Video Blogs about Brutalist Estates

In a new departure for us, Andrew Parnell has made and posted video blogs based on a series of visits to controversial architectural sites. They can be found on our Blog Page.

In 2017, Andrew was asked by a group of Swiss architects visiting London to take them on a series of guided walks during a weekend trip they titled “Brutal London”. They wanted to see examples, of which London has quite a few, of the “Brutalist” style of architecture that was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, later falling badly out of fashion and attracting hostile criticism, only to enjoy something of a rehabilitation in interest and appreciation in recent years.

Four of the sites visited were housing estates in East London. All Brutalist buildings have attracted controversy, but these four developments reached a level of notoriety which saw each of them threatened with demolition. Two were about to be wholly or partly demolished when we visited them. Keeling House in Bethnal Green and Balfron Tower in Poplar were listed and saved from destruction. But parts of Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar and Thamesmead near Abbey Wood were either already gone or about to be taken down and have since partly disappeared.

Some of the architects brought sophisticated cameras to record what they saw and kindly gave permission for their photos to be used in the blogs. They are an interesting record of the state of the buildings at a time when their fate was, in some cases, hanging in the balance as persistent hostile attitudes to Brutalism competed with its return to favour in some circles.

Balfron Tower, Poplar, from the east