Numbers I, 1A, 1B, 1C And 1D And 2-32 Isokon Flats

Block of 36 flats. Designed 1929-32, built 1933-34. Designed by Wells Coates for Jack and Molly Pritchard and incorporating many of the latter's Venesta plywood manufactures. The structure is monolithic reinforced concrete with cement wash finish applied direct to the concrete. The building has a flat roof and metal windows.

The plan comprises six one-room "minimum" flats on each floor, two with balconies; one studio with balcony and one one-bedroom flat on each of the main floors, with a penthouse for the Pritchards and a separate penthouse for their children on the roof. The ground floor originally contained kitchens and a staff flat at the entrance in place of a studio. This was converted in 1937 by Marcel Breuer and F R S Yorke into the Isobar, a residents' club, and converted again in the late 1960s into four small flats not of special interest.

The exterior is four storeys and penthouse. The main elevation features continuous solid cantilevered access and circulation balconies linked by diagonal external stairs to the left. Levels are gained to the right by a stair tower with a double door entrance approached by steps under a projecting canopy; the stairwell is lit by vertically set windows, originally a single window with horizontal lights. An attached garage is located to the right. The left-hand return has three-light casement and fixed windows to each floor. The rear elevation has similar grouped windows and projecting balconies to three bays.

The flats were originally conceived as "minimum flats" designed to offer a cheap but more independent alternative to lodgings, with space-saving fitted furniture and closets. Most flats retain original fitted kitchens, dressing rooms and bathrooms designed by Coates. Studio flats retain semi-open screens or bookcases separating the living and sleeping areas. The larger penthouse flat retains plywood floors and skirtings, and a full range of fitted bedroom furniture probably designed by as well as for Jack Pritchard.

The Pritchards' dynamic lifestyle set the tone of the block, which attracted young architects and writers as well as refugee architects from Germany and eastern Europe whom Pritchard was instrumental in bringing to Britain from 1933 onwards. During its early years the building was home to many avant-garde designers, artists, writers and poets. Marcel Breuer, whose furniture designs were produced by Pritchard's Isokon Laminated Furniture company, lived there when he became a refugee from Germany, as did Walter Gropius and his wife and others fleeing Fascist Europe.

The Isokon Flats are of both architectural and social significance. They were the first major architectural work of Wells Coates, one of the leading activists in the creation of the Modern Movement in Britain in the 1930s, and were the first block of flats to be built in Britain in the fully modern style. They were also the first modern movement building of any kind in an easily accessible location in Britain and attracted considerable attention. The Lawn Road flats are of great importance as an expression of 1930s minimal living at the only time when living in flats was fashionable. They are not only the first modern movement flats in Britain, but the only ones to retain important interiors.