A flat for sale in the building where Agatha Christie lived, and it's both the most interesting and most affordable home for sale in Hampstead today

The Modernist artists who based themselves in Hampstead in the 1930s had, it's fair to say, a mixed reception from critics. At one show a critic wrote that 'having paid two shillings and sixpence for seeing the exhibition, I would willingly pay five shillings for not having seen it.'

If if was rocky for the artists, the Modernist architects bringing their ideas to this leafy corner of north London were even more divisive, sparking outrage among traditionalists at the time. 'The amazing thing is that any of their work was built at all,' wrote Corin Hughes Stanton in a Country Life article in 1976. 'The fact that it was is probably due as much to the weaker planning laws than exist today as it is to any other circumstances.'

Thankfully, they did, and today many of these buildings are revered landmarks. The Isokon flats in Lawn Road, Belsize Park, are the ideal example. These serene apartments, described by Agatha Christie as looking 'like a giant liner moored against a bank of trees,' are a Grade I-listed landmark, and among the most revered modernist buildings in London.

Christie, incidentally, knew of what she wrote: the Isokon building on Lawn Road in Belsize Park was her base in London during the 1930s. It could now become yours, for one of the flats is currently up for sale at an eye-catching £495,000. Not only is this one of the most storied and elegant buildings in NW3, it's also one of the most affordable.

In this neck of north London, with that price tag, and with a healthy 168 years left on the lease, you perhaps won't be surprised to hear that the flat on the market at the moment is rather tiny, at just 427 sq ft. Yet despite its size, it's just as practical as you'd hope of a building designed by Wells Coates to be in keeping with the Le Corbusier philosophy of a house as a 'machine for living'.

To that end, there is a long, relatively narrow living and dining room, separate kitchen and a reasonably sized (12ft2in x 9ft10in) bedroom, which you have to pass through to reach the bathroom.

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In practice, the bedroom and living space merge in to one, with the large sliding doors between them effectively acting as movable walls. Huge windows let in plenty of light to this space, and the present occupant's layout creates zones: a sitting area, a small dining table, the study in one corner of the bedroom, and even the library, if you like: a handsome, built-in book case taking up the end wall of the living room.

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The whole place is decorated in a clean, minimal style that's entirely in keeping with the original philosophy of the building: the first owners at the Isokon were told that 'all they needed to bring was a chair and a bed'.

The bed you can source from anywhere, but for the chair the new owner really ought to try and source another Isokon classic: the Marcel Breuer-designed 'Long Chair', created in 1936, and the sort of thing you can imagine Le Corbusier himself being happy to settle down in. Like the flats with which they share an origin, the Long Chair is a design classic, and likely to set you back at least £3,000. That's enough to pay for a year's service charge at the Isokon, but seems a fair price to pay for a piece of living history — and you'll be able to tell visitors to your Hamptead home that the chair they're sitting in is just like the one in the V&A.

This first-floor apartment in the Isokon Building is for sale via The Modern House at £495,000, with a 168-year lease. Service charge is approximately £3,000 per year. See more details here.