Abingdon and Benson Houses

Abingdon and Benson Houses form part of the Boundary Estate, Bethnal Green and comprise sixty residential units many of which are now leasehold. Both buildings were designed in 1898 by the LCC Architects Department, Housing of the Working Classes Branch, and at the time were an innovative solution to the problems of social housing. The intervening years, however, saw the buildings decay dramatically and we were tasked with liasing with the residents, English Heritage and the planning department, surveying, specifying and administering the refurbishment contract. All details including roofs, windows, doors, masonry and rainwater goods replicated the original design – details of which have been faithfully recorded from drawings kept in the London Metropolitan Archives.

Client: the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.