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.

- Happy Birthda...16th Aug 2014
- I always like...14th Aug 2014
- The Railway i...12th Aug 2014
- The British o...11th Aug 2014
- John Bishop o...10th Aug 2014
- The Black Alb...9th Aug 2014
- The second fr...8th Aug 2014
- The day the p...6th Aug 2014
- 100 years sin...5th Aug 2014
- I went to see...4th Aug 2014
- RIP Mike Smith.3rd Aug 2014
- To Paul Conwa...2nd Aug 2014
- One of the gr...1st Aug 2014
- Enjoy this so...30th Jul 2014
- Written about...29th Jul 2014 prev next