Cohen House, Chelsea

Chermayeff and Mendelsohn’s 1935 project, Cohen House on Old Church Street in Chelsea

Built for the founder of Cressett Press, Dennis M. Cohen, member of the Jewish Refugee Committee who together with his wife, played an important role rescuing children from Germany through the Kindertransports programme. He was also the British publisher of writer Patricia Highsmith. This project would have appealed to Erich Mendelsohn at so many levels, himself a recent refugee.  Birkin Haward was assigned to the project and later worked with Mendelsohn in Jerusalem.

The house is often bracketed in conversation with Levy House, which sits adjacent to it, designed by Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry for playwright and Labour Party Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Eton and Slough, Benn Levy and his wife, actress Constance Cummings. And, to cement the artistic powerhouse, the two houses shared a large garden.

Image Paul Farmer CC BY SA 2.0