Modern Buildings - Blackheath And Greenwich

Why do Blackheath and Greenwich in southeast London have such world-class modern domestic architecture ? Because, as Ana Sutherland here so well explains, these two adjoining communities are essentially housing suburbs linked to great historical creations. Blackheath and Greenwich envelop the world heritage site of Maritime Greenwich with its magnificent Royal Naval College, Queen's House, Greenwich Park and the flat expanse of the heath of Blackheath. The architecture of the area has since Tudor times been of outstanding quality, as to be expected when in the presence of such royal, now residual, splendour, of palace and grounds. The only regional comparison are Hampstead and Highgate in London. The twinning of these suburbs north and south of the River Thames bare comparison. Much of the resemblance boils down to the middle-class radical idealism of both areas. Here is where artists like Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth lived, and the great German émigré architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer found shelter in the modern block of Lawn Road flats, by Wells Coates. In the post-war years a new generation of design adventurers drifted south of the river. They may not have been as politically pioneering as the socialists of the 1930s, but they did come brimming with progressive middle-class values, yearning for an unhistorical, uncluttered, and sensuously modern aesthetic for life and living. Architects found cubbyholes in the area, building plots for their creativity. Local architects like Peter Moro and Trevor Dannatt built now heritage-listed buildings. And outside architects came and left their mark . big names like the architects of the Barbican, Chamberlin, Powell & Bon, with their Vanbrugh Park Estate, and Patrick Gwynne with private residences on the Cator Estate. The post-war generation is still our period, within our living lives and memories. More than simply a dictionary of building entries, Ana weaves a story of relationships. Her work has brought forth the fascinating architectural connections which make Blackheath and Greenwich, with their own population of kindred designers, seem like an autonomous heavenly realm.