Via CZWG Architects
The Postmodern former home of journalist Janet Street-Porter in London has won Grade II-listed status for its ‘wholly untraditional’ and ‘extroverted’ aesthetic.
Piers Gough – principal of CZWG – designed the Britton Street townhouse for Street-Porter in 1987, describing it as a ‘portrait’ of the outspoken TV personality. The pair met as students at the Architecture Association (although Porter went on to a career in the media) and shared a passion for the provocative Postmodern style.
‘It is a celebratory scheme,’ Gough told the Architect’s Journal. ‘It’s idiosyncratic; it looks like its owner. It was not an expensive building but it carries a visual punch.’
The PoMo property sits on a street surrounded by Georgian buildings and rises four storeys, echoing the height and volume of its neighbours. Its façade features a diamond frame motif that continues across its angular windows up onto the top floor terrace and polygonal roof.
Says Historic England: ‘The overlaid interlinking diamond frameworks across the façade create a wholly untraditional aesthetic, to which the materials, chosen due to happenstance and budget, contribute.’
Street-Porter sold the Clerkenwell property in 2001 and commissioned David Adjaye to build her new residence nearby.
Postmodernism is among the most controversial and outlandish styles that shape London’s landscape. Several key examples of the movement have been listed in the last two years, including James Stirling’s No.1 Poultry – which carries the title of England’s youngest Grade II* listed building – and Sir Terry Farrell’s 1980s Comyn Ching Triangle complex.
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