“The bold expression of the balconies is seen particularly as a foretaste both of Goldfinger's later works” - Historic England
Forming part of an important Grade II-listed building designed by Ernő Goldfinger, this wonderfully proportioned three-bedroom apartment is located on Regent's Park Road. The third-floor apartment has a south-facing balcony and access to a beautiful communal garden. The building is one of Goldfinger's first post-war works, built between 1954-56, and marks the first stage of his progression from the restrained modern classicism of his Willow Road terrace towards the tougher, exposed grid, which was to go on to dominate his later iconic works.
History
Built in 1954-56, number 10 Regent's Park Road was designed by Hungarian-born architect Ernö Goldfinger. Throughout his life, Goldfinger was interested in finding ways to build affordable high-quality housing. The 1936 Housing Act brought in measures which allowed seven or more people to pool their resources and forma housing society - a non-profit association. The housing society could then raise a ninety per cent mortgage on a property. The scheme was particularly suitable for people with a reliable income but relatively little money available for an initial investment. It also gave members of the housing society significant control over the planning and subsequent running of their property.
According to Nigel Warbuton's book, Ernö Goldfinger - The Life of an Architect, Goldfinger worked with one such housing association called the Regent's Park Housing Society, which ten families had formed especially to develop a site on Regent's Park Road. The site had been bomb damaged, creating a gap between the handsome stucco-fronted nineteenth-century houses that dominated the area. Goldfinger's challenge was to create a block of flats that met his clients' needs but did not disturb the rhythm of the street's existing architecture, yet complied with his own particular aesthetic. The resulting block is an elegant solution reminiscent in many ways of Goldfinger's own house on Willow Road in Hampstead.
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