JOURNAL OF THE LONDON SOCIETY 2021
Andrew Beharrell explores the idea of mansion blocks for the many
of grandeur’. One of the earliest examples is Richard Norman Shaw’s Albert Hall Mansions of 1879. Purpose-built flats for the wealthier classes were such a rarity in London that the architect travelled to Paris for inspiration. Elaborately articulated and decorated street frontages with grand entrances helped to distance the new typology from ‘model dwellings’ for the working classes, which charities such as Peabody started delivering in the 1860s.
The mansion block is back in fashion as an inspiration for today’s housing. Phrases like ‘modern mansion block’ and ‘new London vernacular’ aim to confer a comforting connection with London’s domestic built heritage, even when proposals are bafflingly remote from the Victorian and Edwardian originals. The precedent is better understood by the government-appointed Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. In Living with Beauty (2020), they promote the mansion block as part of the way to deliver ‘gentle density’ and roll back the tide of high-rise. We have previously calculated that the original inner London mansion blocks often achieved around 200 homes per hectare, which qualifies as ‘superdensity’ and is in the upper range of the GLA’s recently retired density matrix.
My definition of a mansion block might run something like this: mid-rise apartment block, typically four to eight storeys, with 2-8 flats per level, usually arranged around a compact stair core. Adjoining blocks are often grouped to create a continuous street frontage, each having a prominent front entrance. This definition distances the mansion block from other common contemporary typologies: corridor access, deck or gallery access and point block.
There is no commonly agreed technical definition of ‘mansion block’ or ‘mansion flat’. Estate agents like the status conferred by ‘mansion’ and Wikipedia follows suit with ‘apartments designed for the appearance
Here are some mansion block milestones, which also chart the changing character of London and show how the typology has evolved from exclusive to inclusive: 62
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