Golden Lane Estate
Bowater House
Bowater House was named after the Lord Mayor of 1953, Sir Noel Vansittart Bowater. There seem to have been a dynasty of Bowater Lord Mayors. Sir Thomas Vansittart Bowater MP was Lord Mayor in 1913.; Major Sir Frank Bowater in 1938; and Sir Ian F. Bowater in 1969.
Bowater House is a slightly larger version of Cuthbert Harrowing House. The balconies of the flats certainly seem to be bigger. It looks over Fann Street at the front. At the back it looks over a paved courtyard towards Great Arthur House.
The flats run right through the building from front to back, and they face south at the front and north at the back. It provides three levels of maisonettes. There are [ ] flats over [ ] storeys, and each flat is on two floors. At the front, the flats have a view over the Barbican. It shares with Cuthbert Harrowing House the decorative effect of royal blue boards below the windows which give the effect of blue strips running along the building.
It has a spacious area with a ramp down to it from the main car park whose entrance is roughly behind the building. There are obviously a lot of keen gardeners who have put out some very attractive pots. From the private courtyard, residents of the ground floor flats take 3 or 4 steps up though little wooden gates, into tiny front porches containing their front doors.
The entrance to the upper flats is on the Golden Lane end of the building. Corridors run along the back on alternate floors to give access to the upper flats. The remaining floors provide small terraces.
