Lansbury, Brownfield, Teviot and St Leonards Road. My previous post in the series on this walk, Back to Poplar in 1988 contained information about George Lansbury, a leading politician in Poplar and around from when first elected as an MP in 1910 to his death in 1940. From 1932-35 leader of the Labour Party he was forced to resign because he stuck to his principles.
Because of its closeness to the docks and the River Thames Poplar had been one of the worst hit areas by bombs from German Zeppelins and bombers in World War I, but suffered far great damage in WW2, with almost a quarter of the buildings in the area being destroyed.
Redvelopment of the area after the war was slow, although part was finished in time to be included as the Live Architecture Exhibition section of the 1951 Festival of Britain, development of the whole of the area designated as the Lansbury Estate, between the East India Dock Road, Burdett Road, Limehouse Cut, and the North London railway line was only completed in the 1980s. The area at the south-east of this was developed by the GLC as an eastern extension to Lansbury, now known as the Brownfield Estate, designated in 1958.
By then its nature had changed with the original and highly praised plans begun under Patrick Abercrombie in 1943 and carried forward by Frederick Gibberd and the LCC Architect’s Department for the Festival being greatly modified, particularly after the Conservative Government which came to power in 1950 altered the housing priorities to provide more homes – which meant more high-rise.
From the GLC, the Lansbury estate passed to Tower Hamlets Council and was badly affected by Thatcher’s ‘right to buy’ and other policies against council housing. Much was transferred in 1988 to Poplar HARCA.
The iconic block of Balfron Tower is one of three – Balfron Tower, Carradale House
and Glenkerry House – listed blocks by architect Erno Goldfinger on the Brownfield Estate and dates from 1965-8. His development of Carradale House was held back so displaced local residents could be housed in Balfron and it was comleted in 1967-8, with Glenkerry House by Goldfinger’s studio being completed in 1972-5.
Goldfinger and his wife lived in one of the flats in Balfron for 8 weeks after completion. Balfron passed from Tower Hamlets to Poplar HARCA in 2007, promising residents to refurbish the building and re-house them there. They reneged on that promise, converting the block to luxury flats sold at market prices.
The St Leonard Arms at 162 St Leonards Rd is said to have closed in 1988 and was later converted to flats, probably in 2002. It had been there at least since 1861, when its address was 17 Wilson Terrace and St Leonard’s Road was then Bow Lane. In my picture from 1988 it looks as if it had closed some time earlier.
At the left the Grade II listed St Michael and All Angels, built 1864-5 is undergoing extensive building work – probably part of its conversion to flats as St Michael’s Court.
Close to the church is an impressive war memorial with the “Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding a wreath above the head of a kneeling warrior in the armour of a crusader“, sculptor A R Adams erected in 1920 with funds from a public “appeal, a football match and tickets for a special matinee performance at the queen’s theatre, high street on Saturday 24 April 1920“.
On the opposite side of the road is the former Fiveways Mission and a car hire service. This building is now smartened and extended at right as private housing.
A closer, head-on view of the properties at 161-165 St Leonard’s Rd, with some light flare.
A view of from the side of the two properties and the adjoining former London Cooperative Society with a fading and crumbling advertisement for BALSAM for COUGHS and Colds (perhaps the word FRIARS’ had already gone.) Above the shuttered frontage is the word HEADACHES.
On the side of the building is a giant sign for the TEVIOT FESTIVAL, OPEN TO ALL and an arrow pointing in its direction. I also photographed this sign in colour. Much of this area was redeveloped as the Teviot Estate, which is now being redeveloped by Poplar HARCA. It is now often called Langdon Park, a green area at the end of Bright St where there is a newish DLR station.
My walk will continue in a later post.