Another London brutalist tower by Erno Goldfinger, Balfron Tower was built between 1965 and 1967 a 26 storey block in a brutalist style, featuring 136 flats and 10 maisonettes. The lift shaft was designed in its own separate service tower, joined together by 8 walkways.
Balfron Tower was designed as a social entity to re-house communities living in poor housing or bomb-damaged areas following the Blitz. This appealed to Goldfinger’s socialist thinking.
The circulation tower included a launderette, a table tennis or billiards room, a music room for teenagers and a hobby room. Goldfinger and his wife, Ursula, lived in one of the flats for 8 weeks following its completion in 1968.
The second phase of this development, Carradale House, was built in 1967 and features 88 flats over 11 storeys. Goldfinger planned the layout so the flats made the most of the sunlight, using dual window aspects and providing south-facing balconies.
The third phase of this development took place between 1972 and 1975 Glenkerry House was designed in Goldfinger’s Corbusian-inspired interlocking arrangement of flats and maisonettes. At 14 storeys high, its design shares the same aesthetic as Balfron Tower and Carradale House, using concrete aggregate and fine bush-hammered concrete finishes.
