Walter Gropius (1883-1969), Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) and László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) – all designers and teachers at the Bauhaus, the vastly influential German art school – have today (9th July) been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque. The plaque was unveiled on the Grade 1 listed Isokon Building, originally known as Lawn Road Flats, in Belsize Park, where the trio lived and worked in the 1930s.

It was in Weimar in 1919 that Walter Gropius founded the Staatliches Bauhaus, to give it its full name – an art school which combined crafts and the fine arts, and was noted around the world for its pioneering approaches to design and its supposed links to political radicalism. Through keeping in constant touch with the rapid advances in ideas, new materials and technology, the Bauhaus created ground-breaking designs which had a lasting influence. Its key players also acquired a political reputation which made them unpopular with the oncoming Nazi regime.

Marcel Breuer initially attended the Bauhaus school as a student before becoming director of furniture workshops in 1924, while László Moholy-Nagy joined the staff in 1923, and edited the house magazine of the Bauhaus and its fourteen books, the Bauhausbücher, for which series he wrote on film, photography and architecture. After leaving the Bauhaus, all three went on to have successful careers in the fields of design and architecture, and all lived in the striking Isokon Building in Belsize Park. Designed to provide low cost accommodation for the increasingly mobile and single professional, the Isokon Building was completed in 1934, and was the first block of flats to be built in Britain in the fully modern style, becoming a landmark in progressive architectural design. In 1936, the building’s communal kitchen was converted into the Isobar restaurant, to a design by Marcel Breuer and FRS Yorke, and became a creative hub for residents including Agatha Christie, Naum Slutzky and for artists such as Henry Moore, and Barbara Hepworth who lived nearby.

At the unveiling, Kate Mavor, Chief Executive of English Heritage, said: “To be able to recognise three prominent individuals of the Bauhaus – Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy – together on the same building where they lived and worked is an excellent opportunity to honour their significant contribution to the fields of art, architecture and design. It is highly appropriate that their joint blue plaque will appear on the Isokon Building, itself an example of radical modern design.”

John Allan, Chairman of The Isokon Gallery Trust, said: “This plaque marks a significant milestone not only in celebrating these three giants of modernism, but also by giving further recognition to the Isokon Building that was briefly their home and refuge. Since the Isokon Gallery opened in 2014, we have welcomed over 15,000 visitors from around the world who want to learn more about the remarkable story of Isokon, in which these three Bauhauslers play such an important part, and this blue plaque underlines the enduring resonance of this story.”

Other speakers at the event included Kate Davies, Chief Executive of Notting Hill Genesis; Gerry Harrison a former Camden Borough Councillor and campaigner for the Isokon; Charlotte Schwarzer, Head of Culture and Education at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; Beáta Margitay-Becht, Deputy Head of Mission for Hungary; John Pritchard, grandson of Jack Pritchard the original client, on behalf of the Moholy-Nagy family; and Wolf Burchard on behalf of the Gropius family.

The English Heritage blue plaque to Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and László Moholy-Nagy, is at Lawn Road Flats, in Belsize Park, Hampstead, London, which was built by Wells Coates for the design entrepreneur Jack Pritchard – for whose Isokon Furniture Company Marcel Breuer designed chairs. The Isokon Gallery exhibition space in the former garage of the building tells its story and that of its famous residents; these also included Agatha Christie, who already has an English Heritage blue plaque at another of her homes in Kensington.

Other people and places prominent in the history of modern architecture and design recognised under the London Blue Plaques Scheme include Isokon Building architect Wells Coates (Knightsbridge), the furniture designer and retailer Sir Ambrose Heal (Pinner), Coventry Cathedral architect Sir Basil Spence (Islington) and the designers Edward McKnight Kauffer and Marion Dorn (commemorated together in Chelsea).