Landmarks: The Brunswick Centre
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Your support makes all the difference.Next time you think of visiting the Renoir Cinema in Brunswick Square, London WC1, spare a thought for the stained concrete housing scheme that surrounds it. This is the Brunswick Centre, built between 1967 and 1970 as a model form of central urban living. Only two- thirds of it was built and this compromises what we see today. Halfway through the design stage, the housing, which had originally been designed as upmarket private dwellings, was suddenly sold to Camden Council for use as council houses. This meant that a lot of the original features had to be abandoned, including the shopping centre in the central courtyard, which was conceived as a grand, glass- covered hall.
What remains are two parallel blocks with each block made up of two sections, facing outwards to the road and inwards to a long paved internal courtyard. Every level steps back from the previous one in a ziggurat section which means that each flat has a spacious, sunny private terrace. It looks rather like a Roman circus with the ends cut off.
Before visitors to the Brunswick Centre condemn it out of hand as just another piece of 1960s concrete jungle, they should examine carefully the quality of life enjoyed by many of the original residents who clearly value what it offers, particularly in terms of light and air.
This is the kind of building that Prince Charles would hate, which is really why I chose it because it embodies the most radical principles. It is hoped that initiatives by the new developers will make it possible for the building to realise its full potential for the first time.
David Levitt has been a partner with Levitt Bernstein, London E8 for 25 years
(Photograph omitted)
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