Trevelyan House

Trevelyon House is a block of 24 maisonettes on the east side of Morpeth Street in Tower Hamlets. Designed between 1952 and 1953 by Denys Lasdun of the practice Fry, Drew, Drake and Lasdun, with Margaret Rodd as assistant architect, it was built from 1956 to 1958. Ove Arup and Partners served as engineers.

The building uses reinforced concrete cross-wall construction with ends formed of pre-cast permanent shuttering and some brick cladding. It rises eight storeys over a basement, with four maisonettes per floor. The floorplan employs a butterfly arrangement of two ranges set at right angles to each other, with six units per floor. A central lift tower and staircase form a distinct element, linked to the housing only by access landings. This plan form became known as the "cluster" block.

The original doors and metal windows to the hallways remain, though all other windows have been renewed in UPVC except for No. 2, which retains a full set of original windows with opening casements and glazed panels beneath. Projecting copings and balconies are features of the exterior.

Each maisonette comprises an L-shaped lounge with balcony and kitchen on the ground floor, with two bedrooms and bathroom above. The fittings are not of special architectural interest.

The block was built by Bethnal Green Metropolitan Borough, one of London's most progressive housing authorities, which faced the constraint of limited land within the borough. The council's housing committee was reluctant to sanction extensive lifts or tall buildings, so Lasdun's combination of eight and four-storey blocks across multiple small sites proved an efficient compromise.

Trevelyon House is significant in introducing an early form of the cluster block, which anticipated Lasdun's fully developed work at Claredale Street (1957–9). The concept allowed high-density housing to be fitted into a small site without disrupting the existing street pattern. By clustering flats in separate elements around a detached service core, Lasdun reduced the apparent bulk of the blocks while segregating noisy services and preserving privacy. The arrangement was efficient: the separate service tower eliminated the need for a secondary escape stair, and Lasdun maximized accommodation around a single lift. Maisonettes themselves were an economical and popular housing type within government-defined budgets in the mid-1950s.

Trevelyon House forms part of the Greenways Estate alongside Sulkin House (also listed) and three lower blocks by Lasdun, one incorporating a nursery. An adjoining development by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall with smaller flats completes the scheme. The two developments were collectively named the Greenways Estate in 1958. Trevelyon and Sulkin Houses were intended as landmarks; as Ian Nairn wrote, they succeed in "giving identity", appearing as "buzzing alarm clocks in a part of London which is being steadily drained of its character". The building is listed for its important and early contribution to new ideas in urban housing and for its sculptural architectural form.