Great Plumtree flats

 This mornings walk brought us round past the Great Plumtree flats - a building that I’d looked at before and thought I just look at in more detail, but had then completely forgotten about. It is definitely deserving of a second look though… 

Ignore the bins - buildings like this were far nicer to photograph back in the days of the big metal Palladin bins stashed away in the communal bin store, alas, the local bin men complained about having to lug them about…now they complain instead about having it make many more trips to and from the bin lorry with the wheelie bins, a case of “be careful what you wish for” perhaps! 

Anyway, above there is half of the front face looking into the road, with Stort Tower overlooking it to the right. Tricky to know where to start - the lovely brickwork perhaps - I think the contrasting top section has always been there, but it almost looks like a later addition as one might see on top of a Leslie Green tube station in London. Then there is a the beautiful curved crittall windows on the stairwell - the ridged uprights to each side mirror the shaping on the balconies of the tower behind. 

The recessed balconies originally present on the first floor are now mostly filled in - with just the one still present on this side. You get the impression that a lot of folk now use them as little utility rooms, or enclosed verandas. 

When you step around to the other side of the building things step up a notch with a beautiful double-curve on a second attached longer block -  on this side too there is evidence of the now filled-in recessed balconies, and more of those tall curvy crittall windowed stairwells - such a refreshing change from the dark stairwells so often a feature of this sort of building. 

The walk-through space under the building leads to a large green space with almost a patio area adjacent to the flats - some people have placed garden furniture here, and some of the ground floor flats clearly cultivate a small area as effectively their own little garden too, nice to see communal green space being well used! The walk through area also has the original “pram cupboards” still visible too - although whether these are still used by any of the flats it’s difficult to say. 

These little cupboards would have been present in all the flats originally built in the construction of the new town - the planners were well aware that young families in flats didn’t have the space to store the substantial sized prams that most mums favoured at the time, and so took steps to ensure that the facility was there to keep them safe. 

All in all this block stands out as an absolute gem - and it’s a delight to see that here at least the council haven’t trampled over the original features in the way they have elsewhere. That can probably be put down to the Mark Hall North area where these flats sit being in a conservation area - hallelujah for that!