{"id":441411,"date":"2026-02-23T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441411\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:53:11","slug":"bell-phillips-creates-scalloped-facade-for-london-housing-block","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441411\/","title":{"rendered":"Bell Phillips creates Scalloped facade for London housing block"},"content":{"rendered":"

A scalloped facade<\/a> of white brickwork<\/a> overlooks a public square at Albion Street, a housing<\/a> block in east London<\/a> by local architecture studio Bell Phillips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Located on the site of the former Albion Street Civic Centre in Rotherhithe, the 3,027-square-metre project provides 26 homes for social rent and shared ownership, alongside retail spaces and a public square.<\/p>\n

\"StreetBell Phillips has completed a housing block in east London<\/p>\n

For the housing block’s design, Bell Phillips<\/a> sought a “common language” between two distinctive Grade-II listed churches that bookend the site \u2013 the 1920s St Olav’s Norwegian Church and the 1950s Finnish Church in London.<\/p>\n

To the northeast, the older church informed a larger, five-storey red-brick block, which sits on a large plinth containing retail spaces to complement the existing shops on the opposite side of the street.<\/p>\n

\"FacadeIt has a scalloped facade of white brickwork<\/p>\n

By contrast, the smaller southeastern block nods to the more modernist style of the Finnish Church, finished in white brickwork with a distinctive scalloped facade overlooking the public square.<\/p>\n

“The two-storey red brick plinth responds to the horizontal banding of the traditionally-styled Norwegian Church, while white brickwork is used to tie together with the tone of the Finnish Church,” explained Bell Phillips co-founder Tim Bell.<\/p>\n

\"Close-upDeep-set balconies overlook a public square<\/p>\n

“The materials palette suits a building that seeks to achieve a strong civic presence, and enabled the creation of a distinctive scalloped fa\u00e7ade that sits comfortably alongside its similarly characterful neighbours,” Bell added.<\/p>\n

“Both of these architectural elements are new, unexpected, and intriguing, but simultaneously harmonious with the existing architecture.”<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

Stanton Williams creates faceted retirement complex in Hampstead\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Albion Street contains a mix of one-, two- and three-bed apartments, with the building’s shallow depth meaning that the majority are dual-aspect.<\/p>\n

Living spaces have been positioned away from the north of the plan and the busy Rotherhithe Tunnel Approach, instead overlooking the street to the south from white-steel balconies atop the red-brick block’s two-storey plinth.<\/p>\n

\"InteriorIt contains 26 mixed-tenure homes<\/p>\n

At the southeastern end, balconies are deep-set into the scalloped white-brick facade to provide privacy from the public square below, which was upgraded with the area’s popular Scandinavian markets in mind.<\/p>\n

Where the block steps back at the fourth floor, a shared roof terrace has been created for residents.<\/p>\n

\"AlbionA shared roof terrace is located on the fourth floor<\/p>\n

Albion Street marks the first stage of a two-phase project by Bell Phillips for Southwark Council, which will be followed by a second block of 50 homes on the neighbouring Renforth Street.<\/p>\n

The studio, founded by Bell alongside Hari Phillips in 2004, recently completed a housing block in Marylebone,<\/a> which featured a similarly scalloped facade in pale brickwork, and added a series of mirrored pavilions to a science campus in Oxfordshire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Kilian O’Sullivan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A scalloped facade of white brickwork overlooks a public square at Albion Street, a housing block in east…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,160638,43353,1120,309,96,11126,4658,388,11127,40339,40340,150834,13135,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-441411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-bell-phillips","tag-bricks","tag-design","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-facades","tag-housing","tag-london","tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","tag-sectionall","tag-sectionarchitecture","tag-sectionexclusives","tag-social-housing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}