London council estates

Love 'em or hate 'em they're an unavoidable feature of the city, as post-war reconstruction provided an opportunity for new architectural styles to be tried and tested. Some worked: some didn't.

A new book, London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946-1981, compares and contrasts.

Why are some London council estates considered notorious, while others are arguably the most desirable places to live in the capital? As the most comprehensive photographic document of the London council estate, this book provides an insight, featuring some 275 estates from every borough and the City.

Some of them feature here:

As part of our Social Housing Revival series, Dezeen asked the creator of the new London Estates book to select the 10 most influential examples of modernist council housing built in the UK capital in the post-war period.

Balfron Tower and Dawson's Heights are among the estates featured in the book, which showcases social housing built in London during a major public construction boom in the decades following the second world war.

Photographer Thaddeus Zupančič, who produced the book, has a long-standing interest in housing estates, which increased when he moved to London.

"I was always interested in housing estates, first in my native Slovenia and then, on my travels around Europe, also in Vienna, Berlin and Paris," he told Dezeen.

London Estates: Modernist Council Housing 1946-1981, described by publisher Fuel as "the most comprehensive photographic document of council housing schemes in the capital", features both famous and lesser-known housing estates all over London. "After I moved to London, I started discovering even more exciting council estates – mostly modernist, some brutalist, usually post-war," he added. "I find their vital contribution to the social and architectural fabric of the capital truly fascinating."

Wells House, Spa Green Estate, Islington (1949)