WHERE CRIME CAREER BEGAN

The Isokon Building in North London is one of the UK’s best-preserved examples of modernism, an architectural style that has divided opinion since its birth during the 1930s.

But one fan of the building’s angular staircases and whiter-than-white walls was Murder on the Orient Express writer Agatha Christie.

She lived in one of its apartments between 1941 and 1946 while employed in the pharmacy at University College Hospital in central London.

It is said that while working there she picked up her intimate knowledge of poison, a subject that proved handy in her later books including 1945’s Sparkling Cyanide and 1961’s The Pale Horse.

The story of the Isokon Building is an unusual yarn too. Built in 1934 it rapidly became a home for architects and artists including sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and painter Ben Nicholson, all of whom met regularly at its then communal dining room. The flats were bought and sold as a single unit several times but eventually ended up in the possession of the local council during the early 1970s. By the 1990s it had been abandoned and lay derelict. Refurbished in 2003 for its new owner, Notting Hill Housing Trust, it now contains both affordable housing for key workers and private flats and has been granted Grade I listed status.

Agatha Christie’s rooftop flat is now for sale at £950,000. It’s the building’s penthouse and is a 66 sqm one-bedroom apartment with a 21 sqm roof terrace.

More information from The Modern House, 020 3795 5920.