Lauderdale Mansions South

Lauderdale Mansions South was built in eighteen ninety-seven and stands as a pioneering example of the mansion flat boom that transformed Maida Vale. It was the first of many such developments designed to provide spacious, modern apartments for the middle class who were looking for an alternative to traditional terraced houses. The building is divided into fifteen distinct sections, each with its own private entrance hall. This design choice allowed for individual privacy while still being part of a larger, communal residential complex. Sir Alec Guinness, the celebrated actor known for roles in The Bridge on the River Kwai and the original Star Wars trilogy, was born in a ground-floor flat here in nineteen fourteen. Residents of the complex share a private one point five-acre garden located at the rear of the property. This green space includes a meeting room for residents that was converted from a former boiler house. For most of the twentieth century, the Church of England owned the freehold to this building. In nineteen eighty-nine, the residents purchased the freehold themselves, forming a management company that is notably unusual in the United Kingdom for its democratic constitution. The company rules allow for board meetings to be open to any shareholder who wishes to observe, and all board minutes are made publicly available to the residents.