Ernö Goldfinger Hampstead London

Souvenir brochure

Ernö Goldfinger's modernist house in Hampstead, London

On a recent visit to London I visited the stark modernist architecture of Ernö Goldfinger at 2 Willow Road, now owned by the National Trust.

I love visiting houses like this and seeing how the other half live, this time in leafy Hampstead. This is and has always been a neighbourhood inhabited by the wealthy set. The following is taken from the London design museum's website. Goldfinger is, like all the famous architects of his generation, from a wealthy, privileged background. He married Ursula whose was also wealthy.

"Born in Budapest in 1902, the son of a wealthy Austrian lawyer, Golfinger lived in Hungary until 1919 when, the country came under communist control after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. His family moved to Vienna, where he was educated for a year before going to school in Switzerland and then moving to Paris to complete his studies. Originally intent on sculpture, Goldfinger settled upon architecture and won a place to study it at the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts."

..."Supported by his family's wealth, Goldfinger led an indulgent, yet intellectually stimulating life in Paris."

Ernö married Ursula Blackwell (from the Crosse and Blackwell empire). According to Nigel Warburton, author of Ernö Goldfinger: The Life of an Architect, it was Ursula's trust fund that financed the houses at 2 Willow Road.