This block of flats in Lawn Road has fascinated me for years. Its construction in the 1930s was supervised by Walter Grobius, founder of the Bauhaus movement. The 34 flats were occupied by writers, artists, architects and intellectuals interested in “progressive urban living”. This sounded so appealing and, intellectual shortcomings aside, I’ve always had a yearning to live in the Isokon. Ultimately, the radical Bauhaus-inspired concept failed and the flats stood derelict for years. But they’ve now been restored to their original modernist splendour with a gallery on the ground floor charting the building’s history. I went there yesterday and asked, hypothetically, whether I could add my name to the waiting list for a flat. Yes, as long as I was a “key worker”. Ah. So I’d have to become a useful and selfless member of society, rather than a useless and selfish one. Never going to happen, is it?
To the Isokon Building in Belsize Park.

- The Rev. Gove.23rd Nov 2018
- Why I love th...22nd Nov 2018
- My favourite ...20th Nov 2018
- Clapton.18th Nov 2018
- Elton John Le...17th Nov 2018
- The forgotten...14th Nov 2018
- The reason we...7th Nov 2018
- Lulu turns 70.6th Nov 2018
- Two things I'...5th Nov 2018
- RIP PY.3rd Nov 2018
- The wisdom of...30th Oct 2018
- The original ...29th Oct 2018
- One of the mo...27th Oct 2018
- Hoover and Ra...26th Oct 2018
- Thursday.25th Oct 2018 prev next