Kent House

CAMDEN

TQ2884SW FERDINAND STREET 798-1/64/430 (West side) 11/02/93 Kent House

II

2 blocks of model low-cost flats and shop. 1935. By Colin Lucas with Amyas Connell and Basil Ward. For the St Pancras House Improvement Society (Northern Group). Reinforced concrete frame with external walls acting as beams carrying floors; cement skim finish. EXTERIOR: each block of 5 storeys with roof terrace. Front elevations have horizontally set metal frame casement windows: 2 bays with vertically stacked balconies, having metal grid balustrades similar to the roof terrace. Access towers to rear allow each tenant to step directly off the vertical circulation on to his own entrance balcony. Block fronting Ferdinand Street has entrance formed by 2 ground floor bays of piloti closed off by later geometrically patterned iron gates. To left, a projecting single storey shop. INTERIORS: have 2 flats per floor in each block with logically designed accommodation; no rooms open off one another. HISTORICAL NOTE: the staircase access, room layouts, generous useable balconies and total use of electricity for servicing put Kent House at the forefront of contemporary flat design with the quality of detailing expected from a private commission. The flats are a successful early example of Modern Movement commitment to social housing in this country and were Connell, Ward and Lucas's only commission of this type.

Listing NGR: TQ2842884359