Perronet House is an 11-storey residential council

tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently ...

adjacent to the northern roundabout of the

Elephant and Castle The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station ...

, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Design and Layout

In 1969

Sir Roger Walters Sir Roger Talbot Walters, CBE, FRIBA, FI Struct E, (1917-2010) was a British architect noted for his role in a number of major post-war projects in London from the Thames Barrier to the redevelopment of Covent Garden. He also worked on a numb ...

was commissioned by the Greater London Council to design a high density block of social housing to complement the already completed high rise buildings of commercial, educational and governmental establishments in the Elephant and Castle Comprehensive Development Area on what was then known as Site 4. The building was completed in May 1970 and won a commendation in the 1971 Good Design In Housing awards. It is a building of fascinating quirks, both structurally and socially. Flats are situated on a raised "P" (for PODIUM) level, and on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th floor. The P level flats are a later 1980s addition but all the flats above it are split level

scissor section flat The scissor section flat is a distinctive way of arranging the Apartment, flats in an apartment block that was developed in the 1950s by London County Council Architects department. The interlocking design provides a way of maximising the space giv ...

s, arranged over three primary floors and wrapped around a central communal corridor. This provides each flat with a dual aspect unobstructed by external corridors more usually found on high rise social housing in the area. In 2020, the area of the building hold garages was remodelled by the Council to create Elephant Arcade, a series of small business units destined to rehome 11 traders dislodged by the demolition of the nearby shopping centre.

Tenant management

Perronet House set itself up as a Tenant Managed Organisation (TMO) under the UK's 'Right to Manage' legislation for

council house A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 ...

s. However it was Southwark's first TMO to fail and management of the block returned to the council in 2004. In April 2012 a new Tenants and Residents Association was formed.

Media coverage

Time Out London
used images of the garden of the tenth floor communal sundeck in an article about Food Up Front, part of a feature on slow food
See a scan of the article here
*The Guardian filmed guerrilla gardeners temporarily retreating to a Perronet House flat after an encounter with police while gardening on the Elephant and Castle north roundabout
See the video here
*The boo
On Guerrilla Gardening
by Richard Reynolds (Bloomsbury 2008) includes numerous photos and references to Perronet House and the building also appears illustrated on the back cover
See more about the book here
*In December 2007 Hollywood actress

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film '' The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, i ...

made a surprise visit to Perronet House. Her arrival made the front page of the

South London Press The ''South London Press, London Weekly News and Mercury (formerly South London Press)'' is a weekly newspaper currently based in Catford, South London. The newspaper covers the latest news, sports and features within the south, central and west ...

See a scan of the article here

External links

Perronet House Tenants and Resident Association
Image:PerronetHouse_front.jpg, Perronet House viewed from the

. Image:Perronet House, London SE1.jpg, A view with showing the distinctive 'half floor' arrangement between the internal walkways (shown by the end windows) and the accommodation floors (shown by the side windows) Image:Perronet_house_back.jpg, An estate agent's sold sign at the rear of Perronet House

References

Residential buildings in London 1970 establishments in England Residential buildings completed in 1970 {{London-struct-stub