The London-based Isokon firm was founded in 1929 by the English entrepreneur

Jack Pritchard John Craven Pritchard (8 June 1899 – 27 April 1992) was a British furniture entrepreneur, who was very influential between the First and Second World Wars. His work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London. He ...

and the Canadian architect

Wells Coates Wells Wintemute Coates OBE (December 17, 1895 – June 17, 1958) was an architect, designer and writer. He was, for most of his life, an expatriate Canadian who is best known for his work in England, the most notable of which is the Modernist bl ...

to design and construct

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

houses and flats, and furniture and fittings for them. Originally called

and Partners, the name was changed in 1931 to Isokon, a name derived from Isometric Unit Construction, bearing an allusion to Russian

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

. In 1925, Pritchard had become employed as a sales and marketing manager for the British company Venesta, a subsidiary of the large Estonian plywood manufacturer A. M. Luther, based in Tallinn. After having met in Paris, Pritchard hired the designer

Charlotte Perriand Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" f ...

through the architect firm of

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

to design a trade fair stand for Venesta at

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

, London in 1929. Despite his involvement with

Lawn Road Flats Isokon Flats, also known as Lawn Road Flats and the Isokon building, on Lawn Road in the Belsize Park district of the London Borough of Camden, is a reinforced concrete block of 36 flats (originally 32), designed by Canadian engineer Wells Co ...

and the Isokon company, Jack Pritchard continued to work for Venesta until 1936. Pritchard used Venesta to make his Isokon plywood furniture. The Isokon company was never commercially successful. The end came with the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when its supply of

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

from Estonia was cut off due to the Soviet invasion of the Baltic countries when the A. M. Luther company in Tallinn was confiscated. The Isokon Furniture Company ceased trading in 1939 but was restarted in 1963. Since 1982, the furniture is made by Isokon Plus, formerly known as Windmill Furniture, under licence from the Pritchard family.

Lawn Road Flats

Isokon's key project was the Lawn Road Flats in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, called the Isokon building since 1972, which was formally opened on 9 July 1934. It was designed by

after a brief by Molly Pritchard, based on the Minimum Flat concept presented at the CIAM (Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne) conference of 1929. In March 1931,

and

Serge Chermayeff Serge Ivan Chermayeff (born Sergei Ivanovich Issakovich; russian: link=no, Сергей Ива́нович Иссако́вич; 8 October 1900 – 8 May 1996) was a Russian-born British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of ...

had visited Germany, including the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

school and the Törten Estate in

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...

, both designed by

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

, which possibly influenced the design of Lawn Road Flats. The building process and the opening event was photographed by

Edith Tudor-Hart Edith Tudor-Hart (''née'' Suschitzky; 28 August 1908 – 12 May 1973) was an Austrian-British photographer and spy for the Soviet Union. Brought up in a family of socialists, she trained in photography at Walter Gropius's Bauhaus in Dessau, an ...

(née Edith Suschitzky) who was educated 1928-30 at the

school in

, but also a recruiter for Soviet intelligence. Intended to be the last word in contemporary living, the block of flats was aimed at young professionals. It contained 22 single flats, four double flats, three studio flats, staff quarters, kitchens and a large garage. Services included shoe cleaning, laundry, bed making and food sent up by a dumb waiter at the spine of the building. In 1937, a restaurant and bar designed by

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most im ...

and

F. R. S. Yorke Francis Reginald Stevens Yorke (3 December 1906 – 10 June 1962), known professionally as F. R. S. Yorke and informally as Kay or K, was an English architect and author. One of the first native British architects to design in a modernist style, h ...

named the Isobar, located on the ground floor with a decked outdoor area, was added to the building. Its second manager was

Philip Harben Philip Hubert Kendal Jerrold Harben (17 October 1906 – 27 April 1970) was an English cook, recognised as the first TV celebrity chef. Biography Harben was born in Fulham, London, and was educated at Highgate School. His mother, Mary Jerrol ...

, who after World War II became the first TV chef at the BBC.

also set up a supper club called The Half Hundred Club, so named because it could have no more than 25 members who could bring 25 guests. They dined at the Isobar, at Pritchard's penthouse flat in Lawn Road Flats or at more exotic locations, such as

London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...

. The flats and the Isobar became famous as a centre for intellectual life in north London. Residents included the novelist

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

and her husband, the archaeologist

Max Mallowan Sir Max Edgar Lucien Mallowan (6 May 1904 – 19 August 1978) was a prominent British archaeologist, specialising in ancient Middle Eastern history. He was the second husband of Dame Agatha Christie. Life and work Born Edgar Mallowan in Wands ...

, the Soviet intelligence recruiter

Arnold Deutsch Arnold Deutsch (1903–1942?), variously described as Austrian, Czech or Hungarian, was an academic who worked in London as a Soviet spy, best known for having recruited Kim Philby. Much of his life remains unknown or disputed. Early life He ...

who was the controller of the group of Cambridge educated Soviet spies who came to be known as the

Cambridge Spy Ring The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted for ...

, the German born economist and Communist

Jürgen Kuczynski Jürgen Kuczynski (; 17 September 1904, Elberfeld – 6 August 1997, Berlin) was a German economist, journalist, and communist. He also provided intelligence to the Soviet Union during World War II. By 1936, Kuczynski had followed his father an ...

, the author

Nicholas Monsarrat Lieutenant Commander Nicholas John Turney Monsarrat FRSL RNVR (22 March 19108 August 1979) was a British novelist known for his sea stories, particularly '' The Cruel Sea'' (1951) and ''Three Corvettes'' (1942–45), but perhaps known best i ...

, ethnomusicologist

Erich Moritz von Hornbostel Erich Moritz von Hornbostel (25 February 1877 – 28 November 1935) was an Austrian ethnomusicologist and scholar of music. He is remembered for his pioneering work in the field of ethnomusicology, and for the Sachs–Hornbostel system of musica ...

, architect

Jacques Groag Jacques Groag (5 February 1892 – 28 January 1962) was an architect and an interior designer, originally from Moravia. Early life and education Jacques Groag was born in 1892 in Olomouc to a well known Jewish family who lived in a malt ho ...

and his textile designer wife

Jacqueline Groag Jacqueline Groag ( Hilde Pick; 6 April 1903 – 13 January 1986) was an influential textile designer in Great Britain in the period following World War II. She produced and designed fabrics for leading Parisian fashion houses including Chan ...

, architects Egon Riss and Arthur Korn and the author Adrian Stokes. The British architects Sir James Stirling and Alec Bright, later director of the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, Colombia were resident during the 1960s. Regulars at the Isobar included the sculptors

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

and

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

, the painter

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, Order of Merit, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract art, abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was ...

and

Naum Gabo Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner (23 August 1977) (Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר), was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's post-Revolution avant-garde and the subsequent development of twentieth-century scul ...

, all who lived locally, as well as

Sir Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

, secretary of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

1935–1942. Pritchard remained in London during World War II while Molly Pritchard and their children Jonathan and Jeremy left for America where the children were put in a boarding school in Canada while Molly moved in with Walter and Ise Gropius in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Lawn Road Flats was popular as a residence during the war due to being made out of reinforced concrete, and despite near bombs, survived the Blitz. It was repainted brown during the war as it was feared its white surface would serve as a navigation aid for German bombers. In 1955, Pritchard staged a 21st-birthday party for the building on its roof top terrace.

returned to make the food, architectural writer

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

made a speech and letters from

and

were read out.

as well as many pre-World War II residents attended the event. From 1966, Jack and Molly Pritchard increasingly spent their time at a new home in

Blythburgh Blythburgh is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is west of Southwold and south-east of Halesworth and lies on the River Blyth. The A12 road runs through the village which is split e ...

, Suffolk, designed by Jack's daughter Jennifer Jones (née Tudor-Hart) and her husband Colin, although they kept the penthouse at Lawn Road Flats until the mid 1970s. The modern bungalow, also called Isokon, is still owned by the Pritchard family. Pritchard sold Lawn Road Flats in 1969 to the magazine ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', who demolished the Isobar and converted it into flats. They then sold the building to Camden Council in 1972 for twice the price. The building was listed Grade II in 1974 by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and listed Grade I in 1999. Despite this, it received poor maintenance from Camden Council and deteriorated badly. During this period, it was chiefly used to house single men with drug, alcohol and mental health problems. After a long campaign to save the building, it was sold to the housing association Notting Hill Housing Group in 2003, in a joint bid with Avanti Architects, headed up by architect John Allan, with the pledge that a museum would open in the building. It now contains 36 flats, most that are owned on

Equity sharing Equity sharing is another name for shared ownership or '' co-ownership''. It takes one property, more than one owner, and blends them to maximize profit and tax deductions. Typically, the parties find a home and buy it together as co-owners, but so ...

basis by key workers such as nurses and teachers. In July 2014, the building's garage was converted into a permanent exhibition that tells the story of the building, its residents and the Isokon company. It is operated by the not-for-profit charitable Isokon Gallery Trust and is open 11 am to 4 pm each Saturday and Sunday from early March until the end of October every year.

Bauhaus in Britain

In 1935,

, the founder of the Bauhaus, became Controller of Design (effectively creative director) for The Isokon Furniture Company. He had arrived in England on 18 October 1934 with his wife Ise Gropius. They lived in flat 15 at Lawn Road Flats until March 1937, when they left for the United States after Gropius was offered the post of Professor of Architecture at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. A month before he left for the USA, Gropius recommended

, a former colleague at the Bauhaus who had moved into flat 16 in the building in the Autumn of 1935, as his replacement as Controller of Design. The furniture Breuer designed whilst at Isokon are highly influential pieces of the

movement, and included chairs, tables and the Long and Short Chair.

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

, another former Bauhaus teacher who also lived briefly in the building with his wife

Sibyl Moholy-Nagy Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (born Dorothea Maria Pauline Alice Sybille Pietzsch; October 29, 1903 – January 8, 1971) was an architectural and art historian. Originally a German citizen, she accompanied her second husband, the Hungarian Bauhaus artist Lás ...

and daughter Hattula, became involved with Isokon when he arrived in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

from Holland in May 1935. Moholy-Nagy designed promotional material for the Isokon Furniture Company, including sales leaflets, show cards and the logo of the Isokon firm itself, which was an outline of a curved

chair. He later founded The New Bauhaus in Chicago, soon renamed the

IIT Institute of Design Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech), founded as the New Bauhaus, is a graduate school teaching systemic, human-centered design. History The Institute of Design at Illinois Tech is a school of design ...

. The fourth Bauhaus resident at Lawn Road Flats was

Naum Slutzky Naum Slutzky (28 February 1894 in Kiev, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine) – 4 November 1965 in Stevenage, England) was a goldsmith, industrial designer and master craftsman of the Bauhaus. In the art history literature his first name is s ...

, a Russian born goldsmith who had taught at the Bauhaus school in Weimar. He remained in Britain until his death in 1965. On 9 July 2018, an English Heritage blue plaque for the three Bauhauslers

and

was unveiled on the building, with a relative of Gropius pulling the cord.

Isokon furniture revival

Pritchard revived the Isokon Furniture Company in 1963. Pritchard hired

Ernest Race Ernest Race (1913-1964) was an English textile and furniture designer, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1913, and died in 1964 in London. His best-known designs are the BA3 aluminium chair of 1945 and the Antelope, designed for the Festival of Br ...

, former furniture designer for the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

. In 1968, Pritchard licensed John Alan Designs, based in Camden, London to produce the Long Chair, Nesting Tables and the Isokon Penguin Donkey Mark 2 designed by

. The Isokon Penguin Donkey Mark 2 became a sales success due to the support of

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

, the founder on

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Jack Pritchard John Craven Pritchard (8 June 1899 – 27 April 1992) was a British furniture entrepreneur, who was very influential between the First and Second World Wars. His work is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of London. He ...

to manufacture the historical Isokon furniture pieces. The first furniture to be added to the collection since 1963 was designed by the duo

BarberOsgerby Barber Osgerby is a London-based industrial design studio founded in 1996 by British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby. Historically named variously Barber Osgerby Associates, BOA, Barber & Osgerby and BarberOsgerby, the practice has been ...

. Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby had recently graduated from the Royal College of Art when they designed their first piece, the Loop Coffee Table, in 1996. The bent plywood design was to be the first of several furniture pieces that the designers created for what is now named Isokon Plus. The most recent is the Bodleian Chair for the University of Oxford's historic Bodleian Libraries.

Original Isokon furniture designs

* Isokon/Venesta Stool (designer unknown, 1933) * Isokon Book Units (designed by Wells Coates, 1933) * Desk made from Isokon Book Units (designed by Wells Coates, 1933) * Aluminium Waste Paper Basket (designed by Walter Gropius, 1935) * Side Table (designed by Walter Gropius, 1936) * Isokon Nesting Tables (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1936) * Isokon Dining Table (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1936) * Isokon Stacking Chair (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1936) * Isokon Long Chair (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1935-6) * Isokon Short Chair (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1935-6) * The Gull (designed by Egon Riss, 1939) * The Pocket Bottleship (designed by Egon Riss, 1939) * The Bottleship (designed by Egon Riss, 1939) * The Penguin Donkey (designer by Egon Riss, 1939) * The Bottleship Mark 2 (designed by Ernest Race, 1963) * The Penguin Donkey Mark 2 (designed by Ernest Race, 1963)

Later Windmill/Isokon Plus designs

* Loop Coffee Table (designed by BarberOsgerby, 1996) * Flight Stool (designed by BarberOsgerby, 1998) * Wing Unit (designed by Michael Sodeau, 1999) * Home Table (designed by BarberOsgerby, 2000) * Shell Table and Chair (designed by BarberOsgerby, 2002) * Portsmouth Bench (designed by BarberOsgerby, 2002) * Donkey 3 (designed by Shin & Tomoko Azumi, 2003) * Bodleian Libraries Chair (designed by BarberOsgerby, 2014) * Iso-lounge Chair (designed by Jasper Morrison, 2021)

References

Cantacuzino, Sherban. 1978. ''Wells Coates: a monograph''. London: Gordon Fraser Gallery. . Pritchard, Jack. 1984. ''View From A Long Chair''. Sydney: Law Book Co of Australasia. . Cohn, Laura. 1999. ''The Door to a Secret Room: A Portrait of Wells Coates.'' Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. . Grieve, Alastair. 2004. ''Isokon: For Ease, For Ever.'' London: Isokon Plus. . Powers, Alan. 2007. ''Modern: The Modern Movement in Britain''. Merrill Wilcox House. . Darling, Elizabeth. 2012. ''Wells Coates''. London: RIBA Enterprises. . Burke, David. 2014. ''The Lawn Road Flats: Spies, Writers and Artists.'' London: Boydell Press. . Daybelge, Leyla and Englund, Magnus. 2019. ''Isokon and the Bauhaus in Britain.'' London: Batsford. . Powers, Alan. 2019. ''Bauhaus Goes West.'' London: Thames & Hudson. . MacCarthy, Fiona. 2019. ''Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus.'' London: Faber & Faber. .

Lawn Road Flats

Bauhaus in Britain

Isokon furniture revival

Original Isokon furniture designs

Later Windmill/Isokon Plus designs

References

External links