units will be upgraded to provideindependent heating (at present there is only a hot-air,centralised system). And the drainage of water from the balconies is to be revamped, doing away with thenarrow internal downpipes and providing moresubstantial external drainage.

However, the main cause for concern has alwaysbeen the extensive amount of glazing provided by the‘winter gardens’, as during the summer this results inexcessive heat gain, and in the winter heat loss andcondensation problems. It is cost-prohibitive to replacethe original structure of the glazing, and thus the

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TopView of the west flank. The bridge and much of the balustrade to the podiumopen space have had to be removed for safety reasons. Unfortunately, thebridges are not being reinstated as part of the refurbishment.

BottomThe shop units, which are currently mostly empty, are set back behindthe colonnade created by the edge of the podium. The newly refurbishedunits will be brought forward to the line of columns, thus removing thecovered walkway.

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conservatories will remain single glazed with replacementdouble-glazed units to the ceiling, but an integral gutter tohelp with water run-off is to be removed in order to reduce the effect of the cold bridge in winter.

There are criticisms that can be made of the newarchitecture of the Brunswick Centre. The plans for theupgrading of the flats could be described as a swings-and-roundabouts situation: for example, the removal of the hot-airheating system could free up the flexibility of the plan, yet theintroduction of radiators restricts the available wall space;unfortunately, there are no plans to upgrade the residents’public space at the podium level; and the bridges are not goingto be reinstated. Recently, some of the residents have tried to show how significant this space could become by holding a series of workshops that created four, temporary, low-

maintenance, gardens. But it is the plans for the groundfloor that are most likely to change the spirit of thebuilding. The removal of the colonnades is a biggesture and could reduce the impact of the retail areato little more than an outdoor mall or even to theblandness of airport shopping. The closing off of thenorthern end of the piazza with an upmarketsupermarket will reduce its visual impact and stop thenatural flow of the area. In addition, the buildingexterior will finally be painted a pale cream. Althoughthis was always Patrick Hodgkinson’s intention, mostpeople think of the Brunswick Centre as a concretemammoth; it will be interesting to see how the colourchange will affect not only the building, but its impacton the surrounding area.

This refurbishment is, of course, not only timely, butnecessary now that the building is listed. But what willbe the effects of its renewal on the residents and thelocal area? Many residents have lived at FoundlingCourt since it was completed, and enjoy living there. As is the case with most public housing, there are anincreasing number of privately owned apartments, yethappily no conflict between the two types of neighbours.There is very much a village atmosphere, with peoplelooking out for each other, and the non-threateningarchitecture gives the feeling that this is a very safeplace to live. In fact, as one explores the building, it is almost amazing to find that instances of graffiti orvandalism are virtually nonexistent.

But despite all of this, the majority of the residentsfall within the very low income brackets, and theproposed refurbishment of the retail area is therefore of great concern. As the building exists now, the tenantscan afford to shop locally, in the downstairs Safeway,and the little cafés and snack bars are used by many as community spaces to meet friends and neighbours,somewhere they can buy a cup of tea and sit for hours.It is the loss of this focus of the community that isworrying to those who live in the Brunswick Centre. If the large open space on the first floor were to bedealt with in a sensitive manner, perhaps there couldstill be a heart for this community. 4+

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Top and bottomBefore and after. The apartments are spacious and haveplenty of light coming in from the ‘water garden’ glazing.

Bruce Stewart is currently researching and writing The Architects’Navigation Guide to New Housing, to be published in early 2006 by Wiley-Academy. He trained as an architect and is currently acollege teacher at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL London.

Notes1 Stuart Tappin, ‘Building of the Month’, May 2003, The Twentieth Century Society: www.c20society.demon.co.uk.2 In conversation with Peter Sanders of Levitt Bernstein.3 Ibid.

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