Goldfinger

‘Acquired taste’ is one of my favourite expressions in English. It is something that you may not find beautiful (or tasty) at first, but that you gradually come to love after repeated exposure. Take ‘brutalist architecture’. At first glance it is an abomination, but over time you develop an appreciation. It can also be that a building is so ugly that it becomes beautiful again.

Take Erno Goldfinger’s two London residential towers: the Trellick and the Balfron. I pass the former, in North Kensington in West London, on my excursions along the canal to Wembley. I see the Balfron, in Poplar in East London, when I cycle to see West Ham United or Tottenham Hotspur. They are grey-brown residential towers; 31 and 26 stories high respectively. The separate lift shaft gives them unique contours. They are impressive buildings. Masculine.

The Trellick was designed in 1972 by British-Hungarian architect Ernő Goldfinger on behalf of the then far-left council. It was his last major project. Ian Fleming, who died in 1964, reportedly found Goldfinger's earlier buildings, including those in Hampstead, so repulsive that he named his villain in the James Bond thriller after him. Goldfinger, not the most easy-going man, thought that wasn’t nice.

He threatened a libel lawsuit, so Fleming's publisher paid him some compensation. The architect also received six free copies of the book.

After completion, the Trellick quickly became an attraction for junkies, vandals, prostitutes, public urinators and graffiti sprayers. In the 1980s, a concierge was hired, which led to improvements. Towards the end of the century, the tower became a popular place to live, partly because of its view and its location near Notting Hill. It served as the setting for the beautiful song Little 15 by Depeche Mode. T-shirts of the Trellick were even sold at the nearby Portobello Market.

The Balfron, the smaller brother, is nine years older than the Trellick. Goldfinger himself was very pleased with the design and lived in apartment 130, on the 25th floor, for two months in 1968. He and his wife gave receptions with French champagne and Cuban cigars to find out what the residents liked and didn't like about his design. Goldfinger applied what he learned to his design for Trellick Tower. He believed in self-improvement.

The Balfron did not fare well, despite a cameo appearance in the film For Queen and Country. Its location, in an immigrant neighbourhood and next to a motorway, did not help. In 2000, Simon Jenkins wrote that it was a no-go area for humanity. ‘Trash, chicken wire and graffiti abound,’ he wrote in The Times. ‘The tower is without charm or visual distraction. It makes Wormwood Scrubs seem like the Petit Trianon. Poverty is not Poplar’s curse. The curse is architecture.’

Two years later, the building was an apocalyptic film set for the zombie horror film 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle.

But here too, redemption arrived, albeit belatedly. The nearby Docklands has attracted increasing interest from people working in the financial sector. In recent years, the flats have undergone a major refurbishment. Social tenants were forced out and told they could not return unless they could pay the free-market rent. What the Marxist Goldfinger, who died in 1987, would think of this invasion of big money, is anyone's guess.