Great Arthur House, London

Name: Great Arthur House, London
Brand: Spaceplay
SKU: MINI_089
Price: 45.00 GBP
Availability: InStock

£45.00

Solid Cast-Concrete Miniature Model
Size: 8cm high, 6cm wide, 4cm deep
Scale: 1:750 (approx)

BUY TWO OR MORE MODELS AND GET 15% OFF

Follow the gridded façade up sixteen floors to the sculpted roof, every line crisp in concrete. The City’s first tower of homes, and the village that grew around it.

Made to order and shipped within 30 days

Designed and made in my UK studio

Comes gift-boxed for the perfect concrete gift

Express processing available for UK orders

Shipping

All Spaceplay models are made to order and are usually made and posted within 30 days.

All orders are sent using a tracked postal service, and you’ll receive tracking details once your model has been posted.

UK orders usually arrive within 3 working days after posting. International orders usually arrive within 8 working days after posting, although customs and local postal services can sometimes cause delays.

If you need your order for a specific date, please let me know before ordering and I’ll do my best to help.

UK customers can also select Express Shipping at checkout to have their model made and posted within 8 days.

Returns

You can return unused and undamaged items within 30 days of delivery for a refund, excluding return postage costs.

If your model arrives damaged, faulty, or incorrect, please email me within 14 days of delivery with your order number and photos of the issue. I’ll arrange a free replacement to be made and posted to you.

For EU orders Click Here

Building Information

Location: Golden Lane Estate, City of London, EC1
Architect: Chamberlin, Powell and Bon
Completed: 1957 (estate completed 1962)
Status: Grade II listed (estate protected since 1997)

Brief Overview:
Great Arthur House is the 16-storey tower at the centre of the Golden Lane Estate, built by the City of London Corporation on a site devastated in the Blitz to house people who worked in the City. Designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, who went on to design the neighbouring Barbican, it was briefly the tallest residential building in Britain and the first building to break the City’s 100-foot height limit. Its yellow-panelled façade and rooftop garden, with pergolas and a pool looking out towards St Paul’s, made it a symbol of post-war optimism.

Making my concrete model

Some buildings were the first to try something, and everything after followed their lead. Before the Barbican, there was Golden Lane. On a bomb site at the northern edge of the City, the young practice of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon built an estate for the people who kept the City running. At its centre rose Great Arthur House: sixteen storeys of flats with a yellow-panelled face and a garden on the roof, for a time the tallest residential building in Britain.

The challenge was keeping its lightness, a tall slab that still feels delicate, finished with its sculpted roof. Now it’s here. Where the Barbican story began, cast small enough to keep. Made for the residents and neighbours who know its yellow glow, the Barbican devotees who come looking for where it started, and anyone who believes good homes can change a city.

Great Arthur House, London

If you’ve walked through the Barbican and wondered where it began, look north to Golden Lane. This Great Arthur House miniature concrete model recreates the sixteen-storey tower at the heart of the Golden Lane Estate, the first major work of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon and, for a time, the tallest residential building in Britain. It’s London modernism at its most optimistic: a slim slab of homes, gridded and light, topped with a sculpted roof garden. Small enough for a desk, a bookshelf or a studio windowsill, this miniature concrete building makes a gift for an architect, a Golden Lane resident or anyone who loves post-war Brutalist architecture and its modernist roots. Each concrete model of Great Arthur House is hand-poured, finished on a laser-etched cork base and gift-boxed, with the weight and texture of real cast concrete.