Darbishire Place, Whitechapel

Niall Mclaughlin – Peabody Housing, Darbishire Place, Whitechapel, London.

Shortlisted for RIBA 2015 Stirling Prize, this new social housing block in Whitechapel by architect Niall McLaughlin provides flats for 13 families on a Peabody housing scheme close to the Tower of London. Surrounding it are the four mansions designed by Henry Darbishire and built in around 1870 by the Peabody Trust as ‘model dwellings’ to house the needy. This new block was built on a site left empty after the fifth original Victorian building was destroyed by a bomb in World War II. The five blocks in Darbishire Place surround a children’s playground.