Keats House

Keats House is a block of 97 flats built between 1947 and 1951 as part of the Churchill Gardens housing scheme in Westminster. The design won an international competition in 1946, with architects Powell and Moya working for Westminster City Council under town clerk Parker Morris. This ambitious housing scheme was the first built following the competition and incorporated Britain’s first district heating system. It won a Festival of Britain Award in 1951, and the entire estate received two Civic Trust Awards in 1962.

The building is constructed on a monolithic reinforced concrete frame, faced in buff bricks over a blue brick plinth. Floor slabs are exposed and painted. It is nine storeys high with a basement and has a flat roof. The plan is slightly 'L'-shaped, with a short projection facing the Thames accommodating one flat. Flats are arranged in mirrored pairs off five staircases, with lifts located behind, except for the river-facing flats which are accessed by short galleries. The ground to seventh floors contain three-bedroom flats, with paired flat-fronted balconies. One- and two-bedroom flats are set back behind an access gallery and a long private terrace on the eighth floor. Wired glass is used in the fronts of balconies and landings, with the rendered walls originally brightly painted. Projecting stairwells reveal concrete stairs and straight steel balusters behind full-height metal glazing. All windows to the flats were renewed in UPVC in 1990, replicating the original pattern with the addition of a central transom, an alteration that has not affected the building’s character. Original doors with glazed upper halves remain. On the roof, lift machinery and water tanks are housed within distinctive circular roof-top drums. The interiors are not of special interest. Original name signs are present.

Churchill Gardens exemplified the simplification of tall building design, minimizing the horizontal layers and emphasizing features like stair and lift towers, which extend the full height of the building. Designed by architects aged only 24 and 25, the generous flats, carefully laid-out grounds, and services established a new standard for public housing at a density of 200 persons per acre.