Witley Point

Witley Point is a block of 43 flats constructed between 1952 and 1955 by the London County Council's Architect's Department Housing Division, with Rosemary Stjernstedt as Architect in Charge, and A W Cleeve Barr and Oliver Cox as principal job architects. Ove Arup and Partners provided engineering services. The building is an example of pioneering post-war public housing, considered the best examples of the LCC's innovative point block design. The design was inspired by the Swedish ‘punkthaus’ and English housing traditions, incorporating brickwork, respect for earlier LCC work, and consideration of tenant preferences.

The structure employs an in-situ reinforced concrete frame clad in grey 'clinker block' brickwork, with the concrete floors expressed as bonds within the composition. The building features a flat roof and a projecting service tower designed as a rounded sculptural form. The plan is picturesquely asymmetrical, accommodating three flats on the ground floor and four on each upper floor. Each flat is a corner unit, comprising one 1-bedroom and three 2-bedroom units, with partially projecting balconies at the corners. The block was among the first public housing in Britain to incorporate mechanically-ventilated lavatories and bathrooms, and central heating.

A central lift lobby connects to a pair of lifts serving alternate floors, and two escape staircases which were originally brightly coloured. The ground floor is partially set back and painted, with storerooms (and initially a laundry) retaining their original galvanised steel windows. Windows to the flats have been renewed in UPVC-coated aluminium within original openings and to a similar pattern, with some mullions removed. Balconies retain their original panelled fronts. Each block’s entrance is distinguished by different-patterned tilework, with Witley Point featuring a design of white and near-black rectangles. These original tiles are retained up the staircases, visible beneath paintwork.

The Alton East estate, where Witley Point is situated, is remarkable for its picturesque massing, which maximizes the sloping site. The Victorian planting from the gardens of former villas has been retained and enhanced, and the point blocks are positioned at the top of the rise to shield traffic noise, with contrasting red-brick houses and maisonettes arranged around them, epitomizing the humanist tradition in post-war British architecture.