In praise of ziggurats

The heart of the Andover Estate is beautiful and unusual.

Giant redbrick ziggurats face onto shared gardens.

There are no cars. It feels (for good and for ill) like a different world from the Victorian streets around it. 

                         

           

I'll hand this over to Pevsner: 'The strikingly massed Andover Estate (by the GLC, from 1972) was a late phase of this development [The Campbell Bunk slum clearance]. It builds up from two storey terraces and four-storey deck access maisonettes, to a towering group of ten-storey ziggurats on giant pilotis. Angular forms somewhat softened by universal use of brindled russet brick, brown pantiles and blue balcony planters.'

 

                           

Take a look around if you're passing by.