Lillington Gardens, Pimlico, London SW1
Darbourne & Darke 1964-72

Partly by accident but nevertheless with a great sense of satisfaction... I recently stumbled upon a building which seems to explain a lot of the other bricky brutalist offerings collected here below, whilst being bigger and bushier than all of them put together.

Bit of background on the architects here.

Saturday 20th June 2010 William Whitfield Odyssey

Information on Whitfield seems pretty scant and if anyone can point me towards any books, websites etc I'd be grateful. The bare bones can be gotten here.

Below are images of four of his buildings in London, and you can see the full sets on the Flickr site.

1. Bessborough Street/33 Vauxhall Bridge Road

Think that's a Paolozzi.

Ribbed fascias/soffits with rounded edges in what looks like cast iron - super robust detail taken from the London Underground pattern book? (The entrance to Pimlico Underground station is contained within the building).

Facade of the long, narrow section of the building fronting onto Vauxhall Bridge Road.

2. Oriel House, Connaught Place, London W1R

Above, seen from Edgware Road.

3. Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A

The familiar 'squeezed-in' frontage of the Department of Health

...and view from a side street suggesting there's quite a bit more of the building hidden from view.

4. Extension to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales. 1 Moorgate Place, London EC2R

A few building's I've been meaning to post on for a while, more images of each of which can be found here.

First the unmanned Falconbrook Pumping Station in Wandsworth which has the ubiquitous blue gates etc and I believe is still in operation. I say this because what, really, are the chances of it surviving for long without it's original purpose? But, on the other hand, if Urban Splash can take on Park Hill, why shouldn't George Wimpy make sixty four one bedroom flats out of this beauty?



Next up...a Miesian box near the Wandsworth Municiple rubbish dump (which will feature in it's own right on these pages shortly...)



And lastly Lockyer House near Putney Bridge. A very crisply detailed sort of brick-brutalism set around an attractive and quite spacious internal courtyard (pictured).

Brutalist Architect, London, circa 1974:

'You can have the gates and railings any colour you like so long as it's blue'

Sunday 25th April 2010: Container City I & II, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London E14

It's not quite a city but it is made out of containers. We nerdishly noted that the walls looked a bit on the thin side to meet current building regulations but didn't let it spoil our day. More photos of this project and nearby Robin Hood Gardens on Flickr.