Housing in South London: a Tessenow-related selection from 1916 to 1974 Walk
Housing in South London - a Tessenow-related selection from 1916 to 1974 Walk
Sunday 22 June 2025
Start: 10.30am at Eltham Station
End: 4pm near Crystal Palace.
Alan Powers and Gerald Adler lead an extensive tour of South London housing from 1916 to 1974. From Greenwich and Lambeth to Blackheath and Sydenham. Part of a two day celebration of Tessenow’s legacy.
Starting in the year when Heinrich Tessenow published his key book Housebuilding and Such Things (Hausbau und dergleichen), this walking tour with public transport starts with Eltham Well Hall Estate, a generously-funded example of wartime Garden Suburb housing for munitions workers designed by Office of Works architect, Frank Baines. From there, we proceed to the Span estates of Blackheath Park, the apogee of carefully-considered compact domestic planning in car-free landscape settings by Eric Lyons and Partners. A lunch stop in Blackheath Village will be followed by a visit to Central Hill, designed for Lambeth Council 1966-74, by a team that included Rosemary Stjernstedt and former C20 stalwart, Roger Westman, working under Ted Hollamby. Owen Hatherley has called Central Hill 'a perfect modernist suburb, the finest of its kind south of the river.’ Unlisted in spite of applications by C20, it is threatened with demolition. The final destination reflects Tessenow’s leaning towards vernacular forms that remained valid in spite of Modernism - Lammas Green, designed by Donald McMorran of Farquharson and McMorran, 1955-57.
The day will be a mixture of walking and public transport so you will need to pay for your own travel. The tour will be led by Alan Powers and Gerald Adler, as part two of a two-day celebration of the legacy of Heinrich Tessenow. There will be a symposium on the previous day. You can book for the symposium here.
In Person: Non-Members £35; C20 Society Members £25; University of Kent staff £25*, Young C20 Members £10*
*For University of Kent staff; Young C20 members, please email coordinator@c20society.org.uk to secure a place.
Above: Central Hill Estate, Lambeth - Rosemary Stjernstedt, Brian Roberts, Frank de Marco and Adrian Sansom (two phases, 1967-74 and 1972-5). Image credit: London Borough of Lambeth