Finsbury Health Centre, Highpoint, the Penguin Pool and…a Cotswold vernacular bus shelter? To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Festival of Britain, C20 Society has submitted a listing application for a little-known Festival memorial bus shelter in rural Gloucestershire, designed by none-other than arch modernist Berthold Lubetkin.

1951 and all that

The Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) and the National Association of Parish Councils suggested that the building of bus stops would be an appropriate way for small parish councils to celebrate the 1951 Festival of Britain. The National Association of Parish Council’s subsequent competition stipulated that the design of the bus shelters should be based ‘on the use of local materials, so that the structures will fit harmoniously into the surrounding landscape’.

The bus shelter in the village of Hillesley in Gloucestershire was designed in 1951-52 during the final phase of Lubetkin’s career; a period when he grew disillusioned with post-war politics and the architectural profession, and increasingly withdrew from active practice. He had relocated to the Gloucestershire countryside in 1939 and volunteered his services to the Parish Council for the small shelter project. The ‘little monument’ in traditional Cotswold materials and methods, but with ‘whimsicality cast to the wind’, represents an idiosyncratic but characteristically detailed departure for Lubetkin, the leading figure of the Modern Movement in England.

The shelter was apparently a collaborative effort with each step of the design closely argued between architect and parishioners. As the Architects Journal reported (10-09-1953):

‘Contention grew hottest (so it is reported), over rainwater disposal: the villagers wanting the usual half-round gutter to be festooned openly around the eaves, the architect demanding – and in the end making it a condition of his continued interest – that it be boxed in. It was.’

‘The reason for this showdown may not be instantly apparent in print, but it is apparent in the flesh, or to be exact, the wood and stone. For by this means, it was possible for the architect to carry the taut lines of machine aestheticism into the wide tolerances of Cotswold tradition.’ 

‘No floppy hat roof here, discharging with curved bellcast [eaves] into visible ironmongery in the manner  Mr Edwin Gunn’s “Litttle Things That Matter” (1923), but with a sharp statement, one-roofline-one-plane, with little functional necessities supplied out of sight – at small added cost’

Only one other Festival of Britain bus shelter is known to be nationally listed, that at Farmington in Gloucestershire (1392372)

The Lubetkin legacy

Georgian emigre architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) was a pivotal figure who with his Tecton partnership dominated the development of modern architecture in Britain in the inter-war years, with the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, Highpoint flats, Finsbury Health Centre and many other outstanding designs across housing, public buildings, and zoological pavilions.

Up to the late 1960s, further exciting though lesser-known work was produced, including three major social housing projects in Islington and others at Bethnal Green, embodying highly distinctive urban design ideas carried forward from his thwarted plans for Peterlee New Town. His 27 projects on the National Register are thought to place him third behind only Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, in terms of the 20th century architects with the most listed buildings.

Lubetkin was an architect with high social ideas whose idiosyncratic practice was underpinned by intensive theorising and fastidious working methods. Lubetkin’s considerable legacy is also visible in the work of his many younger collaborators such as Denys Lasdun, Peter Moro, Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates who developed significant careers in their own right.

Berthold Lubetkin’s Listed buildings:

Houses:

• Houses at Genesta Road, Plumstead, Greenwich (1933-34) – Grade II*
• 64 Heath Drive, Gidea Park, Essex (1933-34) – Grade II
• Houses at Sunnywood Drive, Haywards Heath, Sussex *1934-36) – Grade II
• Six Pillars, Dulwich, Southwark (1934-35) – Grade II*
• Hillfield (Bungalow A), Dagnall, Bucks (1933-36) – Grade II*
• Holly Frindle (Bungalow B), Dagnall, Bucks (1933-36) – Grade II*
• The Wilderness, Mole Valley, Surrey (1938-39) – Grade II

Zoological pavilions and sites

• Gorilla House, London Zoo, Westminster (1932-3) – Grade I
• Penguin Pool, London Zoo, Westminster (1933-34) – Grade I
• Elephant House, Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire (1934-35) – Grade II*
• Polar Bear, Lion and Tiger Enclosure, Bear Ravine, Aviary / Tropical Bird House, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II*
• Sea Lion Pool, Elephant House, Reptiliary, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II
• Entrance Building, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II*
• The Station Cafe, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II*
• The Moat Cafe, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II
• Castle Restaurant, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II
• x2 Kiosks, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II
• North Gate Refreshment Kiosk, Dudley Zoo, West Midlands (1935-37) – Grade II

Public and private apartments

• High Point One, Highgate, London (1933-35) – Grade I
• Highpoint Two, Highgate, London (1936-38) – Grade I
• The Penthouse, Highpoint Two, Highgate, London (1937-38) – Grade I
• Spa Green Estate, Islington, London (1938-39) – Grade II*
• Bevin Court, Percy Circus, London (1946-54) – Grade II*
• Hallfield Estate, Paddington, London (1946-54) – Grade II
• Sivill House, Bethnal Green, London (1960-64) – Grade II

Public and social buildings

• Finsbury Health Centre, Clerkenwell, London (1935-38) – Grade I
• Scottish Ambulance Service HQ, Glasgow (1966070) – Category A