It’s big, it’s controversial, it’s polarising. But what is the story behind Balfron Tower? Part 2: • Goldfinger’s Towers: T... ko-fi.com/jago... / jagohazzard
People may look at Balfron Tower, etc. in 2021 and perceive them to be brutalist monstrosities. However, having grown up on an east London Council Estate (in a block which opened in 1966) they were nowhere near as bad as people now believe them to have been. Bear in mind that the east London Docks (and surrounding areas) were devastated by Nazi bombing. Housing was a problem and needed to be urgently addressed for a large, local population. Moreover, there were many Victorian-era slums that simply weren't fit for human habitation; and needed to be demolished. These Tower Blocks provided modern, centrally-heated, well-equipped homes. They were also only as good as the people that you put into them; and in the vast majority of cases, these were decent, hard-working people; not thugs and junkies. For example, many 'floors' had residents produce a rota system to mop the landings, clean the lifts and chute area, etc. My memories of growing up in a Tower Block (more or less from birth to my early twenties) are pretty wonderful. You had friends, grass areas to play and a warm, clean, modern, safe home. Moreover, for many decent working-class families, the rent for these properties was all that people could afford back then; times were indeed very different. Many years later, I do not look back upon my upbringing on a Council Estate with one single regret. It was a family home......our home; with decent, honest neighbours and a much better standard of living than we'd endured previously.
Exactly. I have the same experience. Central heating and a shower. Always kids to play with, plenty of room to play outside. . In my neighborhood they demolished some apartment buildings from the sixties. On the place they build family houses. It’s so ugly, and it feels claustrophobic. The public space with grass, shrubs and trees disappeared for little ugly front gardens.
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Hear hear! People have forgotten just how bad those victorian era slums really were, and not just in the old east end but also in industrial areas across the UK. Certainly some of them looked quaint from the outside (though plenty couldn't even manage that). But almost all of them were very rudimentary, with poorly-functioning, retrofitted plumbing & electricity supply, outside bogs, leaks & damp & mildew issues, and they were overcrowded if more than 3-4 people lived in them (and most of them had that). Many never had a telephone line ever installed. Real muckholes. The TV series "till death do us part" couldn't even do them justice. Although some councils replaced later-built working-class housing of a decent standard with low quality tower blocks for no reason. Such as in Battersea: ua-cam.com/video/xHeUj2HjJek/v-deo.html
Not just the Victorian housing. The council housing from the 20's still had wood fired stoves for heating water and electric bar heaters. Moving from one of them into a modern concrete flat with instant hot water and central heating was fabulous.
@@amandajane8227 I recall in many council homes they would not use the central heating. They would buy an electric fire (which costed more to run) then huddle around it, as they had done with coal fires. In one tower block I knew of, not one used the heating timer, with no one capable if understanding it.
Exactly! My Nan lived in a tower block in Deptford. All the old ladies would take turns mopping the landings and tending to the pot plants dotted all over the place. They really took pride in place. Gradually as the old ladies died off and new tenants were moved in, the place went rapidly downhill. Scummy families with drugs and loud parties, police turning up at all hours, people shitting in the lifts. You can’t blame it all on poverty either. Those old ladies were poor as church mice but they had pride. You can’t blame the architect for the problems. People cause the problems, not the buildings.
I did a paper round when I was 14 (1982) and delivered to Balfron Tower, to say the block was in disrepair and pretty intimidating is an understatement. My mates and I also used to sit on the roof ( great view)
It's not surprising that Goldfinger was a Marxist born in Eastern Europe. The Brutalist style of architecture was very popular with East European communist regimes.
JH, tied down to a table with a laser beam pointed between his legs: "I suppose you expect me to talk." Goldfinger: "Yes, Mr. Hazzard, yes I do. Let's start with the stories of each of the ghosts on the stations of the Jubilee line. I always enjoy those tales." And thus, a UA-cam channel was born.
@@mixererunio1757 Now, of course, we all know the plan is to Build Back Better, citizen-serf, for you will own nothing and be happy in the new normal we have designed for you.
@@SouthLondonRailwayPhotography There was a film "Attack the Block" but that was Aliens instead of Zombies. Never saw the movie but the fact it's set in a tower block rang a bell.
@@ericpode6095 That was a difficult situation. The aliens got in through the windows, regardless of the floor, and into the block too. At least zombies can't "fly". They also seem to be stumped by stairs 😕
The BBC used to use it as the outdoor location of their kid's game show "Incredible Games" in the '90s. But I always thought it was a model/made up as it was such a bizzare, ominous looking building.
I decided to check wikipedia about that show, I vaguely remember it. I was more interested in Knightmare and fun house on CBBC to be honest. The tower in the show was Trellick tower, the other tower block designed by Goldfinger. The younger brother of this tower.
The whole area will give an uncanny feeling of deja vu to anyone who grew up on 80s telly - big chunks of the early series of The Bill and Londons Burning, plus just about every other crime drama set in London, were filmed on the Brownfields, Lansbury and Pennyfield Estates, a dream for lazy location shots because you have basically every kind of London residential home from big Victorian townhouses, through between-war terraces, to 70s council estates in both low- and high-rise flavours, all within a few hundred yards of each other, and in those pre-Canary Wharf days all with loads of empty flats in them.
@@y2keef some people are lucky in that just happen to have the right type of voice, tone or cadence, like someone once said that “Richard Burton’s voice was such a pleasure to listen to that if he’d decided to read a telephone book to you cover to cover you’d probably have loved every second of it”. Some people are passionate about what they’re presenting that it comes across in what they’re doing and adds to the enjoyment. Jago is doubly lucky because he’s got the right type of voice or cadence and you can tell that he enjoys doing these. That being said I’d definitely love to hear Jago doing a reading of Burtons intro lines from the 77 The War Of The Worlds at some point? Maybe we could as him to do a clip from Woking? I hear that they have a sculpture of a tripod from The War Of The Worlds on their high street and there’s a railway line that runs right along Horsewell common.
I was once told the Trellick tower was nicknamed the dog by some locals, although I never heard anyone refer to it as such, and always thought it looked more like the loch ness monster. There's a documentary called Wild West 10 on UA-cam about the surrounding area which is worth a watch. Paints a more human face to the area - such as how the occupants of rows of houses were moves into the blocks so family ties and friendships wouldn't disappear, and how the residents campaigned to introduce a concierge to reduce crime, and introduce a nursery to the area.
I used to work in the shadow of the tower, well i would have if i got to work much earlier in the morning, i seem to recall it being "sir maltby's folly" although i never understood the reference.
Resident caretakers should be made a legal requirement for housing blocks with more than 15 units. From 30 units, there should be two resident caretakers. And so on. The system works, I speak from (south German) experience.
The detached lift tower is genius really as anyone who has lived near to or in my case stayed in a hotel room in close to a lift shaft in an old building where they really are quite noisy.
The genius of being separate, it makes it clear the portion that needs to be protected - unlike Grenfell. Having said that, the last thing you'd want in there then is the boilerhouse ! The boilerhouse would be best placed on the roof next to the helipad - to fan the flames back down the sides of the building.
It's a bit weird though how the lift only seems to go to every second floor. Good luck getting to and from your apartment if you need a wheelchair I guess?
@@ruben1475 The main lifts in the towers at Derby college/uni are a bit like that - the only floor thy go to is the ground floor. Next stop is 2.5 then 4.5 then 6.5 etc. So there's half a flight of stairs to go up or down to get to each floor - except the first where you walk up from the ground floor.
I had a conversation with someone a while back who told me that they didn't like Jeremy Corbyn because he was "a Marxist", so I asked that person what that meant. They were unable to tell me. They genuinely had no idea what it meant to be a Marxist, but they were happy to use that as a reason to dislike a person, and to completely dismiss anything he had to say. The papers including the daily mail certainly have worked out how to shape public opinion. Even when their audience has no idea why, they still do as instructed.
As much as I am in awe of Jago's wonderfully whimsical exposition and as much as I dislike the Daily Mail, I do feel that a commentator should never let their audience know their their partisan political views. That's partly because it may reduce their potential audience but mostly because the best UA-camrs present us with both sides of a debate and respect their audience enough to let us make up our own minds.
@Dave Sisson Ah that's nonsense. This isn't television, we don't need to have some false notion of telling both sides on youtube. I understand the not alienating a part of your audience argument, if you're a channel that has little to do with the topic, but the main benefit of youtube is that even the most niche interests can find an audience and it can feel far more personal. Not to mention, personally, I'd rather hear either side of an argument from people on both sides that truly believe it, rather than someone trying to summarise or present themselves as uniquely unbiased. I'm perfectly capable of hearing more indepth arguments and reasoning from those that have spent a long time believing opposing viewpoints and then weighing those up myself. If it was about attracting the highest viewership and not alienating anyone, then we wouldn't be chatting about such topics on a channel focused around fairly obscure histories of London's trains and architecture. (also was just a light hearted joke 😅)
Apparently during his stay at Balfron Tower he threw Champagne parties for the residents. Must have been quite interesting for the council residents to say the least.
Quite, but Goldfinger and Ursula didn’t stay in it long. Their soirées were short lived and they swiftly high tailed it off to Keats Grove in Hampstead. If they’ had stayed until maintenance and crime had become an issue they’d never have built another block like it. The principles of defensible space were completely overlooked as allowing anyone to wander in and out was clearly an utter disaster. These blocks were like ant hills with too many entrances and exits. What a terrible way to learn how to provide decent housing for working people.
60s architecture is insulting, arrogant and blatantly displeasing. It doesn't justify the price. I assume this spirit is due to the arrogant architects of this time. Ignorant visions of the future painted the idea of brutalism. Make it look sturdy enough, so it doesn't need to be maintained. Yet, brutalistic buildings merely attract all kind of deteriorating manners. To summarize it: Thanks Jago for reinforcing my hate of 60s buildings.
Sixties architecture is not necessarily bad, but poor construction in tandem with the lack of maintenance and then anti-social residents make for a toxic mix. If those blocks were renovated and the flats sold or rented at full market prices, you would see a very different class of tenure.
Was low-key hoping you'd turn your caustically entertaining eye on these erm... divisive towers. Best way to start a Wednesday morning. :) The Goldfinger towers are among my fave examples of London Brutalism, along with the Barbican Estate. I should add as a footnote (what else would I do? lol): Glasgow has a similar (at least in passing resemblance) tower block in it's West End: Anniesland Court. It is notable for a few other reasons apart from it's borderline litigious resemblance to Balfron & Trellick Towers: it's the tallest listed building in Scotland and Glasgow's only Grade A-listed tower block. BTW: loved that Daily Mail dig. ;)
I heard English cricket commentator Henry Blofield say that Fleming name his baddies after folk he didn't like, baddie Blofield being named after Henry's father.
Perhaps he was not a pleasant man, as well as being an actual Marxist, at least he lived in it for a while to determine what it was like. Many architects don't even bother doing that, especially if its public housing. My father always use to say, always beware of the person who seem friendly and trust those who are not.
@@paulrydzinski9995 Awesome mate, I used to know a few people behind Rude and Ruud Awakening. Heard many a story of hiding rigs down lift shafts and vents, even up a tree 😁. Also some of the bizarre places their studios were hidden. Good on you mate, used to love pirates when I lived in London
I've always maintained that these are misunderstood buildings and personally I like them a lot. If the money existed to clean them and treat them so they were in their shiny white "as built", they would look awesome.
@@dlbstl I believe she took her name from the Farrow and Ball colour chart...it was a kind of mauve with a hint of grey....all over the place a year or two ago and painful to look at.
Affordable housing tends to be somewhat less than beautiful due to the fact that it has to be affordable , if they spent a heap of money on making it look beautiful it would not be affordable, unless you get an absolute genius of an architect who somehow manages to pull off a minor miracle. Decorative flourishes cost money.
I'm glad that I took my contacts out before viewing this installment and then checking out for a disco nap for a couple of hours, so the stark dreariness was subdued a bit. Can't say I've ever been a particularly big fan of brutalism, perhaps in part because the high school I attended in the suburbs south of Seattle was seemingly designed in a brutalist-wannabe fashion; a highly depressing drab concrete monstrosity that still stands, in all its sprawling low-rise splendour. I'm just grateful that I have never found myself without any options other than to reside in such a structure like these tower blocks; I think I would rather cease to exist, if that were the case.
Enjoying this foray into housing in the 60s/70s immensely. I've watched other documentaries that focus more on the quality of workmanship, the shortcuts and then of course the subsequent issues that were lived with for years whilst the directors of the firms involved capitalised on the profits made via woefully poorly procured public contracts. Heaven knows the "incentives" that decision makers were given to write massive cheques for ill-conceived and badly executed system-buildings. With hindsight a terrible mess that hopefully wouldn't be allowed to happen today.
Really love your pieces on post war architecture. Living in Plymouth which apart from a few parts of the old city (Barbican, The Hoe, Royal William Yard) largely looks 1950's onwards. Strangely the city planners went low-rise for residential buildings however 3 towers were built in Devonport which though architecturally are nothing special they do have possibly the best view of any social housing in Britain looking across Plymouth Sound to the rolling hills of Cornwall. Of Architectural note is the grade 1 listed civic centre a real piece of sixties brutalism
Loving the channel, and what you doing. I lived in Poplar for many years but are ignorant of its history. Stated watching because of all the tube history you where covering. Keep up the great work. Btw you vids are pin sharp, what camera or camcorder are you using.
Nobodys mentioned Balfron Tower being positioned right next to the Blackwall tunnel/A13 road junction, one of the busiest in London. I would have thought it makes the current transfer to private ownership and gentrification of the building a bit more difficult to sell with its constant noise and poor air quality?
Question... What is the purpose of the glass inclosure at the top of the utility tower? Is it offices, or a residence for maintenance personnel, or just an observation deck? _I love your videos, btw. I live in the states and nearly every video of yours I've seen makes me want to visit the place that is the subject. I like your style, Sir. Keep'em coming._ :)
These tower blocks were built using too many assumptions that couldn’t later be justified. They assumed, amongst other things, decent quality construction methods, proper management and maintenance, little or no crime, full employment and no breakdown of society. Therefore most towers like these have been knocked down and replaced with standard housing - which as things turned out would have been cheaper in the long run.
I am a new subscriber and just recently found your channel. How very interesting. It is a world away from my own home which is located on the edge of Dartmoor. Many thanks for making your videos.
THANK YOU JAGO! I’m currently in the middle of having my kitchen refitted, I live in a one bedroom council flat and I happen to be a tiny bit noise sensitive. So not having loads of room, on a wet and cold day, I happen to stuck in my flat with big burly builder types who are making a shite load of noise, which is making me a far from happy chappy, so seeing you uploading this clip has cheered me right up and help to re-set my mood. Next time I’m down south I’d love to meet up with you just to buy a pint of the old London Pride (if they still make that stuff that is, I’ve been sober for about 15 years, so I’m not sure what’s on tap).
In Singapore, there's tons of tower blocks, yet zero vandalism, zero graffiti, zero drugs use... perhaps the UK should hire some Singapore police officers, and subsidize their flats in famous towers 'round town... apparently, a little caning brings out peoples' better angels... ;')
A politician of the Attlee type says "I'd like all English families to have homes!". Daily Mail says "Communist!". Marx was actually a communist. It was not the leftist, socialist, Marxist, or liberal manifesto. It was the Communist Manifesto. They defined communism in the manifesto and The Principles of Communism, along with the First International. If a person generally agrees with Marx and that is their politics, that person is probably a communist. But people in the west prefer to call it anything but, for obvious reasons. Doesn't matter, even lots of communists do not understand Marx. Not many can properly explain his thesis of Historical Materialism for example. Plenty more do not know that Marx, Engels and Lenin said people would initially have to make use of capitalism, in order to 'increase productive forces' (rather than destroy it, or make everything into worker coops etc). Communism's biggest problem is it is far harder to understand than populist politics like blaming people on benefits, or immigrants etc. It also works on a time scale of hundreds of years, because it is about superseding the current mode of production in a certain way, which does not go well with short term thinking and news or election cycles.
So, the elevator/stairs block only goes over to the residential block every couple of floors. Are these nevertheless flats? Or are they maisonnettes with internal stairs? Because if they’re flats I think you’d have to go up the elevator, over to the residences, and then potentially up or down more stairs before getting to your front door?
What a splendid way to start the day! Loved it! More interesting insight to yet another landmark I have passed many times and not given too much thought to. Fascinating charachter that fella and a right mixed bag. Love the idea of 'Our Shirl' singing "Gooooldpriiiick!" at her Majestys Variety Performance. That has verily made my day 😂😂😂 Thank you sir for another splendid production. My missus thinks you are hilarious too BTW and she is a right cynic!👍😉
Fleming got the name Blofeld from the members book at his club, to which the father of Cricket Commentator Henry Blofeld was also a member. Unlike Goldfinger he didn't seem to mind, especially as if they were both at the club Fleming would pay for Blofeld's drinks.
Sorry, Le Corbusier was Swiss, naturalized French after his 23 year... He was born in La-Chaux-de-Fonds , a small town in the Neuenburger Jura, very famous in the Watch Industry...
Erno Goldfinger and his wife was totally full of hot air ... Apparently they couldn’t adapt back after living in the tower block for two months into their six bedroom detached four car garage house with a swimming pool in the back garden , they-just couldn’t adapt back to it PMSL - and in Hampstead no less
You are making some interesting videos. I don't know the UK very well, but have heard of most of the places. So excellent to have some substance added to the names. Thank you.
Looking at Alexander Fleming House(𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 Fleming) makes me wonder how easy it is to become/call yourself an "architect". That square box looks like it's put together from a kids' construction set. "Erector Set" was one but there was a plastic one with different coloured panels, just like that Ministry of Health building. Hardly a miracle of ingenious design, when a 12 year-old could knock one out before bedtime. On a slightly less critical note, Mr Goldfinger seems to have had a better grip on reality than Mr & Mrs Smithson and his towers seem to be slightly less ugly than their masterpiece. I love the fact that he actually 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕 and not just for a couple of days - that really should be a "thing" and the bigger the building, the longer the architect should have to live there. They should be there long enough to get to know the neighbours and whover/whatever else can be found hanging around the place. Looking forward to Part 2.👍👌😁
Cast concrete, not prefab panel, no inflammable cladding, well thought out kitchens and bathrooms ---very well done. NO CONCIERGE system--- stupid councils. I don't read of people complaining how the Shard or the Barbican towers are hell holes.
As always interesting. Goldfinger sounds a schmuck., a Marxist schmuck but still a schmuck. Love brutalism. Love the fact that he lived in Balfron towers. Never knew that he designed Alexander Fleming house. Which is downright ugly. Well done Jago
Jago,your commentary on architecture,in and around London is very interesting,and people tend to forget,that transport and architecture are joined at the hip! Just look at station design,depots,and engine sheds,for example! To cite an example,before the BR came on the scene,many a locomotive shed,was straight out of Victoria's reign,literally,as they still had oil lights,coal stoves,and rather bad working conditions! Nostalgia may be nice,but putting no upgrades into the basic infrastructure,over a long period of years,definitely downgraded BR,and some mechanization was long overdue! But,the political elites,as usual didn't pay too much attention to those problems,until they had their noses rubbed in it! All those strikes in the 50's were over working conditions! The electrification and diesels,were an antidote to the prior underdeveloped infrastructure! Both sides need to be put into perspective, and somewhat things work out in the long run! Now the amazing thing is the last of the historical main lines is being electrified; bout time,and it's the ex-GWR,so why did it take so long? Thank you,Jago,and pardon my verbosity,but it a bit to condense so much history into a couple of paragraphs! Thank you,again! 🚅🚆🚆🚆🚄🚅🚅🏢🏢🏢🏢🏢🏫🏫🏬🏬🏫🏬🏫🏭🏤🏬🏢🏰🏠🏡🏠🏡🏠🏡
As part of the settlement with Fleming, Goldfinger asked for several signed copies of the book, which suggests he might not have been quite as humourless as some suggest. I believe Fleming found out about Goldfinger (long before his name would have been likely to appear in the papers) through a school friend who happened to be a relative of Erno and regaled Fleming with tales of his rather eccentric relative, and let's face it it's a name made for a Bond villain. Many of Fleming's character names come from that circle of friends - he went to school with Thomas Blofeld (father of the cricket commentator Henry) from where the best Bond villain gets his name, and was in naval intelligence with the magnificently-named Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, JP, DL from where the villain of Moonraker gets his name (shortened to just Drax presumably to save on ink).
Regarding Ian Fleming. Perhaps I’ve missed something but I have often wondered it the “Bond villain” Goldfinger was in fact intended to be a thinly veiled, if indirect, anti-Semitic caricature. Seems more likely than some sort-of feud with a truculent Jewish Hungarian refugee architect building in what was at the time a mainstream style. BTW...who WERE the fictional architects who designed all those cool looking Bond villain lairs? Disgruntled ex-Bauhaus dropouts? Would have made a great Minty Python skit.
I had a one-night-stand with a girl who lived in Balfron Tower - it's kinda weird on the inside too! Also I was sick near one of the entrances! Sorry, Mr Goldfinger!
They weren't 'zombies' in 28 Days Later, just ordinary every-day people who had been infected with the Rage virus; a completely different thing with completely different guidelines.
There *IS* evidence that Fleming was inspired Goldfinger & his hyper-modern architecture, but it’s unclear if he despised his designs. Some rumours perpetuate it wasn’t the tower blocks that caught Fleming’s attention, but Erno Goldfinger’s über-modern minimalist box constructed next to the writer’s house in Hampstead. (Problem is, Fleming wrote the story while abroad on sunny tropical Jamaica). Seems like the *star-chitect* was the one who raised a fracas & brouhaha when he caught wind of the proposed name of the Bond supervillain ... a case of fragile ego/narcissism? *Footprints of London* & various city architectural walking tours describe how the fictional evil villain came to be - footprintsoflondon.com/2015/11/fleming-vs-goldfinger-what-really-happened-when-the-architect-took-on-the-author/
I was told in architecture school once that Ian Fleming was disgusted by Erno Goldginger's proposal on Willow Road in near Fleming's neighbourhood in West Hampstead, They would demolish several victorian cottages to build Goldfinger's modernist house. Ian Fleming supposedly made him a villain after that.
Goldfinger must have been an avid follower of his motherland’s despicable regime under Horthy. By en large, former Austrian-Hungarians and their contemporaries have a strange kind of ‘awe’ for autocratic leaders and full blown dictatorship. Mr. Goldfinger most certainly sounds as such a specimen. Never realized this before, but his architecture may even have inspired famous English writers, although that would be after the writing of their world famous books. Nevertheless, whether he fought Fleming’s character or not, knowing all this makes mr. Goldfinger into the absolute prototype of the villain portrayed in the 007 stories. Absolutely hilarious narration!!!
As an American, I never really understood the word 'ghastly' until I spent a few hours in Heathrow Airport. The naked, Brutalist architecture left me feeling like zombies would pop up from the exposed ceilings or around the corner any minute. I turned to my friend and said, "So this is why all those zombie movies take place in London. This is /ghastly/." And these tower blocks, which I've seen as background props in many movies and shoes, are also ghastly zombie fodder.
Vertical garbage. I'm being very harsh, my apologies. An awful looking building designed by an awful person...no mystery here, except who are the people that employ this cad, give him position, importance to allow such work to exist?
Erno Goldfinger clearly had no proprietary rights on his surname, which was in fact fairly common in pre-Nazi Eastern Europe. Sadly, records show that over 1600 known individuals bearing the name were murdered in the Holocaust.
It was Goldfinger's revolutionary* house at 2, Willow Road, not far from where Ian Fleming lived, that annoyed him. That, and Fleming was anti semitic, and most definitely anti Marxist. *In the sense of it being very modern in design, and not that it sat in the street handing out copies of 'Iskra' or 'Sprut'.
When you showed his own house (the brick one) my first throught was Le Corbussier, with the house on stilts and horisontal windows. A few frames afterwards you mentioned that very person. I do however think that Goldfinger actually did a better job at Le Corbussier's ideology. His house actually looks finished, has a satisfying holistic approach, and looks human. Meanwhile I often feel like Le Corbussier gets great concepts and ideas, and then never finishes, refines, or perfects them. All his buildings feel unfinished and like wasted potential.
I've visited some of these monstrosities in South London, esp New Cross/Rotherhithe. Really shocked when first seeing the wonderful views across the Thames, and the living spaces, wow! Maisonettes in the sky! The only downside being negotiating the wee smelling, Pit Bull laden lifts. Surely Heroin dealers could have more thought for their customers sensitivities and live in nice bungalows. Another example of why the country is going to the Isle of Dogs.
So...I can't help wondering if brutalism would have grown from modernism if the war had not happened. It almost seems that the bleakness of bombed areas begat bleakness in the replacement architecture. At least Goldfinger was willing to live in the buildings he designed for others, and gave thought to the people who would use them. But now, I have to try to get rid of tge sound picture running through my mind...of a certain song with a long, drawn out "Goldpriiiiiick" being emphasized. Thank you 😑😄
My understanding is that Goldfinger demolished a perfectly good house to build his own design at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead much to Fleming's annoyance, who lived close by, therefore naming his next villain after him
The story I heard years ago was that Goldfinger and Fleming were neighbours (or near neighbours) in Hampstead. There was a dispute over planning permission, for which Fleming never forgave Goldfinger - hence the villain. I'm damned if I can find a source for any of this though.
At least he lived there and had his principles. Because of the hat, he looks a bit like William Hartnell, the first Dr. Who. The Rumanian dictator, Nicolae Ceauscesu, wore a similar hat when he was executed. Despite the hat, Goldfinger may have been the better man, but I wouldn't like to judge, although the architectural legacy is a reasonable tribute. There will always be the eternal question of does it make the tenants or do the tenants make the building. It's the old argument about if bricks and mortar have no feelings, then what happens about how you relate to it is entirely your own doing and your own problem. If, like many things, his ideas went to committee, suffered compromise, budget cuts, council meetings, bright ideas by the differently qualified [ :) ] leading to votes, and the final result was a mess, then it's quite understandable he was a bit of a tyrant to work for. I bet he had very specific views on councils and committees.
Tower blocks do *not* maximise space - they take up about the same amount of land as terraced housing. Brum is deleting such insults to living. "Dual aspect" is an insult to language, being deceptively meaningless, benefitting from . . . well, nothing.
Goldfinger may not have been a nise person but how many architects have lived or worked in their creations to experience how it is for the occupants. If they did I'm sure the standard of architect in the UK would improve, My personal opinion is that Goldfinger's buildings are stunning examples of modern architecture which suffered from a British prejudice against modern architecture, which condemned them to disrepair, combined with spending cuts in the 1980s and subsequently and social problems brought about by changes in Society which made living in such large buildings more difficult. If these buildings had been given the care they deserved, together with better security/concierge entry etc, they would have been far more popular, either as social housing or much needed fairly priced privately rented accommodation. The views from the upper floor flats must be fabulous. At least I think now all Goldfinger's creations are listed buildings. Why in Britain are we so wedded to the Victorian terrace and the between the wars semi-detached? Both largely poorly built by speculative builders, impossible to retro-fit to modern standards of insulation, unfit for a world of expensive energy and climate change when well designed and constructed high rise buildings, like those designed by Goldfinger which could easily be brought up to modern standards with solar and wind generation equipment added. Providing affordable homes for sale or rent, ideal for young people, and often in the areas they work and socialise. Yet because of prepuce against modern architecture these buildings are often under threat of demolition. I say once and for all clear away the inner city terraced streets and tear down the semis with their over large under used plots and build new homes for current conditions while improving and re-puposing the inner city modern architecture fit for a new generation of young home owners and renters.
The only thing I'm disappointed in with this is that I've seen it too early to not see part 2 immediately afterwards.
It’ll be here on Friday!
People may look at Balfron Tower, etc. in 2021 and perceive them to be brutalist monstrosities. However, having grown up on an east London Council Estate (in a block which opened in 1966) they were nowhere near as bad as people now believe them to have been. Bear in mind that the east London Docks (and surrounding areas) were devastated by Nazi bombing. Housing was a problem and needed to be urgently addressed for a large, local population. Moreover, there were many Victorian-era slums that simply weren't fit for human habitation; and needed to be demolished. These Tower Blocks provided modern, centrally-heated, well-equipped homes. They were also only as good as the people that you put into them; and in the vast majority of cases, these were decent, hard-working people; not thugs and junkies. For example, many 'floors' had residents produce a rota system to mop the landings, clean the lifts and chute area, etc. My memories of growing up in a Tower Block (more or less from birth to my early twenties) are pretty wonderful. You had friends, grass areas to play and a warm, clean, modern, safe home. Moreover, for many decent working-class families, the rent for these properties was all that people could afford back then; times were indeed very different. Many years later, I do not look back upon my upbringing on a Council Estate with one single regret. It was a family home......our home; with decent, honest neighbours and a much better standard of living than we'd endured previously.
Exactly. I have the same experience. Central heating and a shower. Always kids to play with, plenty of room to play outside. .
In my neighborhood they demolished some apartment buildings from the sixties. On the place they build family houses. It’s so ugly, and it feels claustrophobic. The public space with grass, shrubs and trees disappeared for little ugly front gardens.
Hear hear! People have forgotten just how bad those victorian era slums really were, and not just in the old east end but also in industrial areas across the UK.
Certainly some of them looked quaint from the outside (though plenty couldn't even manage that). But almost all of them were very rudimentary, with poorly-functioning, retrofitted plumbing & electricity supply, outside bogs, leaks & damp & mildew issues, and they were overcrowded if more than 3-4 people lived in them (and most of them had that). Many never had a telephone line ever installed. Real muckholes. The TV series "till death do us part" couldn't even do them justice.
Although some councils replaced later-built working-class housing of a decent standard with low quality tower blocks for no reason. Such as in Battersea: ua-cam.com/video/xHeUj2HjJek/v-deo.html
Not just the Victorian housing. The council housing from the 20's still had wood fired stoves for heating water and electric bar heaters. Moving from one of them into a modern concrete flat with instant hot water and central heating was fabulous.
@@amandajane8227
I recall in many council homes they would not use the central heating. They would buy an electric fire (which costed more to run) then huddle around it, as they had done with coal fires.
In one tower block I knew of, not one used the heating timer, with no one capable if understanding it.
Exactly! My Nan lived in a tower block in Deptford. All the old ladies would take turns mopping the landings and tending to the pot plants dotted all over the place. They really took pride in place. Gradually as the old ladies died off and new tenants were moved in, the place went rapidly downhill. Scummy families with drugs and loud parties, police turning up at all hours, people shitting in the lifts. You can’t blame it all on poverty either. Those old ladies were poor as church mice but they had pride. You can’t blame the architect for the problems. People cause the problems, not the buildings.
I did a paper round when I was 14 (1982) and delivered to Balfron Tower, to say the block was in disrepair and pretty intimidating is an understatement. My mates and I also used to sit on the roof ( great view)
"An actual Marxist rather than the Daily Mail definition of a Marxist." Brilliant, you made my day with that gem of a comment 😁
It's not surprising that Goldfinger was a Marxist born in Eastern Europe. The Brutalist style of architecture was very popular with East European communist regimes.
@@MrSloika Yes I visited the former Yugoslavia where the architecture of Belgrade was Brutalist to say the least.
@@MrSloika Not just brutalist architecture, brutalist everything.
@@PurityVendetta For which read grim (and I like some Brutalist architecture).
And much like the champagne socialists of today, he was a rich man living in a mansion while cooking up the working classes in tower blocks.
JH, tied down to a table with a laser beam pointed between his legs: "I suppose you expect me to talk."
Goldfinger: "Yes, Mr. Hazzard, yes I do. Let's start with the stories of each of the ghosts on the stations of the Jubilee line. I always enjoy those tales."
And thus, a UA-cam channel was born.
Tenant: Do you expect me to love this architecture?
Goldfinger: No Mr. Tenant. I expect you to live comfortably.
@@mixererunio1757 Now, of course, we all know the plan is to Build Back Better, citizen-serf, for you will own nothing and be happy in the new normal we have designed for you.
Goldfinger, the film, made before there was ever a laser beam capable of cutting a metal plate. Maybe cut cooking foil?
The very best thing about living in Trellick Tower is that it's the only place for miles around where you can't see Trellick Tower
Ah, the trick made famous by Guy de Maupassant...
That’s what I always say ... and that’s probably why I would love to live high up in there overlooking the city.
Yeah, everyone be hatin' on these big concrete towers until the zombie apocalypse starts...
With all these ugly buildings the UK must be safe by now.
Isn’t that the plot of 28 days later?
Edit: didn’t get to that part of the video yet 😂
@@SouthLondonRailwayPhotography There was a film "Attack the Block" but that was Aliens instead of Zombies. Never saw the movie but the fact it's set in a tower block rang a bell.
@@ericpode6095 That was filmed about a 10 minute walk from where I live!
@@ericpode6095 That was a difficult situation. The aliens got in through the windows, regardless of the floor, and into the block too. At least zombies can't "fly". They also seem to be stumped by stairs 😕
The BBC used to use it as the outdoor location of their kid's game show "Incredible Games" in the '90s. But I always thought it was a model/made up as it was such a bizzare, ominous looking building.
I decided to check wikipedia about that show, I vaguely remember it. I was more interested in Knightmare and fun house on CBBC to be honest. The tower in the show was Trellick tower, the other tower block designed by Goldfinger. The younger brother of this tower.
HELLO YOU
Today in weird crossovers...
The whole area will give an uncanny feeling of deja vu to anyone who grew up on 80s telly - big chunks of the early series of The Bill and Londons Burning, plus just about every other crime drama set in London, were filmed on the Brownfields, Lansbury and Pennyfield Estates, a dream for lazy location shots because you have basically every kind of London residential home from big Victorian townhouses, through between-war terraces, to 70s council estates in both low- and high-rise flavours, all within a few hundred yards of each other, and in those pre-Canary Wharf days all with loads of empty flats in them.
'No, Mr Council Tenant, I expect you to die':
dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun dundedun dun dun dun deDON Do do do
Who just thinks this guys is amazing!
I do and I don't even like trains, or tower blocks or London even
Jago could make counting blades of grass interesting
@@y2keef some people are lucky in that just happen to have the right type of voice, tone or cadence, like someone once said that “Richard Burton’s voice was such a pleasure to listen to that if he’d decided to read a telephone book to you cover to cover you’d probably have loved every second of it”.
Some people are passionate about what they’re presenting that it comes across in what they’re doing and adds to the enjoyment.
Jago is doubly lucky because he’s got the right type of voice or cadence and you can tell that he enjoys doing these.
That being said I’d definitely love to hear Jago doing a reading of Burtons intro lines from the 77 The War Of The Worlds at some point? Maybe we could as him to do a clip from Woking? I hear that they have a sculpture of a tripod from The War Of The Worlds on their high street and there’s a railway line that runs right along Horsewell common.
60 likes thanks!
@@mattscudder1975 "No one would have believed..."
I was once told the Trellick tower was nicknamed the dog by some locals, although I never heard anyone refer to it as such, and always thought it looked more like the loch ness monster. There's a documentary called Wild West 10 on UA-cam about the surrounding area which is worth a watch. Paints a more human face to the area - such as how the occupants of rows of houses were moves into the blocks so family ties and friendships wouldn't disappear, and how the residents campaigned to introduce a concierge to reduce crime, and introduce a nursery to the area.
I used to work in the shadow of the tower, well i would have if i got to work much earlier in the morning, i seem to recall it being "sir maltby's folly" although i never understood the reference.
Lived near there when I was little, never heard it called "The Dog"
From a distance and at the right angle it looks like a dog
Resident caretakers should be made a legal requirement for housing blocks with more than 15 units. From 30 units, there should be two resident caretakers. And so on. The system works, I speak from (south German) experience.
@@1258-Eckhart makes sense
The detached lift tower is genius really as anyone who has lived near to or in my case stayed in a hotel room in close to a lift shaft in an old building where they really are quite noisy.
The genius of being separate, it makes it clear the portion that needs to be protected - unlike Grenfell.
Having said that, the last thing you'd want in there then is the boilerhouse !
The boilerhouse would be best placed on the roof next to the helipad - to fan the flames back down the sides of the building.
Yep, no night time ban on using the chute in Balfron
@@jimtuite3451 Just not suitable as a fire escape !
It's a bit weird though how the lift only seems to go to every second floor. Good luck getting to and from your apartment if you need a wheelchair I guess?
@@ruben1475 The main lifts in the towers at Derby college/uni are a bit like that - the only floor thy go to is the ground floor. Next stop is 2.5 then 4.5 then 6.5 etc. So there's half a flight of stairs to go up or down to get to each floor - except the first where you walk up from the ground floor.
I loved that dig to the Daily Mail 🤣
I wonder if that means Goldfinger was a better person than had he been the Daily Mail version of a Marxist?
A. DUBITANTE
I don’t know what marxist treats his employees like sh*t but I can tell you, he wasn’t the principled kind.
I had a conversation with someone a while back who told me that they didn't like Jeremy Corbyn because he was "a Marxist", so I asked that person what that meant.
They were unable to tell me.
They genuinely had no idea what it meant to be a Marxist, but they were happy to use that as a reason to dislike a person, and to completely dismiss anything he had to say.
The papers including the daily mail certainly have worked out how to shape public opinion. Even when their audience has no idea why, they still do as instructed.
As much as I am in awe of Jago's wonderfully whimsical exposition and as much as I dislike the Daily Mail, I do feel that a commentator should never let their audience know their their partisan political views. That's partly because it may reduce their potential audience but mostly because the best UA-camrs present us with both sides of a debate and respect their audience enough to let us make up our own minds.
@Dave Sisson Ah that's nonsense. This isn't television, we don't need to have some false notion of telling both sides on youtube. I understand the not alienating a part of your audience argument, if you're a channel that has little to do with the topic, but the main benefit of youtube is that even the most niche interests can find an audience and it can feel far more personal.
Not to mention, personally, I'd rather hear either side of an argument from people on both sides that truly believe it, rather than someone trying to summarise or present themselves as uniquely unbiased. I'm perfectly capable of hearing more indepth arguments and reasoning from those that have spent a long time believing opposing viewpoints and then weighing those up myself.
If it was about attracting the highest viewership and not alienating anyone, then we wouldn't be chatting about such topics on a channel focused around fairly obscure histories of London's trains and architecture. (also was just a light hearted joke 😅)
Screw my masters in art history, this is the education that’s needed.
Apparently during his stay at Balfron Tower he threw Champagne parties for the residents. Must have been quite interesting for the council residents to say the least.
The original champagne socialist?
@@borderlands6606 not by a long shot
@@borderlands6606 sounds like a textbook definition of one. For sure. He left his comrades behind by moving back into Hamstead. Sounds about right.
Quite, but Goldfinger and Ursula didn’t stay in it long. Their soirées were short lived and they swiftly high tailed it off to Keats Grove in Hampstead. If they’ had stayed until maintenance and crime had become an issue they’d never have built another block like it. The principles of defensible space were completely overlooked as allowing anyone to wander in and out was clearly an utter disaster. These blocks were like ant hills with too many entrances and exits. What a terrible way to learn how to provide decent housing for working people.
Grand architectural schemes, like Communism, fail to live up to their ideals when they meet with reality in the form of humans.
60s architecture is insulting, arrogant and blatantly displeasing. It doesn't justify the price.
I assume this spirit is due to the arrogant architects of this time. Ignorant visions of the future painted the idea of brutalism. Make it look sturdy enough, so it doesn't need to be maintained. Yet, brutalistic buildings merely attract all kind of deteriorating manners.
To summarize it: Thanks Jago for reinforcing my hate of 60s buildings.
Sixties architecture is not necessarily bad, but poor construction in tandem with the lack of maintenance and then anti-social residents make for a toxic mix. If those blocks were renovated and the flats sold or rented at full market prices, you would see a very different class of tenure.
I don't see people complaining about the new very tall blocks of flats that cost a fortune and are not as sturdy or quiet.
Was low-key hoping you'd turn your caustically entertaining eye on these erm... divisive towers. Best way to start a Wednesday morning. :) The Goldfinger towers are among my fave examples of London Brutalism, along with the Barbican Estate.
I should add as a footnote (what else would I do? lol): Glasgow has a similar (at least in passing resemblance) tower block in it's West End: Anniesland Court. It is notable for a few other reasons apart from it's borderline litigious resemblance to Balfron & Trellick Towers: it's the tallest listed building in Scotland and Glasgow's only Grade A-listed tower block.
BTW: loved that Daily Mail dig. ;)
I heard English cricket commentator Henry Blofield say that Fleming name his baddies after folk he didn't like, baddie Blofield being named after Henry's father.
Fleming was at school with Blofield senior. I think
Blofeld.
@@a11oge That would be the link.
"... inspired by Le Corbusier" said every Architecture undergrad, ever
2:20 So Fleming named a villain Goldfinger, and Goldfinger built a Fleming House? That's pretty funny.
Perhaps he was not a pleasant man, as well as being an actual Marxist, at least he lived in it for a while to determine what it was like. Many architects don't even bother doing that, especially if its public housing. My father always use to say, always beware of the person who seem friendly and trust those who are not.
Your father sounds like a right see you NT. Maybe you are not.
Awww yes the "tower". Back in my teens we loved these for the purpose of sticking antennas on for our radio station haha
Which station? I used to find it fascinating when I saw dipoles hanging precariously on a 30 foot piece of scaffolding from the blocks 😁
@@darkerarts Worked on various stations. Mainly west London. Last one I was on was in Acton called Ice Cold FM
I've now got visions of Kurupt Fm and a gran's flat!
@@cargy930 hahaha
@@paulrydzinski9995 Awesome mate, I used to know a few people behind Rude and Ruud Awakening. Heard many a story of hiding rigs down lift shafts and vents, even up a tree 😁. Also some of the bizarre places their studios were hidden. Good on you mate, used to love pirates when I lived in London
I've always maintained that these are misunderstood buildings and personally I like them a lot.
If the money existed to clean them and treat them so they were in their shiny white "as built", they would look awesome.
Goldprick!! You should warn us; I nearly choked on my digestives.
If Fleming can have Pussy Galore, then why not Goldprick?
Balfron Tower was recently used for filming in Dua Lipa’s ‘Fever’ music video.
I'm familiar with Dua Lipa. I've always thought that name sounded like a paint product.
@@dlbstl I believe she took her name from the Farrow and Ball colour chart...it was a kind of mauve with a hint of grey....all over the place a year or two ago and painful to look at.
Affordable housing tends to be somewhat less than beautiful due to the fact that it has to be affordable , if they spent a heap of money on making it look beautiful it would not be affordable, unless you get an absolute genius of an architect who somehow manages to pull off a minor miracle. Decorative flourishes cost money.
Decorative flourishes also costs lives as in the scandalous case of Grenfell Tower.
Come, come, Mr Bond, you enjoy designing Brutalist eyesores just as much as I do.
I'm glad that I took my contacts out before viewing this installment and then checking out for a disco nap for a couple of hours, so the stark dreariness was subdued a bit.
Can't say I've ever been a particularly big fan of brutalism, perhaps in part because the high school I attended in the suburbs south of Seattle was seemingly designed in a brutalist-wannabe fashion; a highly depressing drab concrete monstrosity that still stands, in all its sprawling low-rise splendour.
I'm just grateful that I have never found myself without any options other than to reside in such a structure like these tower blocks; I think I would rather cease to exist, if that were the case.
Enjoying this foray into housing in the 60s/70s immensely. I've watched other documentaries that focus more on the quality of workmanship, the shortcuts and then of course the subsequent issues that were lived with for years whilst the directors of the firms involved capitalised on the profits made via woefully poorly procured public contracts. Heaven knows the "incentives" that decision makers were given to write massive cheques for ill-conceived and badly executed system-buildings. With hindsight a terrible mess that hopefully wouldn't be allowed to happen today.
Really love your pieces on post war architecture. Living in Plymouth which apart from a few parts of the old city (Barbican, The Hoe, Royal William Yard) largely looks 1950's onwards. Strangely the city planners went low-rise for residential buildings however 3 towers were built in Devonport which though architecturally are nothing special they do have possibly the best view of any social housing in Britain looking across Plymouth Sound to the rolling hills of Cornwall. Of Architectural note is the grade 1 listed civic centre a real piece of sixties brutalism
That was very good, thanks Jago. Looking forward to part 2.
Loving the channel, and what you doing. I lived in Poplar for many years but are ignorant of its history. Stated watching because of all the tube history you where covering.
Keep up the great work.
Btw you vids are pin sharp, what camera or camcorder are you using.
Nobodys mentioned Balfron Tower being positioned right next to the Blackwall tunnel/A13 road junction, one of the busiest in London. I would have thought it makes the current transfer to private ownership and gentrification of the building a bit more difficult to sell with its constant noise and poor air quality?
Question... What is the purpose of the glass inclosure at the top of the utility tower? Is it offices, or a residence for maintenance personnel, or just an observation deck?
_I love your videos, btw. I live in the states and nearly every video of yours I've seen makes me want to visit the place that is the subject. I like your style, Sir. Keep'em coming._ :)
These tower blocks were built using too many assumptions that couldn’t later be justified. They assumed, amongst other things, decent quality construction methods, proper management and maintenance, little or no crime, full employment and no breakdown of society. Therefore most towers like these have been knocked down and replaced with standard housing - which as things turned out would have been cheaper in the long run.
I can't help feeling you missed a trick there Jago - "His wife Ursula" just crying out for the classic Bond image......
Have we caught Jago undressed ?
“Gooooooold prickerrrrrrrr” 😂
A month in a Poplar council flat, a life in a Hampstead lane. A disciple of the irony curtain.
You can almost smell the boiled cabbage and fish, mixed with the acrid air of bleach and stairwells.
...And the people who can't spell "acrid" :P:D:D
@@cargy930 corrected, thank you :)
"It's big, it's controversial, it's polarizing..." It's horrendous LOL (But as I've mentioned before I have no love for most modern architecture.)
Balfron Tower: Goldfinger's brutal odd-job. Fair play to Mr Goldfinger though, he at least designed something equally as ugly to live in himself.
I've never been this early. Great way to start the day.
Can someone please explain the separate narrow connecting tower ?! is it only stairs and elevators? - nobody is living in it?
Goldfinger's wife was Ursula? as in Andress? How oddly Bondish...
Yeah, and then he build some Fleming building, too.
Probably drove an Aston too
I am a new subscriber and just recently found your channel. How very interesting. It is a world away from my own home which is located on the edge of Dartmoor. Many thanks for making your videos.
It's a proper looking slum. I work in the wharf and go past it and it looks awful
I used to love climbing that tower in the nineties putting up transmitters for the local pirate radio stations
THANK YOU JAGO! I’m currently in the middle of having my kitchen refitted, I live in a one bedroom council flat and I happen to be a tiny bit noise sensitive. So not having loads of room, on a wet and cold day, I happen to stuck in my flat with big burly builder types who are making a shite load of noise, which is making me a far from happy chappy, so seeing you uploading this clip has cheered me right up and help to re-set my mood.
Next time I’m down south I’d love to meet up with you just to buy a pint of the old London Pride (if they still make that stuff that is, I’ve been sober for about 15 years, so I’m not sure what’s on tap).
In Singapore, there's tons of tower blocks, yet zero vandalism, zero graffiti, zero drugs use... perhaps the UK should hire some Singapore police officers, and subsidize their flats in famous towers 'round town... apparently, a little caning brings out peoples' better angels... ;')
Nothing to do with police officers it’s just urban culture here and poverty.
A politician of the Attlee type says "I'd like all English families to have homes!". Daily Mail says "Communist!".
Marx was actually a communist. It was not the leftist, socialist, Marxist, or liberal manifesto. It was the Communist Manifesto. They defined communism in the manifesto and The Principles of Communism, along with the First International. If a person generally agrees with Marx and that is their politics, that person is probably a communist. But people in the west prefer to call it anything but, for obvious reasons. Doesn't matter, even lots of communists do not understand Marx. Not many can properly explain his thesis of Historical Materialism for example. Plenty more do not know that Marx, Engels and Lenin said people would initially have to make use of capitalism, in order to 'increase productive forces' (rather than destroy it, or make everything into worker coops etc). Communism's biggest problem is it is far harder to understand than populist politics like blaming people on benefits, or immigrants etc. It also works on a time scale of hundreds of years, because it is about superseding the current mode of production in a certain way, which does not go well with short term thinking and news or election cycles.
Hear hear!
So, the elevator/stairs block only goes over to the residential block every couple of floors. Are these nevertheless flats? Or are they maisonnettes with internal stairs? Because if they’re flats I think you’d have to go up the elevator, over to the residences, and then potentially up or down more stairs before getting to your front door?
I see you've just hit 90k subscribers, so it looks like you're on track to hit 100k subscribers around the end of February. :)
What a splendid way to start the day! Loved it! More interesting insight to yet another landmark I have passed many times and not given too much thought to. Fascinating charachter that fella and a right mixed bag. Love the idea of 'Our Shirl' singing "Gooooldpriiiick!" at her Majestys Variety Performance. That has verily made my day 😂😂😂
Thank you sir for another splendid production. My missus thinks you are hilarious too BTW and she is a right cynic!👍😉
Fleming got the name Blofeld from the members book at his club, to which the father of Cricket Commentator Henry Blofeld was also a member. Unlike Goldfinger he didn't seem to mind, especially as if they were both at the club Fleming would pay for Blofeld's drinks.
It's difficult to imagine a building more hideously ugly.
Awful looking buildings, yuk!!
Upon reading the title of this video, Shirley Bassey started playing in my head.
What was she playing? Rugby? :P:D
@@cargy930 🤣
Love Jagos content. He is very lucky to have the greatest city in the world as his playground.
Sorry, Le Corbusier was Swiss, naturalized French after his 23 year...
He was born in La-Chaux-de-Fonds , a small town in the Neuenburger Jura, very famous in the Watch Industry...
Trellick tower is reminiscent of the Axis Chemicals plant from the 1989 Batman. I wonder if the set designer took inspiration from it?
In the 1990s I spent a short time working in the concierge in Balfron Tower which meant a walk around the tower every so often.
Brutalist design, Crime, Drugs, over crowded isolation, sounds like Chicago's Cabrini-Green homes! last tower now gone since 2011
Another splendid six minutes!
I should stop banging on about how much I enjoy Jago Hazzard's videos, or folks will grow weary.
But shan't! So there.
Swear there's a tower in Notting Hill by the canal that looks a lot like this? What's that one called?
Trellick Tower. I’m covering it in Friday’s video.
Marvelous story, can't wait for episode two.
I'm always impressed when someone "eats their own dog food", as we used to say in IT. Goldfinger wins points for that.
Erno Goldfinger and his wife was totally full of hot air ... Apparently they couldn’t adapt back after living in the tower block for two months into their six bedroom detached four car garage house with a swimming pool in the back garden , they-just couldn’t adapt back to it PMSL - and in Hampstead no less
"Le Corbusier, or in english, The Corbusier"! lol
What do you mean Georgian? Like Stalin’s house Georgian? Like something in Atlanta Georgian? Really big? Really small?
You are making some interesting videos. I don't know the UK very well, but have heard of most of the places. So excellent to have some substance added to the names. Thank you.
Looking at Alexander Fleming House(𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 Fleming) makes me wonder how easy it is to become/call yourself an "architect". That square box looks like it's put together from a kids' construction set. "Erector Set" was one but there was a plastic one with different coloured panels, just like that Ministry of Health building. Hardly a miracle of ingenious design, when a 12 year-old could knock one out before bedtime.
On a slightly less critical note, Mr Goldfinger seems to have had a better grip on reality than Mr & Mrs Smithson and his towers seem to be slightly less ugly than their masterpiece.
I love the fact that he actually 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒕 and not just for a couple of days - that really should be a "thing" and the bigger the building, the longer the architect should have to live there. They should be there long enough to get to know the neighbours and whover/whatever else can be found hanging around the place. Looking forward to Part 2.👍👌😁
Brutalism, concrete, huge tower block
''his inspiration was...''
let me guess, Le Corbusier???
You've answered my question about it being called "Goldfinger Tower" & any thing to do with J. B. !!!🙂🚂🚂🚂
Cast concrete, not prefab panel, no inflammable cladding, well thought out kitchens and bathrooms ---very well done.
NO CONCIERGE system--- stupid councils. I don't read of people complaining how the Shard or the Barbican towers are hell holes.
As always interesting. Goldfinger sounds a schmuck., a Marxist schmuck but still a schmuck. Love brutalism. Love the fact that he lived in Balfron towers. Never knew that he designed Alexander Fleming house. Which is downright ugly. Well done Jago
Jago,your commentary on architecture,in and around London is very interesting,and people tend to forget,that transport and architecture are joined at the hip! Just look at station design,depots,and engine sheds,for example! To cite an example,before the BR came on the scene,many a locomotive shed,was straight out of Victoria's reign,literally,as they still had oil lights,coal stoves,and rather bad working conditions! Nostalgia may be nice,but putting no upgrades into the basic infrastructure,over a long period of years,definitely downgraded BR,and some mechanization was long overdue! But,the political elites,as usual didn't pay too much attention to those problems,until they had their noses rubbed in it! All those strikes in the 50's were over working conditions! The electrification and diesels,were an antidote to the prior underdeveloped infrastructure! Both sides need to be put into perspective, and somewhat things work out in the long run! Now the amazing thing is the last of the historical main lines is being electrified; bout time,and it's the ex-GWR,so why did it take so long? Thank you,Jago,and pardon my verbosity,but it a bit to condense so much history into a couple of paragraphs! Thank you,again! 🚅🚆🚆🚆🚄🚅🚅🏢🏢🏢🏢🏢🏫🏫🏬🏬🏫🏬🏫🏭🏤🏬🏢🏰🏠🏡🏠🏡🏠🏡
As part of the settlement with Fleming, Goldfinger asked for several signed copies of the book, which suggests he might not have been quite as humourless as some suggest.
I believe Fleming found out about Goldfinger (long before his name would have been likely to appear in the papers) through a school friend who happened to be a relative of Erno and regaled Fleming with tales of his rather eccentric relative, and let's face it it's a name made for a Bond villain. Many of Fleming's character names come from that circle of friends - he went to school with Thomas Blofeld (father of the cricket commentator Henry) from where the best Bond villain gets his name, and was in naval intelligence with the magnificently-named Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, JP, DL from where the villain of Moonraker gets his name (shortened to just Drax presumably to save on ink).
Regarding Ian Fleming. Perhaps I’ve missed something but I have often wondered it the “Bond villain” Goldfinger was in fact intended to be a thinly veiled, if indirect, anti-Semitic caricature.
Seems more likely than some sort-of feud with a truculent Jewish Hungarian refugee architect building in what was at the time a mainstream style.
BTW...who WERE the fictional architects who designed all those cool looking Bond villain lairs? Disgruntled ex-Bauhaus dropouts?
Would have made a great Minty Python skit.
I had a one-night-stand with a girl who lived in Balfron Tower - it's kinda weird on the inside too! Also I was sick near one of the entrances! Sorry, Mr Goldfinger!
What was it like inside?
Pushy. Pushy Galore...
Apparently Ian Fleming and Goldfinger were neighbours in Hampstead . It was Goldfinger’s house there that enraged Fleming thus.
They weren't 'zombies' in 28 Days Later, just ordinary every-day people who had been infected with the Rage virus; a completely different thing with completely different guidelines.
I remember thinking to myself, before you've even started your waffling....East Germany!
There *IS* evidence that Fleming was inspired Goldfinger & his hyper-modern architecture, but it’s unclear if he despised his designs. Some rumours perpetuate it wasn’t the tower blocks that caught Fleming’s attention, but Erno Goldfinger’s über-modern minimalist box constructed next to the writer’s house in Hampstead. (Problem is, Fleming wrote the story while abroad on sunny tropical Jamaica). Seems like the *star-chitect* was the one who raised a fracas & brouhaha when he caught wind of the proposed name of the Bond supervillain ... a case of fragile ego/narcissism?
*Footprints of London* & various city architectural walking tours describe how the fictional evil villain came to be -
footprintsoflondon.com/2015/11/fleming-vs-goldfinger-what-really-happened-when-the-architect-took-on-the-author/
I was told in architecture school once that Ian Fleming was disgusted by Erno Goldginger's proposal on Willow Road in near Fleming's neighbourhood in West Hampstead, They would demolish several victorian cottages to build Goldfinger's modernist house. Ian Fleming supposedly made him a villain after that.
Goldfinger must have been an avid follower of his motherland’s despicable regime under Horthy. By en large, former Austrian-Hungarians and their contemporaries have a strange kind of ‘awe’ for autocratic leaders and full blown dictatorship.
Mr. Goldfinger most certainly sounds as such a specimen. Never realized this before, but his architecture may even have inspired famous English writers, although that would be after the writing of their world famous books. Nevertheless, whether he fought Fleming’s character or not, knowing all this makes mr. Goldfinger into the absolute prototype of the villain portrayed in the 007 stories.
Absolutely hilarious narration!!!
(Pssst: Le Corbusier, or Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, was Swiss, not French… F. L. Wright called him “The Swiss in France”).
As an American, I never really understood the word 'ghastly' until I spent a few hours in Heathrow Airport. The naked, Brutalist architecture left me feeling like zombies would pop up from the exposed ceilings or around the corner any minute. I turned to my friend and said, "So this is why all those zombie movies take place in London. This is /ghastly/." And these tower blocks, which I've seen as background props in many movies and shoes, are also ghastly zombie fodder.
Vertical garbage. I'm being very harsh, my apologies. An awful looking building designed by an awful person...no mystery here, except who are the people that employ this cad, give him position, importance to allow such work to exist?
Erno Goldfinger clearly had no proprietary rights on his surname, which was in fact fairly common in pre-Nazi Eastern Europe. Sadly, records show that over 1600 known individuals bearing the name were murdered in the Holocaust.
It was Goldfinger's revolutionary* house at 2, Willow Road, not far from where Ian Fleming lived, that annoyed him. That, and Fleming was anti semitic, and most definitely anti Marxist.
*In the sense of it being very modern in design, and not that it sat in the street handing out copies of 'Iskra' or 'Sprut'.
Goldfinger’s Towers look rancid, another example of awful post-war architecture
🎵Goldfinger, he’s the unpleasant man that built ugly buildings🎵
Needs some work!
When you showed his own house (the brick one) my first throught was Le Corbussier, with the house on stilts and horisontal windows. A few frames afterwards you mentioned that very person. I do however think that Goldfinger actually did a better job at Le Corbussier's ideology. His house actually looks finished, has a satisfying holistic approach, and looks human. Meanwhile I often feel like Le Corbussier gets great concepts and ideas, and then never finishes, refines, or perfects them. All his buildings feel unfinished and like wasted potential.
I've visited some of these monstrosities in South London, esp New Cross/Rotherhithe. Really shocked when first seeing the wonderful views across the Thames, and the living spaces, wow! Maisonettes in the sky! The only downside being negotiating the wee smelling, Pit Bull laden lifts. Surely Heroin dealers could have more thought for their customers sensitivities and live in nice bungalows. Another example of why the country is going to the Isle of Dogs.
So...I can't help wondering if brutalism would have grown from modernism if the war had not happened. It almost seems that the bleakness of bombed areas begat bleakness in the replacement architecture. At least Goldfinger was willing to live in the buildings he designed for others, and gave thought to the people who would use them. But now, I have to try to get rid of tge sound picture running through my mind...of a certain song with a long, drawn out "Goldpriiiiiick" being emphasized. Thank you 😑😄
My understanding is that Goldfinger demolished a perfectly good house to build his own design at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead much to Fleming's annoyance, who lived close by, therefore naming his next villain after him
I live in a similar brutalist block in Glasgow. Built in 1969.
I love it. I won't move until it's demolished xx
The story I heard years ago was that Goldfinger and Fleming were neighbours (or near neighbours) in Hampstead. There was a dispute over planning permission, for which Fleming never forgave Goldfinger - hence the villain. I'm damned if I can find a source for any of this though.
At least he lived there and had his principles. Because of the hat, he looks a bit like William Hartnell, the first Dr. Who. The Rumanian dictator, Nicolae Ceauscesu, wore a similar hat when he was executed. Despite the hat, Goldfinger may have been the better man, but I wouldn't like to judge, although the architectural legacy is a reasonable tribute. There will always be the eternal question of does it make the tenants or do the tenants make the building. It's the old argument about if bricks and mortar have no feelings, then what happens about how you relate to it is entirely your own doing and your own problem.
If, like many things, his ideas went to committee, suffered compromise, budget cuts, council meetings, bright ideas by the differently qualified [ :) ] leading to votes, and the final result was a mess, then it's quite understandable he was a bit of a tyrant to work for. I bet he had very specific views on councils and committees.
Tower blocks do *not* maximise space - they take up about the same amount of land as terraced housing.
Brum is deleting such insults to living.
"Dual aspect" is an insult to language, being deceptively meaningless, benefitting from . . . well, nothing.
Goldfinger may not have been a nise person but how many architects have lived or worked in their creations to experience how it is for the occupants. If they did I'm sure the standard of architect in the UK would improve, My personal opinion is that Goldfinger's buildings are stunning examples of modern architecture which suffered from a British prejudice against modern architecture, which condemned them to disrepair, combined with spending cuts in the 1980s and subsequently and social problems brought about by changes in Society which made living in such large buildings more difficult. If these buildings had been given the care they deserved, together with better security/concierge entry etc, they would have been far more popular, either as social housing or much needed fairly priced privately rented accommodation. The views from the upper floor flats must be fabulous. At least I think now all Goldfinger's creations are listed buildings. Why in Britain are we so wedded to the Victorian terrace and the between the wars semi-detached? Both largely poorly built by speculative builders, impossible to retro-fit to modern standards of insulation, unfit for a world of expensive energy and climate change when well designed and constructed high rise buildings, like those designed by Goldfinger which could easily be brought up to modern standards with solar and wind generation equipment added. Providing affordable homes for sale or rent, ideal for young people, and often in the areas they work and socialise. Yet because of prepuce against modern architecture these buildings are often under threat of demolition. I say once and for all clear away the inner city terraced streets and tear down the semis with their over large under used plots and build new homes for current conditions while improving and re-puposing the inner city modern architecture fit for a new generation of young home owners and renters.