A photo book on Kate Macintosh's Dawson's Heights housing in south London

If you've spent time in south London, you have probably spotted Dawson's Heights without knowing its name. The housing complex, two blocks holding nearly 300 flats, went up between 1964 and 1972, and its lead architect for Southwark Council was Kate Macintosh, who was just 28 when she began the project. Its stepped brick façade and carefully worked massing make it visible from far and wide, and the residents get remarkable views in return.

Thirty-Six Views of Dawson's Heights is a compact monograph from the local Half Pint Press, and the title nods to Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Michael Jones took the photographs, catching the building from a scatter of spots around the area, and John Gray, who writes the South London Landscape History zines, supplied the text. The publishers describe it as a pandemic project: on lockdown walks they kept noticing the blocks from everywhere, each angle a little different.

Wallpaper*'s Jonathan Bell argues that Macintosh's architecture resists being read as a single building on a hill, which is exactly what the many viewpoints draw out.

The book costs £16 from Half Pint Press. A good one for anyone who likes post-war housing, or who has a favourite view of this skyline from their own corner of south London.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 18 October 2026. Read the original