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Visionary who realised the dream of a democratic architecture
Sydney Cook’s contribution to the development of social housing is recognised in an excellent new book, says MICHAL BONCZA

Cook’s Camden: The Making of Modern Housing
by Mark Swenarton
(Lund Humphries, £45)

SYDNEY COOK’S contribution to architecturally innovative social housing is the stuff of legend.

Post-war, many of the housing estates he inspired and helped build in London — the Alexandra Road, Branch Hill, Highgate New Town, Maiden Lane, Polygon Road and Fleet Road — are today places of pilgrimage for students of architecture and urbanism from the world over.

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