The Alton Estate is a large council estate situated in Roehampton, southwest London. One of the largest council estates in the UK, it occupies an extensive area of land west of Roehampton village and runs between the Roehampton Lane through-road and Richmond Park Golf Courses. Designed by a London County Council design team led by Rosemary Stjernstedt, the estate is renowned for its mix of low and high-rise modernist architectureconsisting of Alton East styled a subtle Scandinavian-influenced vernacular and its slightly later counterpart: Alton West. At Highcliffe Drive on Alton West the LCC essentially retained the Georgian landscape and placed within it five ultra-modern slab blocks: Binley, Winchfield, Dunbridge, Charcot and Denmead Houses, inspired by Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation. Overall, the estate, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2009, has over 13,000 residents, making it one of the largest in the United Kingdom. The architecture is mainly split between brutalist architecture and its Scandinavian-inspired counterpart. Planning for redevelopment of the area is currently under way by Wandsworth Council. The Alton is sub-divided into 10 smaller neighborhoods, each with their own signage. They are, in alphabetical order: Arnewood, Danebury, Highcliffe, Hyacinth, Ibsley, Manresa, Norley, Tangley, Tunworth and Wanborough.
Alton East
The Alton East Estate consists of point blocks and low-level housing. The design "represents a desire by some architects to formulate a British version of modernism that was more sensitive to context and referenced a traditional vernacular."
Alton West
At the time of its completion in 1958, Alton West was considered by many British architects to be the crowning glory of post-World War II social housing. What made Alton West so special at the time was its response to its setting. Built on a large expanse of parkland on the edge of Richmond Park, Alton West was a direct translation of Le Corbusier's idea of the Ville Radieuse or park city, sets of "point" and "slab" blocks being surrounded by the beauty of Richmond Park below. On this natural landscape at Alton West stood a number of different housing configurations: 12-storey "point" blocks with four flats per floor; terraces of low-rise maisonettes and cottages; and, perhaps most famously, five 11-storey "slab" blocks, heavily influenced by the Unité d'Habitation by Le Corbusier, completed in 1952.
Notable buildings and establishments
Roehampton has a rich history and, now, to a certain extent so does the Alton Estate itself. Within the locale of the footprint occupied by the estate there are several notable buildings and establishments
Clanfield House is one of eight red brick blocks of maisonettes built during the 1950s, on the east section of the Estate. It is an example of early attempts to create urban utopian communities, particularly in the use of allotments in front of Clanfield House.
