A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land. Joshua Abbott

      FIVE PRECIOUS WOUNDS

      1967

      Burles, Newton and Partners

       Harlesden NW10 8ER

      CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION

      1957 Grade II

      J. Harold Gibbons

       Wembley Park HA9 9QL

      Five Precious Wounds is a brutalist-style church in red brick designed by John Newton of Burles, Newton and Partners. The church building features long windows strips with stained glass, with a presbytery and church hall included as part of the complex. A more traditional style church can be found at the Church of the Ascension, Wembley. It was the last church designed by Harold Gibbons and the outside is in Gibbons’ favoured Gothic Revival in stock brick. Inside, the whitewashed walls allow the altar mural by Hans Feibusch and stained glass work by W. T. Carter Shapland, among others, to shine.

      NORTHWICK PARK HOSPITAL

      1969–75

      Llewelyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier-Walker and Bor

       Northwick Park HA1 3UJ

      Large brutalist hospital on the northern edge of Brent. It was built between 1969 and 1975, and designed by John Weeks, with engineering by Ove Arup and Partners. The idea behind the design was to allow flexibility for expansion of medical services over time as technology changes. To achieve this the scheme is arranged in a street system with buildings able to change purpose and be extended as needed. The style of the buildings is very much of its time, with heavy use of both prefab and in situ concrete elements, and an irregular arrangement of windows throughout.