Macintosh Court, London
Lambeth Council gets the go-ahead to repair Macintosh Court
Five years after illegally altering Macintosh Court, a Grade II listed sheltered housing complex for over-55s in South London, Lambeth Council has gained planning permission for its plans to put the building right
Docomomo UK is relieved that after years of delays, it looks possible that the building - designed by Kate Macintosh in the late 1960s - will be restored to good condition. We are dismayed that millions of pounds of council funds - taken ultimately from rents paid by tenants and leaseholders - have been wasted to get to this point.
Our experience of Lambeth Council during this long saga has been that they lack the competence to manage complex building projects. We have found many senior council officers and elected politicians more concerned with their image in the press than in providing good public services. We have been shocked to see first hand the bullying and mistreatment of residents who dared to challenge the council over the condition of their homes. There are clearly deep systemic problems within Lambeth Council that go beyond this one site , but we hope that the council will this time finally manage to deliver on their promises at Macintosh Court. The scheme is more than just a listed building: it is the home of a vulnerable population of elderly people.
The story began in May 2015, when Macintosh Court, was given Grade II protection by English Heritage, saving it from demolition, The campaign for listing was supported by Docomomo UK.
In late 2017 the building’s owners, Lambeth Council, left residents in their homes while they embarked on a series of overdue maintenance and remedial works.
However, far from enhancing and rehabilitating the qualities for which the building was listed, the Council’s contractors carried out a series of illegal alterations, disfiguring the building. In particular large pipes were run over the walls and roofs of much of the scheme, making it look - in the words of Macintosh - “like an oil refinery”.
When Macintosh informed the Council’s conservation officers of the work when there was still the possibility of limiting the damage, she was ignored. The work was completed, causing significant further harm to the building.
The case highlights a weakness in planning law where local authorities are expected to act as both judge and jury over planning decisions affecting their own properties.
In 2017 the then Lambeth Cabinet member for housing, Paul Gadsby, met Kate Macintosh and Docomomo UK representative Philip Boyle, and promised that the council would “put things right”. In the years that followed, the building instead deteriorated further, with new roofs that had been installed during the 2017 refurbishment developing leaks that flooded many residents’ homes, necessitating re-roofing again in 2022.
Film from 2018 showing the botched refurbishment of Macintosh Court
Kate Macintosh MBE is a retired architect most renowned for designing south London landmark Dawson’s Heights, a hilltop social housing scheme in the London Borough of Southwark. She worked under Denys Lasdun on the National Theatre project, and subsequently designed public buildings in Hampshire and East Sussex. Oliver Wainwright described Macintosh as “an unsung hero”, and the building as “a Modernist Gem”.
