Goldfinger’s Towers: Trellick Tower, And After 

"No Mister Tenant, I expect you to buy!"

He’s the man: the man with the concrete touch...

We need an equivalent of “turn in one’s grave” for those who are cremated. I suggest “churn in one’s urn.” It rhymes! 😜 Your analysis is spot on. The tower blocks are vertical neighbourhoods. A private corridor on the 18th floor is the same as a public street on the surface. Both need to be cared for constantly, whether it’s a hole in the carpet or in the asphalt. It’s a shame that councils built these lofty towers with lofty standards but never did basic maintenance. It’s a sin because it reinforces the stereotypes about the working classes, that they can’t take care of things, that’s it’s all they deserve. A tower block is like a model with a muscle body: they’re high maintenance. The difference between a proletarian project and a bourgeois condominium isn’t architectural, it’s TLC. One can easily turn into the other and back again.

I don't know why these videos about random London architecture are so entertaining.

“Do you expect me to talk?” “No Mr Bond, I expect you to live within your means!”

Trellik Tower used to have the loveliest coloured glass panels covering the back wall of the entrance. They were removed at some point and I felt that really took away from the soul of this great beast of a building.

Those buildings look less like a jail but still looks harsh. It sort of makes me think of a futuristic soviet thing. I really like the fact that he lived in one of the buildings for a while after if was finished.

We were one of the first families to move into Trellick back in '72. I was very young & was shielded from a lot of the social problems that I only really became aware of after we left. I do remember the surrounding area being extremely grim at the time & of being nervous when playing in the playgrounds beneath - since dismantled along with the garages & other walkways - due to objects raining down from above at times plus the long walks up the stairs when the lifts broke down. Great views though! I still pass by occasionally & always look up at our old flat.

What is the overhanging part of the stairwell section for? Was it meant to be a viewing tower or anything?

Nice callout to the Rivers of London books.

An enormous problem for social housing, especially local authority housing, is that there is a small proportion ( a smaller proportion than certain newspapers would have you believe) that might be classed 'problem tenants', and since this isn't a brutal totalitarian state (sound of worm-can softly opening) they have to be put somewhere, and no, not a concentration camp. And the moment a critical mass of these arrives in an estate, or even more so in a tower block, it's a death knell for improving community. For both of these blocks, on different sides of London, the problems really accelerated when somebody without imagination thought of them as sinks. Glenkerry is a poster for what might have been. Sixty years ago vandals would not have got away with stuff, because several burly men, and of course burly women, would have appeared and given them what might have been referred to as a clip round the ear. The price for community, as any resident of a village will tell you, is reduced privacy. It's a price well worth paying.

I think the story of him jumping from a roof comes from a German architect Goldstein who threw himself at a diagonal pane of glass in a viewing deck to prove it wouldn't break. It didn't, unfortunately the fixings did.

I remember a flat in Trellick Tower featuring on 'Changing Rooms' or some other such programme made in the name of "home improvement". I recall Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen or one of his cohorts covering a wall in the living room entirely in copper sheets. They were careful to point out the care they took around the light switch, ensuring the copper didn't come into contact with any of the electrical wiring for fear of making the entire wall...well...live!

Another interesting fact is that Trellick Tower was a transmitter site for the pirate radio station Thameside Radio in the 1980s

Interesting about the Trellick tower is also the boiler room. It’s interesting because it’s not in the basement - it’s that thing that protrudes from the tower. It even has windows. The boilers were never used because of the oil crisis I think. Latest plans were to turn this room into a penthouse.

Getting addicted to these vids and watching all the previous ones back to back. Just brilliant and so informative. Our head office is in London and I can’t wait to explore these places when we’re allowed back. Keep it up 👍🏻

Excellent - I literally just finished Part 1, and clicked the Bell to notify me of Part 2 - and it appears within minutes. Great Stuff Hazzard!

I think the idea was that these blocks would be set in parkland using all the space that they had saved. To extol the virtues of open space for families and children to justify your concrete edifice and then to fail to deliver the landscape setting is probably not Goldfinger's fault but it means that the tower was not what it was promised to be in terms of a place to live.

The one thing ive always loved about London is the fact that you do have cheap and expensive areas existing together cheek by jowl. Gentrification may eventually win, but in the meantime what it means is that you get less of the so called 'Ghettos' that become unloved no go areas. The area around Trellick Tower on a Friday and Saturday become the bottom end of Portobello Road Market. Most Tourists do not make it down this far but it is a good reflection of the area with middle eastern stands rubbing alongside your fruit and veg and your pile em high so called antiques!

Madness filmed some of the Los Palmas 7 video on Golborne Rd. You can see the tower in the background which is how I figured out where they were. The cafe is long gone. Madness are still around.

Gotta say, it's a magnificent looking building. You can see how it works from the outside very well, which corridors allow circulation and what the houses must look like inside. Few gallery blocks like it offer that: the apartments in the Trellic are personal, something more generic flats in this catagory are often accused of not being.

I live in Ladbroke Grove and the view from my window is dominated by the Trellick Tower. When I first moved to the area I hated it, but over time it has grown on me. I think that it looks like a large futuristic snail. It is best seen at night when the lift tower is all lit up (rare) or when floodlit in green around the anniversary of Grenfell 💚

Apartment blocs are indeed pretty okay if there are people who to take care of them. In fact, having somebody to take your packages when you're out and to coordinate the denizens feels pretty luxurious, even.

"No, I expect you to drop, Mr Bond."

Having lived in Russian cities usually comprised solely of tower blocks of various sizes (good luck to you if you can do something with a shape of a shoe box), I find these towers' architecture sinister and forbidding. They look aggressive and almost dystopian to me. As if it was a set piece from Clockwork Orange or something similarly Ridley Scott inspired. Russian tower blocks may be more basic and less architecturally imposing, but they don't give you this shiver down the spine, they are more friendly and less brutal, if you excuse the expression... And, dear Jago, please keep making these. You videos make my teatime even mare enjoyable. Thanks a ton for your work!

My favourite Tales From The Tube channel now covering my other geeky interest, Brutalist architecture. These 2 towers have long fascinated me, especially their journey from drug den to £500k property. Worth mentioning the lifts only stop at every other floor due to the design of the bridges to the main tower from the lift tower.

You’ve definitely hit the nail on the head about under investment in social housing. I live in social housing, flats to be precise, and we’ve warped walls, black mould, and our communal ceiling collapsed 11 months back. Trying to get them to fix anything is nigh on impossible.

Trellick sounds like a Cornish name.I went in the Trellick Tower about 2000 to the top floor to enjoy the views across London. Imagine living high up during the great storm of 1987.

Loving the run of Brutalist-focused videos, keep up the great work!

I always said the best thing to do with most Local Authority tower blocks was to add Concierges, and sell off or rent at a higher price (Barbican) , using the funds to fund lower rise family houses with Gardens (or flats - Golden Lane). The co-operative model can work, but if high maintenance costs are embedded in the style as it is , its not worth doing despite the social co-hesion objectives.

These have certainly shown that there are plenty of sides to every story. It's good to know that someone somewhere thinks of these as home and a good home at that. Thanks Jago, good job mate.

3:25 is so very beautiful! I live in a house that's slightly more than a hundred years old, and I like the feel very much. I never thought I'd even consider ever again moving into a block of flats, but I do think that Goldfinger had a point or two, followed through, and with the proper maintenance his buildings could be very good living environments. The are also much, much prettier than what was built here in Berlin at the time, esp. in the east.

I wouldn't want to live in one of these blocks, but these are well designed examples of brutalist tower blocks. It's credit to Goldfinger that Balfron and Trellick have been "yuppified" rather than demolished or left as sink estates for "forgotten" families.

I was lucky enough to live in a block of flats in Hammersmith in the 70’s as a kid and the community was very strong, everybody knew each other and kept the area looking good. It was a very safe place for all residents. Council workers and caretakers were very communicative, friendly and proud of their work. Oh how things have changed!

I’ve been passing Trellick Tower on my trips to London, via Paddington, over the last few years. Always wondered what the story was, so I knew I had to dive into the Jago Hazzard archive to see if there was a video. Great stuff

Another very interesting film, thank you. Great to see more and more 20th century architectural content on the channel.

Jago, Thank you for covering this . Just along the road from Trellick is the Edward Woods estate which when it was opened was a joy to visit . Largely occupied by happy residents in a well maintained estate overseen by a team of helpull caretakers. more recently a disgacefully rundown example of urban stress. the handy work of Hammersmith and Fulham council. Smack dead centre between the two is what is left of the Grenfell Tower community. Where the council got so fed up with the residents complaining about bad repairs and awful management , They employed a seperate mangement company to fob off the complaints. There is nothing wrong with the buildings in fact they range from being sound to 'bloody well done' but then then the powers that be have demonstrated that the ordinary and often poor people dont really qualify for decent treatment. We have come to realise it when Grenfell went up in flames . and so very little has improved since . I have always loved London and particularly North Kensington It makes me weep , literally in the case of Grenfell, to see the destruction an degradation. No end in sight yet I fear.

Huge Props for the Rivers of London shoutout!! Wonderful series of books!

That co-op housing sounds dope

Enjoying your videos about London and its history, keep up the good work.

Excellent presentation and stories of social history Jago.love the underground stories too,well done.

I enjoy your presentation of the circumstances and personalities that brought these buildings about, and how they fared afterwards. Perhaps the best way to understand this type of high rise construction. All glass is the current rage in tall buildings at the moment with the result that it is often difficult to discern individual floors or units from the facade. With these particular blocks, you can get some sense of both. Maintenance is an enormous factor in how these are viewed and how they are seen and remembered. I lived in a Tokyo high rise once. It was more of a point block than a slab block, which made a positive difference in the skyline. It was quite serene to look out over a vast city and think that you were apart of it, and yet above the fray, literally. I have met my share of international architects with all the charm of a cheese grater. Not all of them are that way thankfully. The problem tenants of the architecture world.

We lived in Westbourne Park a few years ago, and each time I we went out the front door we saw Trellick. At first I hated it, thought it was hideous, but, over time, once I'd actually looked at it properly, I came to appreciate it. I was still stunned when someone told me it was listed! I actually like the new windows too. I think they suit the architecture.

I lived across the road from Trellick from 2004 to 2019. A great commentary Sir! Lucid, well thought out and you speak precisely of the past present & future. I'll be recommending all my North Ken people to like and share. Thank you for making such a well done piece

Living on the corner of top floor of my block, at the Northern end of The White City Estate, i could see both the Trellick AND Post Office Tower's. They were a joy to behold; were futuristic looking and inspirational to me, back then, in the 70's & 80's

Great.. interesting and informative. Like the tone of delivery. All good. Thank you.

Another fantastic video. Really enjoying these. Although, it does make me miss home 😁 Would love to see videos about the Camden Catacombs, North London Line and the redevelopment of Kings Cross and St Pancras stations.

I really enjoy your witty humour especially when it comes to building designs around London please make more keep up the good work 👍 please make more videos 🤫

Enjoyed learning about buildings I have seen many times, but knew little about

So glad to see the second part. Always a delight to watch and listen to your retelling of interesting histories of London. Long may you continue to entertain and educate. - How about when you run out of interesting stories on the Tube and buildings, do a video where the viewers have to guess what you are showing? - A name that building/train station etc... I imagine you have alot of footage that could support this ( but a huge editing project,I imagine).

I think they are beautiful monuments, especially the Trellick tower!

At last! I have been waiting eagerly for this and you certainly didn't disappoint! They are certainly very interesting buildings. It makes me sad that they'll be getting hit by gentrification, but that's just one of those things, I suppose. I think it's nice that the previous residents weren't all just thrown in the bin, and that there were some new housing developments made with them in mind. Your home is your home, though. You can't really replace that, sometimes.

Keep up the good work fella and stay safe! Super interesting as always!

Thank you very much for making this. As I wrote before I lived in the shadow of this tower for a while and the weird architecture was always fascinating. :)

Ninety thousand subs. Good going, and well done, sir. Completely deserved, if I might say so. Nice one. Seeing that six months ago, you were celebrating 1000 subscribers it's quite phenomenal. Thank you for your videos. Each one, a quality item.

A Rivers of London shout-out! Awesome! That's my favourite book series, very well researched it seems, and it's always great to hear more about how it ties back to the real London.

Fascinating stuff. I am probably also a philistine but I struggle to see how these brutalist blocks merit grade II listed status

I'm so glad you covered both of them!

I saw this building every day for years driving the west way. Always wanted to know more about it. Cheers Jago.

Thanks again Jago mate. I’ve still got people in working on my kitchen, so this clip has helped. As for you being a philistinism, I doubt anyone would call you that, but that’s only because you’ve got more sense and culture in your pink finger than the average person has in their whole body.

I’ve lived in London - during 1980’s + 1990’s (in the ‘80’s specifically working on various renovations of council estates -ie. Hemel Hempstead, Finchley Road, Islington, Walthamstow, etc.) I have no idea how they turned out since last seeing them decades ago ...but the point is, many were retrofitted-reconfigured to meet new energy codes, safety regulations, improve security, and brighten / enliven the public areas & adjoining green spaces. I like what you said about maintenance / upkeep. Nothing, whether a building, furniture, or car etc., goes very far without being cared for. Without due care, “... there’s no there, there.” Now I live in Vancouver 🇨🇦 .. the attitude of what a “tower block” means are complete utter polar opposites. In North America ... high rise lifestyle /living very sought after ... the higher the level the more privacy/pricey & more dramatic the views. The problem back in UK is with the stigma with high rise development ||>> socioeconomic demographic dynamics vs hyper simplistic blaming the ills upon architecture alone.

My favourite piece of brutalist architecture. Great commentary as usual from you. Your tube stories are brilliant.

An excellent video. Well done, and informative.

Another well researched and well balanced video. Thanks Jago

Great observation about the funding to operate vs build. True on my side of the pond too.

These are really interesting videos, thank you.

Seeing Trellick Tower is a highlight of any train journey into or out of Paddington. It is fascinating to look at, and it's good to hear that it works well as a place to live in.

I'm so glad the weather cleared up so you could film this, it looks crisp and lovely. Following from p1, when I attempted to visit Trellick for photos in 2011 (being from US) it felt like a rough area. There was a vagrant shouting at everyone on the street, not-so-friendly people hanging about staring at me; and when I rounded the corner and saw all the graffiti after all that, I was like...nope. But whenever I'm in London I always look for it and would love to go inside. It does look superbly well built and in great condition.

5 Views, 5 likes, perfectly balanced, love your work!

I really enjoy these videos on the buildings of London. I'd love to see your take on the oxo building. The Tate and Battersea Power Station would be amazing too, but possibly too much to fit in to your usual video length? The OXO is cool and interesting but possibly a little more likely to fit in to 10-15mins. 🤔😁

Informative and intelligent. Thank you.

Beautiful buildings! Love them!

Thanks for another interesting lesson.

These are fascinating videos. I love learning the history of these buildings and the areas around them. Some of my fathers family lived in Popler many years ago and before these horrors were built. (Think ‘Call the Midwife’ era) I’ve subscribed. Thank you.

I love it when Jago talks architecture.

Great work Jago.

Love your videos always interesting and thought provoking.

Well another well documented film ! It needs to be said high rise flats where developed to house people in a economic way , good or bad architects did there job not always how they wanted , usually budgets , gold finger was a great architect as said , having worked in his buildings little things like door handles that could be opened easily for older people you didn't have to twist any thing and taps that could be operated with your arms doors opened without conflict into other areas , Thankyou for your film ! and to bring such subjects to people attention !!

I have absolutely no problem with tower blocks as long as they are well designed, well built and well maintained!

Quiet enjoyed this and the vid on Broadgate/Broad St, Millennium Bridge “lift” (it didnt stay open for long after its initial opening!) Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury & Queen Victoria St. Something on the nearby infamous Fleet St & its stunning Art Deco buildings including the former Daily Express building. Humble Requests if you would consider them: 1. Art Deco London by Jago 2.Playlist with all your vids in the order sequence you feel best presents the content so I can watch on my apple TV like a superior version of a documentary. Keep up the great work and ignore the detractors, youtube offers both viewers and content producers to find what they enjoy, and there will always be a large audience drawn to your vids. Totally brilliant.

Great video, this brings back memory’s as this tower was used for met police communications which I used to look after , thjs mark

Named after the village of Trellick in South Wales? The places could hardly be more different. There are village signs on the three roads into Trellick (the village) and the name is spelt differently on each one. It (the village) was also the parish in which Bertrand Russell was born.

Trellick Tower has been one of my favourite buildings in London for years now, and particularly now the place is so well looked after I'd love to live in it one day.

Great video, Jago!

Another good one Jago

I used to live on the bit of canal next to it. Found it stunning in bright sunshine. It was used as the flat in Bandersnatch - Black Mirror and several music videos including Blur.

Very interesting videos!

@5:43 I'm here for that quote and I think you're being pretty reasonable about the whole situation. Some of our tower block situations felt a bit sabotagey but some of them were just plain sabotage. The trip is, whatever first hand experiences we have, we don't tell people because it sounds too farfetched or incredible even in our own ears😓. *Butt* such is the nature of the beast so... eeehhhh I dunno🤷🏾‍♀️😅

This is very interesting and informative

Aaronovich is one hell of architecture geek. One of my favourite parts of his books.

Yet another lovely video

No Large Panel Systems (LPS) in this beauty--all Cast-In-Place (CIP) concrete... should last centuries.

I think I just went past this on a train from Paddington to Reading. I recognised the architecture as Goldfinger almost immediately

I always liked that building. Did much of my Finals revision there as one of my Uni friends lived in a flat on the 26th floor (I think). This was in 1983 which sounds like it was in the building's best era.

i'd never heard of these before. they're brilliant pieces of Brutalist Architecture.

So glad I found this channel 👌

Great infomation very intresting

Great video, thanks I grew up in the shadow T. Tower.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game” 🤣

I loved our flat best designed apartment I ever lived in I was there from 1971 to 1981 trellick Towers is special