Trellick Tower | London's Brutalist Giant
Trellick Tower
London's Brutalist Giant
There are some buildings in London that you simply cannot ignore, and Trellick Tower is certainly one of them.
Rising above the streets of North Kensington, its unmistakable concrete profile can be seen from quite some distance. It is tall, uncompromising and, depending on your opinion of Brutalist architecture, either magnificent or absolutely dreadful.
Personally, I think it is magnificent.
Trellick Tower is one of those buildings that becomes more interesting the closer you get to it. Photographs show the famous outline, but standing underneath it gives you a completely different appreciation of just how enormous the building actually is.
Designed by the Hungarian-born architect Ernő Goldfinger for the Greater London Council, Trellick Tower was completed in 1972. At 31 storeys high, it became one of the most distinctive examples of post-war social housing in Britain.
Today it is also one of London's most recognisable Brutalist landmarks.
Ernő Goldfinger
You cannot really talk about Trellick Tower without talking about Ernő Goldfinger.
Goldfinger was one of the most important figures in British Modernist architecture and had already designed Balfron Tower in Poplar, East London.
Trellick developed many of the ideas seen at Balfron on a much larger and more imposing scale.
Perhaps the most obvious feature is the separate service tower standing alongside the main residential block.
This contains lifts and stairs and is connected to the flats by enclosed walkways at various levels. The boiler house originally sat dramatically at the top, giving the service tower its distinctive appearance.
It is an unusual arrangement and one that makes Trellick instantly recognisable.
Even if you know very little about architecture, once you have seen Trellick Tower you tend to remember it.
Concrete on a Huge Scale
Trellick is an impressive piece of architecture simply because of its scale.
The main block stretches horizontally while the narrow service tower rises alongside it. The two structures are linked together by bridges, creating a profile that looks almost industrial.
There is very little attempt to hide how the building works.
That is one of the things I like about Brutalist architecture.
The structure is part of the appearance.
Concrete isn't covered up and service areas aren't necessarily hidden away behind decorative façades. Everything is there to be seen.
Look closely at Trellick and you begin noticing the repeating balconies, windows, walkways and concrete panels.
From a distance it appears almost like one enormous object.
Up close there is much more going on.
A New Way of Living
Trellick Tower belongs to a very particular period in British history.
After the Second World War, Britain desperately needed new housing. Large areas of London contained overcrowded and poor-quality homes, and councils began looking towards Modernist architecture as one possible solution.
High-rise developments promised light, space, modern kitchens, bathrooms, central heating and views across London.
For many families moving from older housing, these new flats initially represented a considerable improvement.
The philosophy behind developments such as Trellick is sometimes forgotten today.
These weren't simply architects experimenting with concrete.
There was a genuine belief that good design and modern architecture could improve people's lives.
Unfortunately, the reality didn't always work out as planned.
Difficult Years
Trellick Tower developed a particularly bad reputation during the 1970s and 1980s.
Problems with security, vandalism and crime became associated with the building, while some of its communal areas became difficult to manage.
The tower became an easy symbol for everything critics believed had gone wrong with Britain's high-rise housing experiment.
Newspapers didn't exactly help.
Stories about Trellick reinforced its reputation and the building became associated with urban decline rather than architectural ambition.
For a period, demolition might have seemed a perfectly believable future for it.
But something interesting happened.
Trellick survived.
And attitudes began to change.
From Unpopular Tower to London Landmark
© Daren Frankish. All rights reserved.
Over the years improvements were made to security and management, while residents themselves played an important role in changing the fortunes of the building.
At the same time, attitudes towards post-war architecture began changing.
Buildings that had previously been dismissed as ugly concrete mistakes were being looked at again.
Architectural historians, photographers and conservationists started recognising the importance of structures such as Trellick Tower.
In 1998, Trellick Tower was given Grade II* listed status.
That was an extraordinary turnaround for a building that had once become almost shorthand for the supposed failure of high-rise council housing.
Today it is protected as one of Britain's most important post-war buildings.
Photographing Trellick Tower
From a photographic point of view, Trellick is fantastic.
The building changes enormously depending on where you stand.
From certain angles the main residential block dominates everything. Move around the building and suddenly the service tower becomes the main feature.
Then there are the walkways connecting the two.
These small bridges are an essential part of Trellick's appearance and emphasise the separation between the residential accommodation and the circulation tower.
Black and white photography works particularly well here because it brings out the concrete, shadows and repeating patterns.
But colour can be equally interesting, especially when you have a deep blue London sky behind the grey concrete.
The weather makes a huge difference.
On a dark winter afternoon Trellick can appear almost intimidating.
On a bright summer day it can look surprisingly elegant.
That is one of the things I enjoy about photographing Brutalist buildings. They react dramatically to changing light.
Brutalism Without Decoration
There is nothing delicate about Trellick Tower.
It doesn't try to look like the Victorian terraces surrounding many parts of West London, and it certainly doesn't attempt to hide its size.
It is exactly what it appears to be.
A huge concrete residential tower.
And I think that honesty is part of its appeal.
Modern London is increasingly filled with glass towers that can sometimes feel strangely anonymous. They are polished, expensive and technically impressive, but many could probably be placed in almost any major city in the world.
Trellick couldn't be anywhere else.
It feels completely connected to a particular moment in London's history.
More Than Just a Building
What is sometimes forgotten when people discuss famous architecture is that Trellick Tower isn't a museum.
People live here.
It remains a residential building and has been home to generations of Londoners.
That is important to remember when visiting or photographing it.
There is a tendency for Brutalist buildings to become architectural attractions, particularly now that the style has become fashionable again. But Trellick was designed first and foremost as housing.
Behind those concrete balconies are people's homes.
That gives the building a completely different character from something such as London's Barbican Centre or the National Theatre.
Trellick is living architecture.
An Icon of Brutalist Britain
It is strange how architectural fashions change.
There was a period when Victorian buildings were considered outdated and demolished.
Later, many people wanted to demolish Britain's Modernist and Brutalist buildings.
Now some of the best surviving examples are protected.
Trellick Tower has probably experienced one of the most dramatic changes in reputation of any British building from the post-war period.
Once notorious, it is now photographed, studied and admired around the world.
You will find it in architecture books, documentaries, exhibitions, music videos and countless photographs of London.
Its silhouette has become part of the city.
Final Thoughts
Trellick Tower will never appeal to everyone.
Brutalism doesn't work like that.
Some people will stand beneath it and see nothing more than an enormous grey concrete tower.
I see something completely different.
I see one of the boldest surviving pieces of post-war architecture in London.
Trellick represents optimism, ambition, mistakes, changing attitudes and ultimately survival.
It has been praised, criticised, neglected and rediscovered.
And after more than half a century, it is still standing above North Kensington looking every bit as uncompromising as Ernő Goldfinger intended.
Love it or hate it, Trellick Tower has character.
And London would be considerably less interesting without it.
By Daren Frankish
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