The Larkhall Estate

The Larkhall Estate

Sixteen blocks of flats arranged in five linked quadrangles on Albion Avenue, Larkhall Rise and Wandsworth Road. Built in two phases between 1926 and 1931 by architects Louis de Soissons and G Grey Wornum for Larkhall Estate Ltd. The estate is designed in Neo-Georgian style, constructed of red-brown brick laid in English bond with red dressings and rubbed arches. Stucco surrounds frame entrance doorways, archways and feature windows. Projecting bay windows have weatherboarded spandrels. Roofs are either plain gambrels with casement dormers, brick chimneystacks, or flat parapeted designs.

The sixteen blocks form linked groups around quadrangles, each containing a mixture of flats and maisonettes with accommodation ranging from one to three bedrooms, sitting rooms, kitchens and bathrooms. Access to upper maisonettes on several blocks is provided by third floor balconies.

The blocks rise to four storeys with attics, connected by three-storey flat-roofed linking sections designed to accommodate the falling site and avoid difficulties where roofs would meet at differing levels. The blocky massing and long projecting access balconies introduce hints of modernism, but the detailing reflects de Soissons's inventive and sometimes idiosyncratic approach to Georgian architecture. Wooden sash windows with exposed boxes and small panes form the primary fenestration, spaced to create visual variety. Canted sash-bays with weatherboarded spandrels, occasional triple Serliana sashes with Gothick tracery to the upper arched lights, and oculi provide further variation. Main archways and entrances have Gibbs surrounds. Doors to individual maisonettes feature moulded architrave surrounds and traceried fanlights; those serving upper maisonettes have concave metal hoods. Attic dormers contain double and triple light wooden casements with glazing bars. Relief sculpture panels by Gilbert Ledward ornament windows and doors with architrave surrounds and pediments within the courtyards. Iron railings to external balcony fronts, internal stairways and external steps employ simplified traceried designs with Art Deco hints.

The estate was promoted by Larkhall Estate Ltd, a private company registered as a Public Utility Society under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, with dividends limited to six per cent. This revival of the development model used for late nineteenth-century Peabody charitable trust housing operated alongside local authority public-financed schemes receiving exchequer subsidies under the Housing Acts. In 1925, the company envisaged development of thirty acres of the Whidborne family estate, appointing de Soissons and Grey Wornum to prepare a master plan based on quadrangle layouts intended to house 4,500 people in 1,118 homes, against the original 1,600 population.

Thirty-seven houses were acquired from the first six acres and building commenced in 1926. The London County Council provided loans on each block for forty years equivalent to ninety per cent of flat values, but no subsidy was obtained. The first phase cost £240,000, or £800 per dwelling—a high figure—and rents were set at £70 to £100 per annum, inclusive of common area maintenance, hot water supply, garden maintenance and porters. The first three quadrangles were completed and opened in July 1929 by Neville Chamberlain. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 and subsequent world economic crisis of 1931 disrupted completion. Although work on a further phase was written up in Spring 1931, the remaining land was not developed. Rents were reduced by £15 per annum to assist lettings as a deficit mounted. In November 1935 the London County Council assumed liability, and in 1941 acquired the estate's assets. The remaining Whidborne land was compulsorily purchased in 1936 and developed between 1935 and 1955 as the Springfield Estate. Lambeth Borough Council took ownership on dissolution of the Greater London Council in the 1980s.

Louis de Soissons (1890-1962) and George Grey Wornum (1888-1957) collaborated on several interwar housing projects including Haig Memorial Housing at Morden, Liverpool, Sheffield, Warrington and Penzance. De Soissons is principally remembered for his Master Plan of Welwyn Garden City (1920) and its interwar development, including the Shredded Wheat Factory (1925). The design of Newquay House, Newburn Street on the Duchy of Cornwall Estate (1934, listed Grade II), suggests de Soissons was the dominant designer at Larkhall. Grey Wornum pursued a varied career in interwar housing, including involvement in Kensal House. His best-known building is the competition-winning RIBA Building in Portland Place (1932-34).