Brixton’s Barrier Block: ‘When it went up everyone hated it’

Fifty years on, architect Magda Borowiecka explains why she had limited scope in designing Southwyck HouseMore than 50 years after it was designed, Southwyck House still looms over Brixton in south London, drawing fascination and dislike in equal measure.Originally council housing, the giant concrete structure with tiny windows has been likened to a prison and is known locally as the “Barrier Block”. There was speculation when it was built in the early 1970s the people offered housin