Balfron Tower is soon to be refurbished. Just before this begins, Bow Arts Trust has been given the opportunity to curate a month-long programme of arts and culture to celebrate the life of the building and the people who have lived there.
The UK‘s National Trust has announced the ‘pop-up’ opening of a property in Ernö Goldfinger‘s famous Balfron Tower in London, offering public access to Flat 130 of the brutalist icon from the 1st to the 12th of October. Completed in 1967, the Balfron Tower was the first of Goldfinger’s two distinctive London housing blocks (the other being Trellick Tower), and in 1968 Goldfinger himself lived for two months in Flat 130, to demonstrate the desirability of high-rise living.
The interior of Flat 130 has been furnished by designers, Wayne and Tilly Hemingway -Hemingway Design, in the style of a 1968 period flat, recapturing the mid-century modern ambience that would have permeated the building when it first opened.
The tours are being offered as part of Balfron Season, a programme of events presented by Bow Arts in association with the building’s owners Poplar HARCA. The events mark a crucial point in the tower’s history, as Poplar HARCA is preparing the Grade-II listed building for an extensive renovation.
“Balfron Tower, along with its younger sister Trellick Tower, is a testament to a particular moment in time when a vision of a utopian post-war Britain coincided with Brutalism – an architectural movement that indelibly changed the landscape of our urban environment,” said the National Trust. “The National Trust already cares for Goldfinger’s own home in Hampstead, 2 Willow Road, so the Balfron Tower is the logical choice for the Trust’s first foray into Brutalism.”
Tours will meet at Langdon Park DLR station and pass by the 1950s Festival of Britain architecture and Chrisp Street Market. Tours will include a discussion on the development of post-war social housing. Tours continue to the Balfron Tower and Flat 130. They will be led by a new team of National Trust volunteers who have an interest in Modernism, social housing and the local area.
Tickets are available to book online here.
Tours take place as follows.-
When.- Wednesday 1st – Sunday 5th October and Wednesday 8th – Sunday 12th October 2014. Tours last approximately 75 minutes and leave at 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm 10 people per tour, priced £12 (£10 for students with valid ID).
A specially-written guidebook to post-war Poplar, Balfron Tower, and the recreation of Flat 130 has been written and is being printed for the opening. It is available as a pdf on request.
Where.- Balfron Tower. St Leonard’s road. London E14 0QT. UK.
