AT101 September 99

Covering an area of 13 hectares, the Gospel Oak Estate consists of a series of discreet sub-estates built between the early 60’s and the late 70’s as part of a clearance scheme by Camden Council. Designed by Frederick MacManus and Partners, each has its own character and now 40 years later, its own repair problems.

One of the most striking changes on the estate, which started while building was still in progress, involved car ownership. At first Camden required one parking space per ten units. By the time later phases were constructed this has been increased to one space per unit and the last phases had underground garages to redress the earlier shortfall. This meant that the ground pattern changed as construction proceeded. The earliest phases, such as Kiln Place, have generous gardens, landscaped courtyards and mews-like streets. Later phases like Bacton and Wendling have less successful arrangements - inaccessible and rather barren grasses courtyards, garage courts and ubiquitous streets in the air. Later phases notably Gospel Oak 7&8, return to a more traditional terrace form, with more street front entrances and shared rear gardens. Literally underlying all this are the vast and sinister underground car parks.

Current work at Gospel Oak is funded by the government-subsidised Capital Challenge programme, which concentrates on repairs. Shillam+Smith see the architectural challenge as dealing with the practicalities of repair, like window replacements new secure entrances and better landscaping, while using these discrete packages of work to create some integration between estates. In this regard a key element is the re-landscaping of Lismore Circus, the historic heart of Gospel Oak, which is to become the hub of a series of linear routes radiating out to individual estates.

The aim is to make the estate safer and more enjoyable to walk through. Tower block entrances are brought back to ground level, walkways are being demolished and new entrances created for each set of flats which mark and create incident along routes. Wherever possible routes are to be more overlooked, both physically and where necessary with cctv.

Consultation revealed that, perhaps unusually, residents like their ‘modernist’ homes - the flats are more generous than those of today and they appreciate their clean lines and large windows. The interventions by Shillam+Smith seek to compliment this modernity with simple robust elements, which will extend the life of the flats for a further 30 years. The £5.6M project is due for completion in April 2001.