Sulkin House

Sulkin House

A block of 24 maisonettes on Knottisford Street, Tower Hamlets, designed in 1952-3 and built between 1955 and 1958 by Denys Lasdun of the practice Fry, Drew, Drake and Lasdun, with Margaret Rodd as assistant architect. Ove Arup and Partners served as engineers.

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete with cross-wall construction. The ends are formed of pre-cast permanent shuttering with some brick cladding. The block rises eight storeys high, with four maisonettes per floor. A district heating system occupies the basement. The six units per floor are arranged in a butterfly plan consisting of two ranges, with the rear unit in each group of three set at right angles to the other pair. The ranges are positioned around a central lift tower and staircase, which is treated as a distinct architectural element and linked to the housing only by access landings. This arrangement became known as the cluster block.

All windows except those to flats Nos. 13 and 14 retain original style doors and metal glazing bars to hallway windows. The remaining windows have been renewed in UPVC. The building features projecting copings and balconies.

Each maisonette contains an L-shaped lounge with balcony and kitchen on the ground floor, with two bedrooms and a bathroom above.

Bethnal Green Metropolitan Borough was among the most progressive housing authorities in London. Faced with the need to build at high density on an awkward collection of small sites, including the site of the bombed St Simon Zelotes church, while a reluctant housing committee resisted expensive lifts or tall building, the combination of eight and four storey blocks proved an efficient compromise. Sulkin House is significant as an early introduction of the nascent cluster block concept, which anticipated Lasdun's more refined later work at Claredale Street (1957-9). The concept relates to Lasdun and Kevin Lynch's theories of the "grain" of cities: a cluster block could be fitted into a small site without disrupting the existing street pattern or character. By clustering flats around a detached core, Lasdun reduced the perceived bulk while segregating noisy service functions. The arrangement maintained privacy while preserving the neighbourliness of the old communities it replaced. The separate service tower eliminated the need for a secondary escape stair and allowed maximum accommodation around a single lift. Maisonettes proved an efficient and popular method of providing generously proportioned housing within mid-1950s government-defined budgets.

Sulkin House forms a group with Trevelyon House and three lower blocks by Lasdun, one incorporating a nursery. Smaller flats were provided in the adjoining development by Yorke Rosenberg Mardall. In 1958 both developments became collectively known as the Greenways Estate. Sulkin and Trevelyon Houses were intended as landmarks. The building is included for its important and early contribution to new ideas in urban housing and for its sculptural architectural form.