Ernö Goldfinger’s Forgotten Nursery:

A Modernist Vision for Childhood

Abbatt Building Frame Catalogue: Abbatt Toys: Modern Toys for Modern Children, by Alan Powers available from Greyscape.com

Ernö Goldfinger, the Hungarian-born architect known for his uncompromising Brutalist structures, was also a visionary in designing spaces for children. In the late 1930s, when British nurseries were still shaped by Victorian sensibilities, Goldfinger, alongside Mary Medd (née Crowley), introduced a radical new approach to early years education. His nursery design, which was created for the Contemporary Industrial Design Exhibition in collaboration with educational toy pioneers Paul and Marjorie Abbatt, was an exemplar of modernist thinking applied to childhood development.

1936 Toy shop for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Limited, 94 Wimpole Street, London. RIBA Collections

Goldfinger’s design, known as the ‘Expanding Nursery School,’ was revolutionary. At its core was flexibility: the space could adapt to different activities, allowing children to move seamlessly between play, rest and learning. Rejecting traditional nurseries’ heavy, dark furniture, Goldfinger’s scheme embraced clean lines, modular furnishings, and an emphasis on natural light. The design was published in The Architect’s Journal, showcasing a nursery that was not just a place to leave children but an environment actively shaping their cognitive and social development, a space designed for learning.

active learning, creativity, and play-based education

The nursery was based on a unit system, borrowed from continental modernists like Le Corbusier but adapted to a child’s scale. Here, functionality met modernism. Low, accessible shelves encouraged independence, while lightweight tables and chairs could be rearranged to suit different activities. Every element had a purpose: storage was built into walls to maximise floor space, and materials were chosen for durability and hygiene. The emphasis on function, movement, and interaction reflected the core principles of modernist design – form following function, but in a way that placed children’s needs at the forefront.

Toy shop for Paul and Marjorie Abbatt Limited, 94 Wimpole Street, London. Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections

Ernö was both a client and friend of the Abbatts. He shared their fascination with toys as educational tools. Paul trained as a teacher, and Majorie studied psychoanalysis at University College London. Alan Powers, author of Abbatt Toys for Modern Children, which is well worth reading, wrote that they visited some of Austria’s ‘lively and advanced’ schools during their extended two-year honeymoon in Europe. They were in the heartland of new childhood and special education thinking, where Milan Morgenstern and Helena Löw-Beer were doing groundbreaking work. This research informed the creation of Abbatt Toys in 1932, which featured building blocks and a climbing frame which became a standard in school playgrounds, winning the 1969 Observer newspaper design award. Goldfinger designed their child-friendly shop, an unknown concept until then, at 94 Wimpole Street and their Tavistock Square apartment. Their groundbreaking reimagining of a doll’s house allowed a child to play with it, Dol-Toi supplied modern doll’s house furniture.

British Pavilion, Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, Paris 1937: the children’s section with furniture and toys by Abbatts RIBA Collections

In a further intertwining of the modernist movement in Britain, they chose Bauhaus-trained Edith Tudor-Hart, an Isokon resident, trained Montessori kindergarten teacher and a recruiter of the Cambridge spy ring, to photograph their 1934 catalogue.

The Goldfinger-Abbatt climbing frame, known as the Building Frame, was designed in the 1950s as a modular play structure. It aimed to promote active, creative, and independent play and reflected progressive educational principles to create well-designed, developmentally beneficial toys and play equipment for children. The frame’s simple, modernist wooden design allows it to be climbed, rearranged, and adapted to different play environments.

Despite its significance, Goldfinger’s nursery is often overlooked in discussions about modernist design. His later works, notably Balfron and Trellick Towers, defined his legacy. Yet his approach to children’s spaces was just as radical, applying the same rigorous logic and human-centred thinking that would later shape Britain’s postwar housing.

Today, as architects and designers rethink educational environments, Goldfinger’s nursery stands as an early and vital example of modernism’s potential to transform how children engage with the world around them.