Chaucer House

Chaucer House is a large block containing 104 flats and one office, built between 1947 and 1950. Designed by Powell and Moya for Westminster City Council, with Parker Morris as town clerk, the design won an architectural competition in 1946. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete with a buff brick facade over a blue brick plinth; the concrete floor slabs are exposed and painted. It rises nine storeys with a basement, topped by flat roofs.

The flats are arranged in pairs, accessed via six projecting stairwells that incorporate lifts behind them. The two northern ranges are stepped slightly to the west, raised on cross walls over open ground floors, providing views through to Churchill Square. One section of the ground floor has been infilled to create an office. Three-bedroom flats occupy the ground to seventh floors, arranged in mirrored pairs with canted balconies. Smaller one- and two-bedroom flats are located on the eighth floor, set back behind an access gallery and a long private terrace. Balcony fronts and landings originally featured wired glass; the rendered walls were brightly painted. The projecting stairwells have concrete stairs, straight steel balusters, and full-height metal glazing. All windows were replaced with UPVC in 1990, replicating the original pattern with the addition of a central transom, a change that has not significantly altered the building’s character. Original doors are glazed at the top. Distinctive circular roof-top drums house lift machinery and water tanks. The building's interiors are not considered to be of particular architectural interest. Original name signs remain in place, and a plaque on the southern elevation commemorates the opening of the estate on 24 July 1951, by the Duchess of Marlborough. Chaucer House was the first block completed at Churchill Gardens, an ambitious post-war housing scheme. Phase IA, including Chaucer, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley Houses, featured Britain’s first district heating system and was awarded a Festival of Britain Award in 1951. The entire estate received two Civic Trust Awards in 1962. Architectural commentary has praised the building’s design for minimizing the expression of horizontal structure and accenting the vertical continuity of stair and lift towers. Designed by architects aged only 25 and 26, the generous flat sizes, well-planned grounds, and innovative services set a new standard for public housing.