please empty your brain below
There’s a nice building by him in Peckham too, so your South London readers have something to visit. I’ve been past Beechwood Mews on a bus, but never actually visited it, so I’m slightly jealous…

Baldassaro | 09.11.22 - 7:55 a.m. | #

Seems to like flat roofs, not always ideal on houses in a rainy climate.

John | 09.11.22 - 8:03 a.m. | #

I’ve been seeing the back-end of the development on the North Circular, but hadn’t realised what the fronts looked like.

I still wouldn’t like to live in them, the North Circular is never quiet. But they do look a lot better with that front aspect.

Lyle | Homepage | 09.11.22 - 8:11 a.m. | #

Despite the similarities of style, the Enfield one looks very gloomy and dreary to me, almost prison-like, whilst the Barnet one looks much more cheerful. All down to the colour of the bricks.
Noy sure about Donnybrook - it reminds me of the fridge department in John Lewis's.

Timbo | 09.11.22 - 8:27 a.m. | #

There's also Walter Handcock Court in E15.

ken | 09.11.22 - 8:32 a.m. | #

I do hope that the construction of flat roofs has improved since they were trendy the last time around...

Blue Witch | 09.11.22 - 9:09 a.m. | #

Unsurprisingly it has.

Peter Barber | 09.11.22 - 9:22 a.m. | #

Really clever projects that we don't see enough of. Though I hope that next time round he'll make recesses in the houses for the assortment of gas and water meters - feels a shame to loosely bolt all those brown boxes on to the exterior at different heights and designs after such care has been taken with the rest of the North Circular development.

David | Homepage | 09.11.22 - 9:24 a.m. | #

Is this the first time the subject of one of your posts has left a comment?

dg writes: no.

Let’s have many more Barber buildings instead of the boring monotony of flat-fronted, brick-clad boxes with windows punched into them that are now near-universal.

Labourer | 09.11.22 - 10:05 a.m. | #

The arches put me in mind of a scaled down version of the Karl Marx Hof in Vienna.

Man of Kent | 09.11.22 - 10:12 a.m. | #

Thank you for illuminating Peter Barber's work. I have watched what I now know to be Edgewood Mews grow over the last year or so, and despite only taking a passing interest in architecture could not help but be transfixed by it. It is a scheme which must be experienced in-situ to get a full measure of just how challenging a project it must have been to design and build. For me, that suggestion of the Mediterranean on this dreary stretch of road brightens it no end. Clearly a practice of some brilliance.

MT | 09.11.22 - 10:16 a.m. | #

Man of Kent. I thought exactly the same thing.

Baldrick | 09.11.22 - 10:27 a.m. | #

Nice. I'll have to take a closer look at the developments going up round here.

Cornish Cockney | 09.11.22 - 10:29 a.m. | #

Nice to see something a bit different. That Finchley site had been reserved for an upgrade of the North Circular Henley's Corner junction.

Mikey C | 09.11.22 - 10:32 a.m. | #

Discouraging car ownership by a lack of designated parking is great in principle but so often fails in practice as residents choose to have cars anyway and find somewhere less than ideal to park them. The worst are modern estates with narrow winding roads which often have every pavement blocked by parked cars.

Andrew S | 09.11.22 - 10:57 a.m. | #

Have seen a number of these. They are wonderful. Particularly like the courtyard in Havil Road, Camberwell.

Peter | 09.11.22 - 11:08 a.m. | #

A rare positive story about London housing! Lovely stuff.

Gunnersaurus | 09.11.22 - 11:25 a.m. | #

Ooh, so apparently I've been in your presence 3 times. Maybe 4 if you also went to the Shadowlands talk. The Writeidea Festival talks I attended were excellent this year. At the time, your first picture reminded me of some new housing I'd seen and been impressed by in Ilchester Road, Becontree. Unsurprisingly, it turns out it was also designed by Peter Barber.

Gap | 09.11.22 - 12:04 p.m. | #

Another striking one off Rochdale Road SE2

Gary Johnson | 09.11.22 - 12:19 p.m. | #

we have another development of his locally in Newham too.

Andrew Jarman | 09.11.22 - 1:46 p.m. | #

Thanks for all the information. I saw an article in The Guardian (8 November) about Edgewood Mews and was curious about exactly where on the North Circular it was, ie where in Finchley.

Ordnance Road in Enfield is much easier = ie across the other side of the Lea Valley reservoirs. I will have a look next time I am over there.

g.chingford | 09.11.22 - 2:21 p.m. | #

I agree with Timbo that the Finchley development looks significantly better than the Enfield one, but I think Donnybrook is the best. It'd be interesting if you had the money to buy / rent and live in one.

Patrickov | 09.11.22 - 2:29 p.m. | #

Love it! I'd also once gone on a little tour around London following this architect's houses as they seem facinating. I'm no expert at all but something about them really seems to work well. I first came across his work at the (sadly unbuilt) Fleet Street Hill project in Shoreditch when that was in development, which I think would have really contributed to the area.

Alex | 09.11.22 - 5:24 p.m. | #

Is the brickwork pre constructed like on modern flats or built up?

Sinners | 09.11.22 - 6:03 p.m. | #

Both look great and I too live near Donnybrook and like it. Are they affordable and what's the formula for affordable houses in developments of this size?

Gordon Parker | 09.11.22 - 6:40 p.m. | #

Just found that a small project in Battersea, which reminded me a bit of these developments, is also one of Peter's. Interesting as much for the way it ended up being built as the design itself - a group of 'right to buy' tenants took a big gamble and rebuilt their own block of flats with something much better.

David | Homepage | 09.11.22 - 7:37 p.m. | #

A tiny front garden is probably the best way now - it's sad to see houses which were built with commodious front gardens now sitting behind a sea of weeds or dumped cars. I love Barber's work, and watched Donnybrook going up, excitedly.

felix | 09.11.22 - 11:35 p.m. | #

Ooh these are lovely. Something to go and see next time I'm back. Thank you!

Suse | 10.11.22 - 11:13 a.m. | #

Architecture wise, these look fabulous.
But they're being offered as leasehold / shared ownership - which has proved to be financially disastrous for many due to ever increasing service charges. The Mayor and boroughs shouldn't be promoting these shared ownership scams.

IslandDweller | 10.11.22 - 6:21 p.m. | #

The architect Alice Brownfield - one of the directors at Peter Barber Architects - was spoke eloquently and with passion about their work on Start the Week this morning. Great to hear someone talking about how we can build more and better homes and communities, without concreting over the green belt or uniform boxy apartments.

Andrew | 17.04.23 - 12:18 p.m. | #











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