Balfron Tower and Carradale House
The Balfron Tower and Carradale House (originally Rowlett Street Phases I and II ) are a residential complex in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the east end of London . The social housing complex is located in the Poplar district not far from the north portal of the Blackwall tunnel on the A12. The buildings were designed by the architect Ernő Goldfinger in 1963 for the London County Council and erected between 1965 and 1967 by the Greater London Council . The structures are part of the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest grade II.
Description and architecture
The Balfron Tower is 84 meters high and houses 146 residential units on 26 floors, 136 of which are regular apartments and ten maisonette apartments . The individual floors can be reached via an elevator system, which is located in a separate tower building to the north, adjacent to the high-rise building. A special feature is that not every floor can be reached individually via the elevator. The elevator serves three floors each: the floor of the stop and one floor above and one below. The tower is connected to the main building via eight skyways and, in addition to the elevators, also houses laundry rooms , the garbage chute and a boiler room at the top. Balfron Tower has been included in the official list of monuments with grade II since March 1996. There are directional radio and television antennas on the high-rise. The channels BBC One and BBC Two are broadcast from the skyscraper .
To the north of the Balfron Tower is the somewhat simpler Carradale House residential complex . It was completed between 1967 and 1970 and also designed by Ernő Goldfinger. The 37 meter high residential building consists of two residential wings, which are also connected in the middle by a service tower for the elevator on each side by three skyways. Carradale House is also on the official list of monuments with grade II; the structure was added to the list in 2000. The 11-storey house has 88 apartments. There are underground garages below the high-rise buildings.
The two houses were originally called Rowlett Street Phases I and II before they were renamed after the two Scottish towns of Balfron and Carradale. Other buildings in the area also follow the naming pattern.
background
The topping-out ceremony for the Balfron Tower was on June 7, 1967. The architect Goldfinger, who was very much associated with the brutalist style, moved into an apartment on the 25th floor for two months in 1968. He and his wife threw a champagne party for residents to see what residents liked and didn't like about the house's design. He later incorporated the experience from this project into the more famous Trellick Tower . Goldfinger's architectural office built the 14-story Glenkerry House in 1971 in the same style on the same property.
In December 2007, according to the residents' vote, ownership of the two high-rise buildings was transferred to the property management association Poplar HARCA, which operates as a non-profit organization . She undertook to restore the buildings and return them to their original state. At the same time, the house is to be equipped with modern systems in order to meet today's standard of living. Until this work, some of the apartments were temporarily occupied by artists who created some works of art there.
Balfron Tower in the media
The Balfron Tower can be seen in the opening sequences of the music video Morning Glory by the music band Oasis . In addition, the skyscraper has often been featured in many British programs, such as the series Hustle , The Fixer or Whitechapel.
In the music video "P Money" by the British rapper Wiley, the residential complex can be seen in the background.
2015 called the band Champs on their album Vamala a title The Balfron Tower .
The house also served as the setting for the end-of-time horror thriller 28 Days Later . During the film, two survivors are shown entrenched in the Balfron Tower.
The house is also used as a backdrop in the movie Blitz .
literature
- Jörn Ebner: … getting on in years. Balfron Tower, 1963-65, Trellick Tower, 1966-72 . in: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 136, ISSN 0721-1902 , pp. 80–84.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ skyscrapernews.com: Balfron Tower
- ^ UK Broadcast Transmission
- ↑ skyscrapernews.com: Carradale House
- ↑ Appendix D - Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Guidelines. (PDF) Tower Hamlets Council, archived from the original on February 22, 2012 ; accessed on July 18, 2017 .
- ^ Nigel Warburton: Ernő Goldfinger: The Life of an Architect . Routledge, London, 2004, ISBN 978-0415379458 , p. 157.
- ↑ The New York Times : Child's Play , article by Alice Rawsthorn, Nov. 8, 2009
- ↑ londonist.com: Interview: Bow Arts In Balfron Tower , March 17, 2009
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 49 ″ N , 0 ° 0 ′ 32 ″ W.