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Balfron Tower

Welcome to Balfron Tower!

This landmark building was designed by the modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger in 1967 and forms a bold, sculptural presence in London’s east end.

When Balfron Tower was commissioned in 1962, London’s housing stock was in the process of being increased and upgraded. Wartime bombsites presented an unprecedented opportunity for new housing across the capital, both high and low rise. In Poplar, the Borough Council had identified a potential location for a new residential tower, a site named the Brownfield estate after a local doctor.

Ernö Goldfinger was approached by the London County Council to draw up the scheme, having become known for his exploration of ideal high-rise plans for London during the war. These in turn had been inspired by his studies in Paris and the work of Le Corbusier and Auguste Perret.

Balfron Tower, together with its West London sibling Trellick Tower, was an opportunity to put these ideas into practice. The design featured a scaled down version of the ‘streets in the sky’ found in other local authority schemes. Each apartment or maisonette was accessed via a set of corridors running from the lifts in the service tower. This approach maximised the amount of liveable space in the building, allowing for generously sized apartments. The extensive use of cast and poured concrete gave the building a distinctive aesthetic that stood out in the tough urban environment.

Balfron Tower was a typically utopian construction on a site originally occupied by low-rise terraces. From the outset, Goldfinger was careful to emphasise the importance of ‘community life.’ Together with his wife Ursula, the couple had a well-publicised stay in the Tower after construction, living high up in apartment 130 for eight weeks and conducting what we would now call ‘focus groups’. The Tower became a significant local landmark, standing alongside the new A102 dual carriageway and approach road to the new southbound Blackwall Tunnel, which opened in 1967 at the height of the automobile’s dominance of planning in London.

Capacity: 571 Residents
Quality: 92%

If you are a fan of this building, it would really mean a lot if you liked it on the workshop!
If you have any other pieces of Socialist Modernism/Brutalist Architecture you'd want to see created, just comment below, I am always on the look out for more inspiration!

OR come along to my Soviet City build on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/chrisbrammer

United Kingdom, Modernism, Brutalism, Council Estate, Social Housing, 1960s, Brutalist, Goldfinger, Le Corbusier