2 Willow Road
Designed, built, and lived in by the architect Erno Goldfinger, this is a speculative development of three houses completed in 1939. It replaced a collection of small cottages which once sat on the site. The removal of the homes was bitterly fought by the author Ian Fleming, who lived nearby. Goldfinger was known to be a rather ardent modernist, arrogant and dismissive of others who disagreed with him. It is rumoured that Fleming named his villain Goldfinger in revenge for the loss of the housing and Goldfinger’s temperament.
Isokon
Thirty-two flats in a singular block, designed as an experiment in minimalist urban living. All of the "Existenzminimum" flats had very small kitchens, as there was a communal kitchen for meal preparation at ground floor level. The kitchen was connected to the residential floors via a dumbwaiter. Services, including laundry and shoe-polishing, were provided on-site. Built in 1934 to the design of Wells Coats, the building became a Mecca for the intellectual elite. Agatha Christie lived here between 1941 and 1947.
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