Peabody Estate

SOUTHWARK

TQ3179 BLACKFRIARS ROAD 636-1/4/69 (West side) 21/11/96 Peabody Estate

II

Philanthropic housing. Completed in 1871. By Henry Darbishire. For the Peabody Trust. Yellow and white brick with stucco dressings. PLAN: a square and a rectangular courtyard linked at the corner to form an axis running from south-west to north-west. Comprised of 16 more or less identical blocks, each rectangular in plan and 4 storeys. The shallow pitched roofs slated. These remain largely as built but soon after completion of the group a 5-storey block of similar design and plan was built to fill the central space between the 2 blocks on the south west side of the southern courtyard, and 2 further 5-storey blocks were added to the north on Blackfriars Road. EXTERIOR: all the 4-storey blocks follow a similar pattern in their elevations. To the courtyards: 7-window range with windows having 6x6 sashes with segmental and flat arches. Elevations away from courtyards are slightly different, having 6-window ranges and a central recess for communal stair and WCs. Some returns have 2-window ranges, but this arrangement varies depending on the position of the block. The elevation of the 4 original blocks facing Blackfriars Road are different to the others in having steep broken gables and more elaborately patterned brickwork. Entrance to Peabody Square is gained by a large classical archway with a boldly projecting bracketed cornice and banded rustication The staircase recesses on these elevations have been altered and now contain C20 doors at ground level and casement windows on the upper floors. A number of staircase recesses of the other blocks have also been filled in but those of the south-eastern range of the southern courtyard remain as built. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: originally named Peabody Square, Peabody Estate is an important monument in the history of philanthropic flatted housing. The reduced scale of the blocks (relative to what had come before), their internal organisation (access by means of an enclosed stair rather than an external one) and the spacious layout of the whole which was centred on 2 planted squares, all influenced the planning of subsequent artisans' dwellings.

(Tarn JN: Five Per Cent Philanthropy: 1973-; The Builder: 3 January 1873).

Listing NGR: TQ3160479597