I first saw Trellick Tower in 2020 and was fascinated by the design as I'd not seen anything like it before. Then when I read they were celebrating their 50th birthday on 9 June 2022 and were doing tours, I had to go and see.
Trellick Tower is located near Westbourne Park station, and lies between the busy main Great Western railway lines (from Paddington) and the Grand Union Canal. It is on the Cheltenham Estate in Golborne Road, Kensal Town, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The building has 31 floors. The lifts are in a separate access tower and stop at every third floor. There is also an old plant house in this lift tower, housing the heating system and hot water tanks, though it is no longer used. The rubbish chutes are in this tower.
The design is in the Brutalist style, the architect was Erno Goldfinger. Brutalist architecture is an architectural style which emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, part of the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that show the bare building materials and structural elements. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick.
The tower was meant for social housing originally when it opened in 1972, but soon became victim of crime and vandalism. Security was improved and by the 1990s it became a desirable place to live and many of the flats became private. It is now Grade II listed.
On the birthday celebrations, Ollie who lives on the 29th floor very kindly opened his flat to visitors. We took the lift up to the 30th floor, and then the access corridor and immediately inside the front door of the flat are stairs down to the lower level.
All the apartments have balconies. And the views are stunning, though I found the railway line very noisy.
The bedrooms are on the other side and face the canal. There was a lovely breeze flowing through so despite the hot day, it felt cool inside.
The Trellick Tower is the second Brutalist tower designed by Goldfinger, the first being the Balfron Tower in Poplar, which I have never seen.
See Wikipedia on Trellick Tower.
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