Londoner’s Diary: Isokon Flats

This modestly scaled development in Belsize Park is said to be the first International Style apartment block in London. Designed in the 1930s by Wells Coates, the Lawn Road Flats (as originally known) were home to Marcel Breuer, Moholy Nagy, Walter Gropius, Agatha Christie and Henry Moore in their heyday. They were in a decrepit and loveless state by the end of the Modernist century, and underwent extensive renovation by Avanti Architects in 2004–5. Good and timely though this renovation was, it didn’t extend to reintroducing the Isobar, a place where meals and drinks were formerly served for the residents and their guests.