Chapman House, Bigland Street Stepney London E1

CHAPMAN HOUSE, ARTISAN FLATS AT STEPNEY - The new block of artisan flats, Chapman House, designed by Mr. Joseph Emberton, F.R.I.B.A., for the Chapman Development Trust, at the corner of Little Ann Street and Lower Chapman Street, Stepney, is an interesting experiment. So far as can be judged, building costs have been reduced to a minimum-4.5in. walls of reinforced concrete, painted externally with a sealing preparation and faced internally with a [in. insulation board, with a -,-in. plaster finish, standard metal windows, composition floors, which only require polishing, stained interior woodwork and flat asphalted roof-without any serious loss of comfort, convenience, or pleasantness. It is an L-shaped block, facing south and west, of 19 flats in four storeys. The first three floors are identical, each containing five flats. The top floor, set back and provided with a balcony, with galvanized rails and wire netting, has only four; the space occupied on the lower floors by the fifth flat being converted here into a children's playground, enclosed with galvanized netting. With its cream-washed walls, green painted window frames - those at the corner are continuous - and railed balcony above, the block has a pleasing and rather strip-like effect. Internally the rooms, distempered in a neutral cream tone, are very light and attractive, the living room measuring 15ft. by 14ft.,There are three types of flats: 13 with two bed rooms, living room with bed recess, kitchen, and bathroom, at a rent of 19s. 6d. to £1 per week inclusive; five with one bed room, living room with bed recess, kitchen, and bathroom, at a rent of 17s. 6d. per week inclusive; one flat with one bed room, living room, kitchen, and bathroom, at a rent of 16s. per week inclusive. Each flat has an Interoven kitchen range in the living room, and as an alternative heating system there are electric or gas coppers with Leighway valves, which in summer enable hot water to be obtained by syphoning from the copper into the bath and sink. In addition, gas or electric cookers are provided, and the kitchen fitments include an Easiwork dresser, sink, and coal cupboard; there is an airing cupboard in the. bathroom, whose walls, as those of the kitchen, are of washable enamel paint; and, in the principal bedroom, a deep built-in cupboard and gas or electric heating points. The staircase, communicating with a railed balcony to each floor of flats, is external, and in its main support ticre is a dust chute, consisting of a vertical tube, with a self-closing trap at each floor level., OPENING CEREMONY, LORD WIITERTON, chairman of the Chapman Development Trust, presided on Tuesday at the opening of the flats, which was performed by Mr. Geoffrey Shakespeare, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health. Lord Winterton said it was hoped, if the present flats were successful, to build others in the neighbourhood., Mr. Shakespeare said that under the Government’s. Five-year plan 1,300,000 people would be removed to new homes from bad houses. Now that there were cheap money and materials they looked to private enterprise to provide houses within the reach of the better-paid workers. This was an example, a building which, erected without the aid of a subsidy, compared favourably with the rents of subsidy buildings erected hitherto. He hoped that public-spirited people like Lord Winterton and Mr. Claude Leigh, associated with him in that enterprise, would find out that there was no better investment than bricks and mortar and no more patriotic service to render than to provide healthy homes for the people of the country. [Times Thursday 19 July 1934]