Southwyck House

Southwyck House

Southwyck House, also known as the "Barrier Block", is a large housing building on the Somerleyton Estate in Brixton, south London.[1] It was commissioned by Lambeth Council and approved by a planning committee which included future prime minister John Major.[2]

Design

The block is in the Brutalist style and has similarities to Park Hill, Sheffield and Byker Wall, Tyneside. The block has 176 properties in total, consisting of 3 low rise flats and 173 high rise flats.[3]

It was designed in 1968-70 by a team of architects including Magda Borowiecka, and built between 1972-1981.[4] It was planned for the South Cross Route motorway to pass adjacent to the building.

Residents of the building suffered from crime including burglary and the use of heroin and crack cocaine, and so alterations were made to the building in the 1990s to improve security.

Residents

References

  1. ↑ Southwyck House Tenants' & Residents' Association https://southwyckhouse.wordpress.com
  2. ↑ The Guardian, http://www.urban75.org/brixton/features/images/barrier3.jpg
  3. ↑ Urban75 http://www.urban75.org/brixton/features/barrier.html
  4. ↑ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1413564)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 October 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.