Journal of the Archaeology & History Society

Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Vol 5 No 2 Summer 2015 incorporating Islington History Journal Steps to a modern classic

Bevin Court’s heritage concerns far more than an inspired modernist housing scheme

Magna Carta’s connections ● Working days and dance hall nights ● Modern meets suburbia ● An Islington man’s military life ● New life for Old Sessions House ● Effects of industrialisation on human health study ● Mail Rail funding on track ● Exhibition and book reviews ● Forthcoming events ● Your local history questions answered Traditional square to modern classic

An area of pipes and pasture was turned into a formal square before becoming home to the striking Bevin Court. Alex Smith traces the story

he site of Bevin Court Square was named afer Charles has a heritage that tells Holford, who was governor of the more than the tale of a New River Company in 1815-27. inspired modernist Te architecture of the square housing scheme. In the was conventional for its time. Tearly 18th century, it was leased as However, its east and west sides pasture, crisscrossed with wooden were a departure from the rest of elm water pipes of the New River New River’s developments, being Company, which owned the land. grouped behind palace fronts Council compulsorily purchased In the 1820s, the New River fanked with pediments. In 1934, the site and decided to build blocks Company began to develop its land the Metropolitan Borough of of fats around its edges, to retain holdings around New River Head. took over the square’s the square’s layout in keeping with Te Bevin Court site was one of garden as the lease had expired, the local architecture. the last areas to be developed, in and created a public bowling green. Berthold Lubetkin (1901-90) was 1841-48. A formal square was laid Te square’s architecture can be to be the architect. Lubetkin had out and named Holford Square. viewed in the photograph of the already designed three buildings Most of the New River estate opening ceremony below. for Finsbury Council – Finsbury development in Clerkenwell was Health Centre (1935-38), Spa named in association with the Bevin Court Green Estate (1943-50) and Priory company’s history – it brought During the Second World War, all Green Estate (1943-57). Bevin fresh water to via the New four sides of Holford Square were Then and now: Court (1946-54) was to be above: Bevin River, an artifcial waterway. Te severely damaged. Te New River Lubetkin’s last work in Finsbury. Court; below: origin of some names are obvious, Company rebuilt some damaged the public Lubetkin knew Holford Square. such as Amwell Street (named for sites, including Percy Circus. bowling green In 1942, he designed and installed the river’s source) and Myddelton However, in 1946 Holford Square at Holford a memorial to Square (afer Sir Hugh Myddelton, was deemed beyond repair and it Square is opposite the bomb-damaged who led the river project). Holford was condemned. In 1948, Finsbury opened in 1935 30 Holford Square, which had been home to Lenin and his wife in 1902-03. Bevin Court was developed in several stages. Te fnal design was not a replacement square with housing around the edges as the council had envisaged, but a bold statement block in the centre of the old square. Te block referenced one of Lubetkin’s frst designs – collective housing for railway workers (Allan, 2012). Tree branches of fats radiate from a drum staircase. Tis layout leaves no fat with north- only aspect. Light and views, along with the spectacular staircase (see front cover), are what Bevin Court is known for.

10 Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society Summer 2015 Vol 5 No 2 Left: the mural based on the Finsbury crest; bottom: Lenin bust made for a trade union – Bevin Court used to contain a copy of this

Te staircase has one main If we deconstruct the crest we supporting column that runs the can identify its constituent parts in height of the building. Centred the mural: the winged bull of around this column are triangular St Luke; the dolphins representing landings reached via fights of stairs St James; a pool of water referring that enter and leave the landings at to the New River Head; the Clerks’ diferent angles. Tis leads the visitor Well in the centre; the city walls on a dynamic journey, experiencing and gate referencing the Liberty of all of Bevin Court’s vistas. and the dome of St In the past fve years, much John’s (or St Paul’s, looking at some restoration has been carried out by of Yates’ earlier studies); crescents Islington Council. Te staircase and circles denoting Charterhouse; was returned to a red and white and St Luke’s tower to the lef. What’s next? colour scheme similar to its In 2014, Islington Museum was original one, with dramatic efect. Bevin bust awarded £72,000 by the Heritage Te main entrance is through a Te naming of Lubetkin’s project Lottery Fund to: conserve and one-storey, fan-shaped foyer. On afer , when a number restore Yates’ mural; create a replica the lef is a mural painted by Peter of sources note that he would have bust of Ernest Bevin using 3D Yates; on the right is an empty seen it named Lenin Court, printing; hold lectures, workshops alcove, which once housed a bust deserves investigation. and educational events for of the building’s namesake, Ernest Te council’s housing committee residents and other local people; Bevin (1881-1951). minutes make no mention of and hold a walk on the history of Bevin Court was awarded Lenin; on 5 October 1953, a Finsbury and Berthold Lubetkin. grade II* listing in 1998. resolution was minuted to name Te Bevin Court Restoration the block Bevin Court afer the Project was set up because of References and Mural restoration recently deceased Ernest Bevin. requests from the block’s residents. further reading Yates’ mural, Day and Night, depicts A bust of Bevin was I would like to thank them for their Allan J (2012) Berthold Lubetkin: the coat of arms of Finsbury in an commissioned at the cost of £85 to continued support and interest. n Architecture and abstract form and is reminiscent of sit in the oblong shaf opposite the l Find out more at our community the Tradition of Picasso’s Guernica in style. mural. It was a copy of the bust blog at www.bevincourt.wordpress. Progress. Artiface, Peter Yates (1920-1982) was born made by Edwin Whitney-Smith for com or call Alex Smith on 020 London (2012) Carroll, R (2009) in Wanstead and began studying the Trade and General Workers 7527 2837, email alex.smith@ Ryder and Yates. architecture in 1938 at Regent Street Union in 1929. Tis bust still islington.gov.uk RIBA Publishing, Polytechnic. In the Second World sits in trade union Unite’s l A free guided walk, London War, he was a fre watcher in the St ofce in Holborn. Lubetkin, Finsbury and Peter Yates: Artist and Architect Paul’s area before joining the army. Bevin Court was opened on Bevin Court, will take place 1920-1982. www. He was part of the liberating army Saturday, 24 April 1954 at an at 6pm, Monday 15 June, peteryates.co.uk/ in Paris where he sought out Le event attended by around 200 starting at Islington Temple P, ed Corbusier. Te two were both people; Dame Florence Museum. Book (2008) Spa Green to Skinner Street. architects and painters, Le Bevin DBE unveiled through the In: Survey of Corbusier once noting that “this the bust of Bevin. museum. London: Volume boy can see things” (Carroll, 2009). Residents remember 47, Northern Tree Finsbury crests were once the bust being in Alex Smith is Bevin Clerkenwell and . www. placed at the top of Bevin Court. place until the 1990s, Court project officer british-history. When Finsbury joined Islington in but no one knows and events officer at ac.uk/survey

1965, the crests were removed. where it was taken to. Islington Museum london/vol47 crest: Islington Local Commons; Holford Square, Finsbury Cordell/Creative Tom Exterior: Alex Smith and Night, Ernest Bevin bust: History Centre; Day

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