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Trellick Tower is a Grade II* listed
tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...
on the Cheltenham Estate in North Kensington, London. Opened in 1972, it had been commissioned by the
Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
and designed in the
Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
style by
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
Ernő Goldfinger. The tower was planned to replace outdated social accommodation, and designed as a follow up to Goldfinger's earlier Balfron Tower in East London. It was the last major project he worked on, and featured various space-saving designs, along with a separate access tower containing a plant room. High-rise apartments and Brutalist architecture were falling out of favour by the time the tower was completed, and it became a magnet for crime, vandalism, drug abuse and prostitution. Its fortunes gradually improved in the 1980s after the establishment of a residents' association. Security measures were put in place and a
concierge A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the errands of ...
was employed, which led to lower crime levels. By the 1990s, the tower had become a desirable place to live, and although it still contains predominantly social housing, demand for private flats has remained high. A local landmark, it has been Grade II* listed since 1998, and has retained its distinctive concrete facade as a result. A fire broke out in 2017, but the concrete structure meant damage was limited, unlike the nearby
Grenfell Tower Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. The tower was named after Grenfell Road, which ran t ...
. Trellick Tower has featured on film and television several times.


Location

Trellick Tower is on the Cheltenham Estate in
Golborne Road Golborne Road is a street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London's Kensal Town. The road runs east from Portobello Road to Kensal Road. Golborne Road is situated just north of and parallel to the Westway; it also joins Port ...
, Kensal Town,
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is an Inner London borough with royal status. It is the smallest borough in London and the second smallest district in England; it is one of the most densely populated administrative regions in the ...
(RBKC). It is bounded to the north and east by the
Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...
and to the south by the A40 Westway and the
Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the o ...
leading from London Paddington station. The nearest stations are
Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...
(
Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partl ...
and London Overground),
Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...
and Westbourne Park (
Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is cons ...
and Hammersmith & City lines). The tower is served by London Buses route 23.


Design

The tower is tall ( including the communications mast) and is a Grade II*
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
. The design is based on Goldfinger's earlier and slightly smaller Balfron Tower in Poplar, East London. It has a long, thin profile, with a separate lift and service tower linked at every third storey to the access corridors in the main building, which overall has 31 floors. Flats above and below the corridor levels have internal stairs, while the 23rd and 24th floors are taken up by maisonettes split over the two floors. Overall, the building contains 217 dwellings and was originally owned by the GLC with the flats rented as
council flats A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...
. All the apartments have balconies. The other building, containing shops and amenities, has seven floors. The service tower has two additional floors higher than the main building, which includes a projecting plant room that holds the main heating system. It is fully linked by stairs in addition to the lifts, and also has a refuse chute mechanism. The majority of the plant and the hot water storage tank is located in the plant room, which reduces the need for pumps and reduces the amount of pipework needed. Shorter pipe runs also reduce heat loss. The oil-fired boilers originally used became obsolete due to the
1973 oil crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...
, the year after the tower opened. The flats now have electric heaters and the plant room, although disused, still houses most of the now defunct mechanism. Goldfinger designed the entire tower block freehand on butcher's paper. He planned various communal areas, and purposefully put slight variations in the structure so that each apartment would look different. He included a number of space-saving designs, such as using sliding doors to access bathrooms, and light switches embedded in the door surrounds. All apartments have large windows facing the balconies, in order to let in as much natural light as possible. As well as residential accommodation, there are a variety of shops, an office, and a youth centre. Throughout, quality materials were used in construction, including better fixtures and finishing the balconies with cedarwood. It was intended to be a good example of social accommodation alongside modern design.


History


Planning

Construction of Trellick Tower began in 1968, in order to replace sub-standard local Victorian housing. The tower was one of several such buildings, and was initially welcomed as a way of resolving the crises of post-Second World War housing. Goldfinger said "the whole object of building high is to free the ground for children and grown-ups to enjoy Mother Earth and not to cover every inch with bricks and mortar". Goldfinger had been encouraged to construct Trellick Tower by the
London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kn ...
(LCC) following the success of Balfron Tower, which had been commissioned in 1963 and opened four years later. He took his inspiration from Balfron, where he had moved into one of the apartments in order to experience what life would be like for the tenants, and invited residents round for regular cocktail parties to tell him their likes and dislikes. This feedback was incorporated into the design of Trellick Tower. Many immigrants from the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and the Caribbean settled in Trellick Tower, as for them it was one of the few affordable places to live in London. The tower opened on 28 June 1972; construction costs ran to £2.4 million. It was the last major project Goldfinger worked on; his reputation suffered as concrete tower blocks became unfashionable, and he died in 1987 before it could be restored.


Decline

By the time Trellick Tower opened, high-rise tower blocks were becoming unfashionable. The LCC had been replaced by the
Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
(GLC) by the time construction started, who put more stringent construction and financial constraints on the project. Shortly after its completion the building was transferred to the RBKC local council. Goldfinger had intended that tenants should be vetted for suitability and petitioned the GLC for the building to have proper security and a
concierge A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the errands of ...
, but the council declined his request. This meant that the building was open access and rough sleepers and drug criminals took up residence in its corridors. Drying rooms on the ground floor, designed by Goldfinger to stop tenants hanging laundry on the balconies, were vandalised before the tower block opened. By the late 1970s Trellick Tower was a scene of crime and anti-social behaviour, and many tenants were very reluctant to move in. On one occasion vandals set off a fire extinguisher on the 12th floor, with water from the sprinkler system flooding the lifts and leaving the tower without electricity, heat or running water over the Christmas period. A pensioner was forced to use the stairs after all the lifts were out of order, and subsequently collapsed and died. On the 15th floor, a 27-year-old woman was dragged from one of the lifts and raped. The tower became nicknamed "The Tower of Terror" and residents attempted to be re-housed. The GLC spent more than £300,000 on an
intercom An intercom, also called an intercommunication device, intercommunicator, or interphone, is a stand-alone voice communications system for use within a building or small collection of buildings which functions independently of the public telephon ...
system and wholesale electrical repairs, but reliability and management problems made them counterproductive. In 1982 a man was killed after jumping off the top of Trellick Tower when his parachute failed to open. He was a member of a group of dangerous sports enthusiasts who were interested in BASE jumping. The action was condemned by the
British Parachute Association British Skydiving is the national governing body for skydiving in the United Kingdom. Overview British Skydiving was founded in 1960 to organise, govern and further the advancement of sport parachuting within the UK. British Skydiving aims to ...
.


Revival

With the introduction of the " right to buy" council homes, several of the flats were bought by their tenants. On 8 October 1984 a new residents' association was formed. As a result of pressure from the occupants, several security improvements including a door entry intercom system were installed, and a
concierge A concierge () is an employee of a multi-tenant building, such as a hotel or apartment building, who receives guests. The concept has been applied more generally to other hospitality settings and to personal concierges who manage the errands of ...
was hired in 1987. In 1994 residents in the tower, along with other residents in Kensington & Chelsea council properties, elected to self-manage the properties, in order to avoid increased rents and the threat of eviction. Four low-power television relay transmitters with aerials were added to the communications equipment on top of the lift tower in December 1989, to solve reception problems for some residents of adjacent districts, including Notting Hill and
Westbourne Grove Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, an area of west London. Its western end is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its eastern end is in the City of Westminster; it runs from Kensington Park Road in th ...
. The transmitter installation is referred to by the BBC and
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
as "Kensal Town". In 1991,
Sand Helsel Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
, Professor of Architecture at RMIT, made a BBC documentary praising Trellick Tower, which helped to change public opinion in its favour. The tower subsequently became more respectable owing to its location in Notting Hill and the gentrification of Golborne Road. Property prices rose and flats in the tower came to be regarded as highly desirable residences; requests to sell flats began to be posted on the tower's communal noticeboard. By 1999 a flat in the tower could sell for £150,000 (£ as of ). In 2013 a three-bedroom end apartment (with views on three sides) was let for £2,600 pcm. The tower itself is a local landmark and was awarded a Grade II* listing in 1998, which included the main building and the adjacent row of shops and amenities. Also included is a doctor's surgery with the original shop front and layout. Most of the flats are still social housing, but a significant minority are now privately owned. On 19 April 2017 the top floors of the tower caught fire, believed to have been started by a discarded cigarette. There were no injuries. The building's listed status meant that the concrete facade could not be covered over, which is thought to have prevented a far worse fire similar to
Grenfell Tower Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. The tower was named after Grenfell Road, which ran t ...
which happened a few months later.


Redevelopment plans

As of 2021, there are plans to demolish neighbouring buildings and to extensively alter the tower's immediate surroundings, including by adding a sixteen-storey block at an immediate right angle to the tower. The charity
Open City In war, an open city is a settlement which has announced it has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of the imminent capture of the city to avoid destruction. Once a city has declared itself open the opposing military will b ...
described the plans as "the latest in an ongoing programme of incremental demolition of Goldfinger’s world renowned social housing estate which has already seen the neighbourhood’s Edenham Residential Care Home knocked down", adding the tower to its 'Buildings at Risk' list. The plans would also involve destroying a graffiti wall, and a campaign has been started to oppose the scheme.


Cultural references

In recent years, Trellick Tower has become a London icon, appearing on T-shirts, featuring in adverts, films, and songs, and attracting visitors. The tower was the filming location for ''
Shopping Shopping is an activity in which a customer browses the available goods or services presented by one or more retailers with the potential intent to purchase a suitable selection of them. A typology of shopper types has been developed by scho ...
'' (1994), written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, is featured in the film ''
For Queen and Country ''For Queen and Country'' is a 1988 crime drama film co-written and directed by Martin Stellman and starring Denzel Washington in Panavision. Washington stars as Reuben James, a Black British former paratrooper, who joined the British Army to esc ...
'' (1988), starring
Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...
. Additionally, it can be seen in the films ''
Withnail & I ''Withnail and I'' is a 1987 British black comedy film written and directed by Bruce Robinson. Loosely based on Robinson's life in London in the late 1960s, the plot follows two unemployed actors, Withnail and "I" (portrayed by Richard E. Grant ...
'' (1987), ''
London Kills Me ''London Kills Me'' is a 1991 film written and directed by Hanif Kureshi and starred Justin Chadwick and Steven Mackintosh. Cast and roles * Justin Chadwick as Clint Eastwood * Steven Mackintosh as Muffdiver * as Sylvie * Roshan Seth as Dr. B ...
'' (1991), '' Never Let Me Go'' (2010) and '' Paddington ''(2014). The tower is believed to have been the inspiration behind J. G. Ballard's dystopian novel '' High Rise'' (1975) and its 2016 film adaptation directed by Ben Wheatley. The tower also features in
Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ' ...
' black comedy novel ''
London Fields London Fields is a park in Hackney, London, although the name also refers to the immediate area in Hackney surrounding it and London Fields station. It is common land adjoining the Hackney Central area of the London Borough of Hackney. The p ...
''. Several music videos have featured Trellick Tower, including releases from Blur (which refers to the tower in their song "Best Days"). Trellick Tower has appeared in several television adverts, including idents for the BBC's coverage of the
2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
. The whole of one side of the building's exterior was used for the credits for the BBC's children's television show '' Incredible Games'', starring David Walliams, in the early 1990s. The tower was used as a filming location (and a character's home) in '' The Professionals'' episode "The Madness Of Mickey Hamilton". Additionally, the tower was used as the location of game developer Colin Ritman's apartment in the '' Black Mirror'' interactive episode/film ''
Bandersnatch A bandersnatch is a fictional creature in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'' and his 1874 poem ''The Hunting of the Snark''. Although neither work describes the appearance of a bandersnatch in great detail, in ''The Hunting ...
''. It was later featured on the cover for the ''Meanwhile'' EP produced by the band Gorillaz, after previously appearing in the music videos of both "
Tomorrow Comes Today "Tomorrow Comes Today" is a song from British alternative rock virtual band Gorillaz's self-titled debut album ''Gorillaz'' and was their first release when issued as an EP in November 2000. The first three songs from the EP ended up on the ...
" and "
Sleeping Powder "Sleeping Powder" is a song by British virtual band Gorillaz. The song and its accompanying music video were released on 8 June 2017 via YouTube, with a live debut occurring that same day. It was later released for streaming via Spotify and iTu ...
".


See also

*
Tall buildings in London St Paul's Cathedral, built in 1710, was the tallest building in London at until it was overtaken in 1963 by the Millbank Tower at , which in turn was overtaken by the BT Tower which topped out at tall in 1964. In the 1960s and 1970s several h ...
* Tower blocks in Great Britain


References


External links

* – history of the tower * – blog {{Authority control Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Grade II* listed residential buildings Skyscrapers in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Brutalist architecture in London Ernő Goldfinger buildings Residential buildings completed in 1972 Residential skyscrapers in London Buildings and structures in Notting Hill 1972 establishments in England