Longmoor Point

Longmoor Point is a block of 43 flats built between 1952 and 1955 by the London County Council 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 acted as engineers. The building employs an in-situ reinforced concrete frame and is clad in grey 'clinker block' brickwork, with the concrete floors expressed as bands in the design. A flat roof tops the structure, with a projecting service tower formed as a rounded sculptural element.

The design features three flats on the ground floor and four on each subsequent floor, with one-bedroom and three two-bedroom units positioned at the corners of a picturesquely asymmetrical plan. Partially projecting balconies are incorporated at the corners. A central lift lobby houses a pair of lifts – one serving alternate floors – and two escape staircases, the stairwells originally having brightly painted surfaces. The ground floor is partially recessed and painted, and contains storerooms, originally also a laundry, both retaining 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 having been eliminated. The balconies retain their original panelled fronts.

The entrances are distinguished by patterned tilework, using white and two varieties of black and white speckled tiles to create the illusion of contrasting grey and near-black shades; at Longmoor Point, the pattern consists of cross shapes in white cast with near-black shadows and grey surrounds. The original entrance sign was also made of tiles.

Longmoor Point, along with the other point blocks at Alton East, was the first public housing in Britain to incorporate mechanically-ventilated lavatories and bathrooms, and the first high-rise housing to be centrally heated. The interiors of the flats are not of particular architectural interest beyond their layout.

The development as a whole represents the best examples of the LCC's pioneering work in designing groupings of tall flats, a process that involved overcoming earlier cost concerns and subsequent moves towards more streamlined designs. The term "point block" was coined by the Alton East team and originates from the Swedish 'punkthus'. The design also drew inspiration from English housing tradition, respect for previous LCC work in the vicinity, and consideration of tenant preferences. The positioning of the point blocks at the crest of the sloping site, amidst retained and enhanced Victorian planting from previous gardens, affords views, shields traffic noise, and contrasts with surrounding red-brick houses and maisonettes. The development exemplifies the humanist tradition within post-war British architecture.