'Moderne' Blocks Of Flats

Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint 1 Highgate London

The 'Moderne' block of flats arrived in the UK in the 1920s as Britain looked to define a bright new 20th Century after the horrors of the First World War. In this desire, Britain looked to Europe, and the new International Moderne Movement for inspiration. Built by a new wave of young architects, often refugees from war torn Europe, the new blocks brought crisp clean lines, white stucco walls and minimal detailing. Like Moderne houses, the Moderne blocks of flats in the UK tend to fall into one of three kinds Moderne, Restrained Moderne and Hollywood Moderne. Most importantly, the UK developed some wonderfully evocative Streamline Moderne blocks of flats with curving lines and windows. Architecture never stands still, and the end of the twenties and thirties brought a new purist approach to design that led to Modernism, (with out the 'e')and eventually the Brutalism of the 1960's and 1970s.

'Moderne' Blocks Of Flats

Like 'Moderne' houses , the first International Moderne blocks were as shocking as they were revolutionary when they arrived in the UK. Blocks like Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint 1 in Highgate, London were unlike anything seen in the UK before. The stark lines, white stuccoed walls, Crittall Windows and flat roofs were produced reflected the new international aesthetic, but to British sensibilities, they were divisive. Blocks like Pullman Court, in South London and Ravelston Gardens in Edinburgh are now viewed as national treasures and regularly appear in films and TV dramas depicting the period such as ITV's Poirot. At the time, they divided the nation.

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  Ravelston Gardens, Edinburgh. Neal & Hurd 1935-36

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  Berthold Lubetkin's Highpoint 1 Highgate London

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  Pullman Court, South London

The 'Moderne' style is still influential, and you can see echoes of it in many houses being built today. However, in the 1930s it didn't take long for the mood to change. At the 1935 Ideal Home Exhibition, the following year, there was only one house in the pure 'Moderne style'. A new restrained version was appearing.

Restrained Moderne

It became clear that the public was held back by the kind of nostalgia the Daily Mail had described in its review of the Paris show. British housebuilders responded and a new 'restrained' hybrid style emerged. It was a style assembled for people who were still seduced by the clean lines of the Moderne movement but who were slightly put off by the brutal nature of the flat-roofs.

The curved windows and horizontal lines remained but with hipped roofs, bricks and tiles. Restrained Moderne was a uniquely British fudge with the lower lines and horizontal mullioned windows offset by a nice safe roof 'like your mother had'. Arguably, Restrained Moderne is more suited to the British climate, where sun-terraces in suburban streets were always going to be a laughable extravagance.

By the end of the 1930s consumers had also begun to reject the aesthetic simplicity of the Moderne movement. They began to ask for decoration around doors and windows. Leaded lights with art deco 'sunburst' patterns appeared, doorways and gates got style, and a safe suburban style was created. Perfectly suited for mass production of the now popular semi-detached houses, the next decade saw almost 4 million of these beautifully recognisable family homes being built.

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  Semi-detached Restrained Moderne houses in Richmond, Surrey.

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  A detached Restrained Moderne house, showing clean lines, but tiled roof.

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  Restrained Moderne in Enfield

Hollywood Moderne

There is some debate about whether a separate style called Hollywood Moderne exists for houses in the UK. There was clearly a phenomenon of larger Restrained Moderne houses built in the late 1930s that adopted the styling of Hollywood Boulevard - sweeping driveways, green or blue pantiles on the roof, and balconies with ArtDeco flourishes. Hollywood Moderne was a style that lent itself to larger, detached houses with a nouveau-riche pretension to movie grandeur. Favoured by TV celebrities they enriched the newly expensive suburbs and clustered around golf courses.

Hollywood Moderne should be treated as distinct for the parallel evolution in Moderne architecture that hankered after the speed and streamlining of the available international travel.

Streamline Moderne

Predominantly a US phenomenon, Streamline Moderne evolved as a more formulaic architectural style that chose cars, trains and boats as its inspiration. The building style was meant to capture the speed and exhilaration of 1930s travel and its highpoint was skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building in New York. In the UK, the theatricality of Streamline was frowned upon for houses but it did lend itself to blocks of flats like Hartington Court or Florin Court, in Clerkenwell - one of the properties used in episodes of Poirot - as well as hotels like the Midland in Morecambe and factories with US owners such as the Hoover and Firestone Buildings in West London.

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  Hartington Court, Chiswick London

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  Flats in South London

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  Florin Court, Clerkenwell

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  The Ship Apartments in Paris

See Also In Chimni

ChimniWiki Is My House 'Art Deco'?

Other Interesting Web Sites

FlickrGroup: Modernist Houses Of The 1930s

An Archive of 'Moderne' Houses in London (with photos

A Schedule of 'Art Deco' Houses in London

Wikipedia: Streamline Moderne

Docomomo - Dedicated to The Moderne Movement

RIBA Library 'Art Deco Triumphant'

Pinterest Board: Streamline Moderne

References

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