The Balfron Tower is somewhat of an ugly icon. It was designed together with its twin the Trellick Tower by Maxist architect Ernő Goldfinger and it has a love-hate relationship with the public due to its Brutalist design.
The mammoth building – which was voted the ugliest in the UK by the Mirror – was built between 1965 and 1967 for the Greater London Council (GLC). Situated in the Brownfield Estate in Poplar, east London, it overlooks the busy A12 and was a monument to social housing, containing 146 units.
It was Grade II-listed in 1996 – meaning it has special protections due to its design and architecture.
Goldfinger – who was the namesake of the Bond villain – was a committed Maxist and designed the building as what he called “streets in the sky” and it included rooms for table tennis, billiards as well as a hobby room for older residents.
He even lived there himself for a while to test out the property with his wife Ursula to gather feedback for future projects.
But it went on to have a more chequered future – particularly in the 1980s and 1990s when it was taken over by Tower Hamlets Council, becoming a hotspot for vandalism and drug use. Dark, dingy and dilapidated it was even used as an apocalyptic film set for the zombie horror movie 28 Days Later in 2002.
Then it started gaining a different, more positive reputation – with designer Wayne Hemingway using it as a place for a pop up timewarp and charging visitors £12 a time to have a look around.
The 27-storey tower’s council tenants were “decanted” and a £57m upgrade went ahead so the flats could be sold on the private market for up to £800,000 each. Cindy – who lived in the building for 25 years – explained: “It means home. Security.
“Because I’d been there 25 years and I had my son in there. “It was the only home he’d ever known. He grew up in Balfron Tower playing run-outs, fighting with neighbours.”
In 2010, Cindy was told she would be moved out to allow for the refurbishment, reports The Mirror.
The social residents were moved out by 2015 – and it was made obvious that they would not be permitted to return.
But, according to a report in Novara Media in the summer not a single one sold, meaning the future of the tower was left uncertain.
Express.co.uk has approached Balfron Tower Partnership, a joint venture with Poplar Harca and developers Telford Homes and Londonnewcastle, for comment.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1844138/uk-ugliest-building-upgrade-east-london
