Hindhead Point

Hindhead Point is a block of 43 flats constructed 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 job architects. Ove Arup and Partners provided engineering services. The building’s structure comprises an in-situ reinforced concrete frame clad in grey 'clinker block' brickwork, with the concrete floors expressed as visual bands in the design. It features a flat roof and a projecting service tower designed as a rounded, sculptural form.

The asymmetrical plan incorporates three flats on the ground floor, and four on each upper floor, arranged in the corners, with partially projecting balconies. A central lift lobby contains a pair of lifts serving alternate floors, and two escape staircases, originally brightly coloured. The ground floor is partially set back and painted, with storerooms (initially also housing a laundry), featuring original galvanised steel windows. Staircases also retain original fenestration. Window frames to the flats have been renewed in UPVC-coated aluminium, set within original openings and maintaining a similar design, although some mullions have been removed. Balconies retain their original panelled fronts. The entrance is distinguished by patterned tilework of white tiles with two varieties of black and white speckled tiles, creating an illusion of contrasting grey and near-black, and this pattern is continued inside the entrance hall where grey marble tiles are also present; the original sign is also made of tiles.

Hindhead Point, part of the broader Alton East development, was notable for being the first public housing in Britain to incorporate mechanically ventilated lavatories and bathrooms, and the first high-rise housing to be centrally heated. The flats’ interiors are not of particular architectural interest beyond their layout. The design represents a significant and pioneering effort in the construction of groups of tall flats; earlier experiments proved too costly, and later versions were more mechanically focused. The term "point block" was coined by the Alton East team, inspired by the Swedish ‘punkthus’ and influenced by English housing traditions, respect for earlier LCC work in the area, and an understanding of tenant preferences. The site's sloping topography is maximized through picturesque massing, with Victorian planting retained and enhanced from the original gardens to villas. The arrangement of the point blocks at the top of the rise shields traffic noise. It embodies the humanist tradition in post-war British architecture.