A305/14: English Flats of the Thirties

In the context of the exhibition The University Is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture, the CCA presents twenty-four broadcasts from the course A305, History of Architecture and Design 1890-1939, by The Open University. To learn more about the project, visit www.cca.qc.ca/A305.
In television broadcast 14, Tim Benton looks at two very different developments to illustrate the differences and the common denominators in the design of flats in the 1930s. The huge municipal Quarry Hill estate in Leeds, designed by R.A.H. Livett, is compared with Highpoint I, an apartment block for upper-income tenants, in Highgate, London, designed by Berthold Lubetkin.
Written by Tim Benton, directed by Edward Hayward, produced the BBC/Open University, aired 12 July 1975 on BBC2.

[@heinkle1]

Highpoint was 40 years old when this film was made - to think someone was still using original flooring and the bathroom fittings at that time is quite something. The building is now nearly 90 years old.

[@ebonysweetnesssweetness5153]

I enjoyed these glimps into the past

[@BevMattocks]

I am almost certain that my grandad - a town planning consultant to Leeds Council in the 1930s - was probably involved at some level with the planning of Quarry Hill. The old petrol station on the roundabout is definitely 'his' - his ideal design for a 'modern' petrol station. Oh, and in a nod to this interesting channel being Canadian, my grandad worked in Vancouver, pre-WW1, with his uncle Thomas H Mawson on Stanley Park etc

[@BevMattocks]

The 1960s Hyde Park flats in Sheffield also used the Garchey waste disposal system which didn't always work and made the kitchen smell awful. I lived in one, as a student in 1979, for a while when many of the flats were rented to students.

[@bigbear3450]

Many thanks for this posting.

[@djcb4190]

From Leeds to Highgate, this Modern loft has it all.

[@gustinian]

Once again, the British reluctance to adequately maintain anything is prevalent. No money is set aside for upkeep and so its no wonder that some of these well intentioned designs are often derided. Its not the design that is disliked, but the fact that the lift didnt work, or the grass was concreted over and the benches removed etc.

[@BevMattocks]

I understood Quarry Hill flats were demolished owing to a design fault in the concrete making them structurally unstable?? They must have looked stunning back in the day before the white horizontal lines became the dirty grey I remember as a child in 1960s Leeds.

[@nigelhorsley7395]

Never mind the flat being there also the Market just before the fire and Killingbeck police station still being completed.

[@MrEurochannel]

A tragic loss, destroyed by the late 1980s, and replaced with that legoland yellow bricked 'Playhouse'.

[@andersonarmstrong2650]

Ignoring the necessity for streets undermines well-intentioned innovations. This is the biggest contrast between the Seidlung&developments such as the one in Leeds.

[@chriskappert1365]

This reminds me of the architecture of the Amsterdam School verry much ! Architect Michel de Klerk built in this stile in the 1920s in Amsterdam .

[@Smithy67]

Quarry Hill flats demolished 1978

[@TRACTATUS123]

Slums replacing slums.

[@paulallen8109]

Perhaps. But you have to remember that the people these were intended for didn't earn enough to afford anything fancy so rather than criticizing the urban planning of the time or the style of architecture maybe you should address the core problem? Anyways, these buildings were a huge improvement on previous living quarters. No more leaking roofs, rotten walls, constant running repairs, outside toilets, difficult garbage disposal. While most people *today* take these for granted this was by no means something ordinary people were raised with prior to the war.

[@djcb4190]

I have become illiterate.

[@jacquesmertens3369]

Inspired by the USSR. Poverty for all (except for the party leaders obviously). It's a good thing they've demolished this monstrosity.