Stanley Cohen House, including canopies and retaining walls to Golden Lane

Stanley Cohen House is a block of 32 flats built between 1954 and 1956. It was designed as a competition winner by Geoffry Powell, with Chamberlin, Powell and Bon acting as the architects for the constructed scheme; Ove Arup and Partners were the engineers. The building is part of the Golden Lane Estate and is linked to Bowater House, Bayer House, and Basterfield House.

The construction uses a reinforced concrete frame with a pink brick basement and ground floor, featuring some golden yellow opaque glass cladding facing the garden. The Golden Lane elevation is finished in grey engineering brick, while the upper floors have shuttered concrete end walls, which are now painted a uniform shade. Flat roofs top the structure. A screen wall canopy, supported by painted concrete posts, extends along the entire length of Golden Lane to the east, continuing beyond the block, with later open ceramic screens used to fill two openings beneath and at the northern end of the building. The southern end is broader and incorporates a later tiled back, which includes a three-dimensional map of the estate on the wall.

The building is four storeys high, with the top floor set back to maximize morning light to the estate. Flats 1-5 are accessed via stairs at the southern end of the block. Flats 6-12 and 25-32 share a central stairwell with Nos. 20-29 and 40-49 of Bayer House, while a smaller stair leads to flats 13-17 to the north. Similar stairs serve flats 18-22. At the north end, a stair leads to flats 23-24, and flats 25-32 utilise a shared stairwell with Nos. 20-37 and 40-57 of Basterfield House. The flat mix includes eight one-room flats, eight two-room flats, fourteen three-room flats, and two four-room flats. The smallest flats are situated on the ground and third floors and feature balconies with steel and mahogany handrails. Flats 25-32 on the top floor are accessed via a gallery, while the rest are reached by stairs. All windows have metal opening lights within timber surrounds. Internal staircases are constructed of concrete with open steel balustrades in open wells. The interiors of the flats are not considered to be of particular architectural interest. The development’s history is described in the listing for Great Arthur House.