{"id":3729,"date":"2011-03-24T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=3729"},"modified":"2012-01-25T16:53:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T16:53:52","slug":"brixton-and-the-unexpected-coutts-bank-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/brixton-and-the-unexpected-coutts-bank-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Brixton and the unexpected Coutts Bank connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

With its peeling paint, neo-brutalist\u00a0lines and Cold War looks,\u00a0336 Brixton Road\u00a0sports all the charisma of a soon-to-be-condemned failed\u00a0council\u00a0project, but this stark concrete oddity from the late 1960s has a rather high\u00a0fallutin’\u00a0past.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

Rather rudely wedged between two\u00a0early 19th century houses, the\u00a0strikingly modernistic \u00a0structure certainly makes an impact in this photo from\u00a0Lambeth Landmark<\/a>, taken shortly after opening.<\/p>\n

No doubt looking well funky and cutting edge on the achitect’s drawing board, the\u00a0building was built as a warehouse for Chadesley Investment Ltd (now part of Greycoat plc.).<\/p>\n

In 1971, the\u00a0five storey block was converted to be used as a computer centre for none other than the ultra-traditional, toff-tastic private bank, Coutts & Co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not for the likes of us<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coutts is known as a bank for the rich and famous of British society, the bank’s client list has included Queen Victoria, Lord Byron, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin, the Duke of Wellington, Charles Dickens, Lord Nelson and The Beatles.<\/p>\n

Despite being taken over by RBS in 2000, Coutts remains secretive and selective about their customers, allegedly refusing<\/a> to take former glamour model Katie Price (aka ‘Jordan’) as a client, even though her wealth was estimated at \u00a330 million.<\/p>\n

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

Coutts Bank cleared off in 1979 and the building remained empty until 1984 when the property was given to Lambeth Accord by RBS\/NatWest.<\/p>\n

Lambeth Council then funded the building conversion into a centre of accessible excellence and initially four disability charities moved into the building [Source: RIBA – PDF file<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

The building now provides office accommodation for 13 charities housed on the 1st\u00a0to\u00a04th\u00a0floors of the building, and there’s a few small offices on the ground floor along with a community conference centre.<\/p>\n

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

This photo was taken back in December 2005, straight after the Routemaster bus had been taken\u00a0out\u00a0of service<\/a> – hence the banner\u00a0celebrating\u00a0its demise.<\/p>\n

\"Brixton<\/p>\n

I think it’s fair to say that time hasn’t been too kind to this building, and with the recent demise of the\u00a0Pope’s Road car park<\/a>, it’s making a good case to grab the now-vacant accolade of ‘Brixton’s Ugliest Building’.<\/p>\n

It desperately needs a lick of paint. Or demolition.<\/p>\n

Discuss it here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With its peeling paint, neo-brutalist\u00a0lines and Cold War looks,\u00a0336 Brixton Road\u00a0sports all the charisma of a soon-to-be-condemned failed\u00a0council\u00a0project, but this stark concrete oddity from the late 1960s has a rather … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,193],"tags":[199,1191],"class_list":["post-3729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brixton","category-places","tag-architecture","tag-brixton"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/335-brixton-road-london-sw9-03.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-Y9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3729"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3769,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3729\/revisions\/3769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}