Ossulston Street: Early LCC Experiments in High-Rise Housing, 1925–29
Abstract
Ossulston Street: Early LCC Experiments in High-Rise Housing, 1925-29 SIMON PEPPER HE Ossulston Street estate, located between Euston and St Pancras stations, is one of the most distinguished products of the London County Council's Architect's Department. It was built between 1928 and 1937 in a style strikingly different from the 'Municipal Neo-Georgian' generally favoured by the LCC for its flatted blocks during that T period. Its rendered and painted walls, imposing archways and the overall scale of its blocks - the longest of which runs continuously for more than 200 yards - have even been seen to provide a close British parallel to the architecture of the Karl Marx Hof, the most famous monument to Viennese civic socialism. Despite the architectural merits of the existing scheme, even greater historical interest attaches to two previous LCC projects for the same site. Between 1925 and 1929 Ossulston Street was the setting for two of the earliest attempts by a British local authority to build high-risel housing for working-class tenants. The two abortive schemes also included an exceptional range of social facilities, local shopping, commercial premises and housing for both working-class and private sector tenants. Had they been built as planned, either