BelSoc Committee member, Peter Wallace, writes:
Magnus Englund has a smile on his face. After a record year in 2025 for visitors to the architectural landmark that is the Isokon on Lawn Road, Director Magnus is looking forward to even greater success this summer.
Public interest in the 1934 building is only growing. Last year more than 6,100 visitors came at weekends to view what was then an experiment in “minimalist” living founded by the Belsize Park couple Jack and Molly Pritchard, two Left-wing intellectuals and advocates of the German “Bauhaus” style of construction.
Magnus told me visitors especially want to see the tiny flats that were home to such notables as Agatha Christie and Bauhaus masters Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer as well as the exhibition in the former garage area that tells them so much more about life in those times.
Now the building’s fame has spread, it’s become a favourite backdrop for fashion models posing for the camera while a visit to Isokon is a “must” for groups of architectural students from all over Europe.
Opening hours have had to be extended and more volunteers sought to cope with the flow of visitors. The annual “Open House Festival” in September brings queues more than a hundred yards long on Lawn Road.
What is it that attracts visitors most ? Could it be Isokon’s shady past ? After all, it was home to several Soviet spies and Kim Philby among others. Or perhaps its artistic heritage – sculptor Henry Moore or author Nicholas Monserrat ? Two experts give their views:
Stewart Purvis takes two “Hampstead Spies” walks a month to the Isokon. ” I keep finding more and more former residents who had a file at MI5, I’m up to seven now, he said.
Another is the fame of former residents, said Stewart: “When I’m talking to walkers the name of a resident that’s always get a “wow” is Agatha Christie. Mention of the Bauhaus movement divides the audience, those who have heard of it are excited, the non-cognoscenti can’t think what all the fuss is about. “All of them love anything that gives an idea what it is like to live in the flats, so the mock-up of a kitchen always intrigues, also what is the rent, can you buy one etc? One resident kindly allows us some access to their flat and it’s always the favourite part of any walk”.
Leyla Daybelge, an Isokon Trustee, takes groups around the building during the annual Open House Festival. “Every year I tend to find myself in the penthouse, giving talks to our visitors. Often they’ve had to queue for over an hour and climb flights of stairs to get there, but it is wonderful to see and hear their reaction. As they enter Jack and Molly Pritchard’s sitting room, there is a chorus of ‘wow’s ! “It’s a very special, storied space – beautiful, certainly, with its golden plywood walls and floor – but it also has a unique atmosphere, redolent of all the writers, intellectuals, architects and artists, who’ve spent time there.”
She said the Isobar, the in-house bar and restaurant, designed by Breuer, also seems to intrigue people. “In the 1930s and 1940s it was the place to see and be seen, amongst the artistic and intellectual set in North London and beyond. Presided over by chef/manager Philip Harben (later Britain’s first TV chef) it had an adventurous, daily changing menu and a great wine and beer list, as well as a roster of exhibitions by well known artists. “Probably the most frequently asked questions by visitors are: “Is the Isobar still there?” (it’s not) and “could it be reinstated?”
Could wine and beer return to the Isokon and how about at 1930s prices ? Over to you Magnus !
Isokon website. Opening hours Saturday and Sunday 11am-4pm from start of March to end of November. Free entry.
