Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate, London, 1968-1978 Dunboyne Road Estate, London, 1971-1977 Terrace in Camden, London

Neave Brown (b.1929) was born in Utica, New York State, and was educated in the USA and at the Architectural Association in London. He has built many residential houses and housing estates in England, Italy and the Netherlands. In the UK, his high-density modernist social housing is based on the principles of the London terraced house and on the notion of flexible space. Brown’s radical Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate (also known as Alexandra Road) is the most famous of the social-housing schemes completed in the London Borough of Camden during its architectural “Golden Age” in the 1960s – others include the Dunboyne Estate, also by Neave Brown, Benson & Forsyth’s Branch Hill and Maiden Lane, and Peter Tabori’s Highgate New Town. Brown believed that every home should have its own front door and its own private external space, open to the sky, in the form of a roof garden or terrace. It was these ideas that he incorporated to such striking effect at Alexandra Road. The estate incorporates a dramatic centrepiece, a 350m-long curving pedestrian street lined on either side by stepped terraces that extend along its full length. In addition to teaching at several schools in England, Europe and America, Brown has held many prestigious positions including Vice President of the Architectural Association (1972-74). More recently, he completed a BA in Fine Art at the City and Guilds of London School of Art and now dedicates himself to practising fine art.

The Modern House has now sold two properties designed by Neave Brown, and currently has a one-bedroom flat of a similar layout and era designed by Peter Tabori on the market. For more information, visit: Lulot Gardens, N19

Neave Brown is one of a number of entries on our Directory of Architects and Designers