Chalcots Estate ︎︎︎

The land that Chalcots Estate is built on is part of Eton College’s Chalcots Estate. The Chalcots Estate was gifted to Eton College by King Henry the VI in 1449. The prestigious private school has owned and leased property on the estate ever since. The Chalcots Estate stretches from Finchley Road to the east to Chalk Farm to the west with borders at Regent’s Park and Belsize Lane. The College started speculatively building homes for lease on the Chalcots Estate in the 1840s. These were built for the middle classes. Eton College insisted that the Primrose Hill tunnel be built to avoid loss of buildable land for housing.

The area was a target for bombing in the Second World War because of the mainline railways. After the Second World War, Eton College was worried about the area losing its middle class character. Following a lengthy court battle about how much Eton could legally charge in lease fees as a college, Eton decided to redevelop the area to make as much profit as possible from this desirable piece of land.

In 1963 Eton College received four tenders to redevelop the land. They decided to choose London Merchant Securities with Dennis Lennon and partners as architects. Lennon was inspired by Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin and designed low-rise houses for sale on long leases and four tower blocks of flats for sale on long leases. The redevelopment led to large scale evictions of existing tenants in the pre-existing subdivided Victorian villas. As a result, Hampstead Borough Council entered into negotiations with Eton to include some social housing. Lennon and co. consequently increased the number of flats on the four towers from 5 per floor to 7 per floor and the four towers became social housing. The four towers of Chalcots are named after villages close to Eton College.


Chalcots Estate today
The flammable cladding at Chalcots Estate was installed in 2006. It took 3.5 years to install and caused significant disruption to residents. The only company to tender for the recladding was the Partners for Improvement Consortium who reduced the price from £119 million to £66 million by using combustible cladding. The cladding was installed under a Private Finance Initiative. A week after the Grenfell Fire, the cladding at Chalcots was found to be the same type of combustible cladding used at Grenfell. Every resident was evacuated while the cladding was removed. Camden Council used its cash reserves to pay for the cost of evacuating all residents. In 2019, Partners for Improvement went into liquidation making reimbursement for the new cladding very difficult. The recladding was supposed to be completed in 2021. Today, in 2023, the works to reclad the blocks and install new windows have finally begun, with residents being moved into temporary accommodation once again.

Chalcots at a glance

Year completed

1969

Architect

Dennis Lennon and partners

Commissioned by

Eton College, then leased to Camden Council

Managed by

Hampstead Borough Council (planning phase) 1963-1965; then Camden Council to present

Historic landowners
Eton College

Materials

Concrete

Density

531 properties per hectare

Chalcots composition at a glance

Council owned properties	522
Leasehold properties	116
Freehold properties	0
Total	638

Chalcots bedrooms

Bedrooms	0	1	2	3	4	5	Total
Chalcots	91	103	273	180	1	0	638