Description

249/7/10025 GOLBORNE ROAD
22-DEC-98 (East side)
TRELLICK TOWER CHELTENHAM ESTATE

II*

Trellick Tower comprises 217 flats, six shops, an office, youth and women's centres. 1968-72 by Erno Goldfinger. Bush-hammered in-situ reinforced concrete with some pre-cast pebble-finished panels, and timber cladding to balconies. L-shaped block linked by 35 storey service tower semi-freestanding at corner, the main range of 31 storeys and the lower of seven linked to core every third floor. The service core incorporates lifts, stairs and refuse shutes, with a projecting boiler house on the 32nd and 33rd floors. Each third, corridor, floor contains six one-bedroom flats in each wing, with a storey of two-bedroom flats above and below reached off the same level. The 23rd and 24th floors contain five two-storey maisonettes and two flats.

The service tower is a slim and very sculptural composition with narrow, slit windows except to the fully glazed boiler house, its form a contrast to the highly glazed, trabeated grid of the main blocks. All windows are timber-framed casements. All the living rooms, and the kitchens to the two-bedroom flats, have balconies forming a distinctive pattern across the main facades that is interupted by the maisonette floor. Varnished timber sidings to these balconies. The corridors on the north face are distinguished by pre-cast panels. Bay windows to youth and women's centres in main block overlooking broad raised terrace; in the lower wing a doctor's surgery retains its original facade and lettering designed by Goldfinger. Interior finished with pre-cast pebble panels and brightly coloured tiles to corridors and lift walls. The interiors of the flats are interesting in plan, and the light switches are incorporated in the door surrounds. Three-bedroom flats have sliding screens. Some original balustrade to internal stairs within flats.

The basement community centre, built as a nursery, retains some sliding doors, their frames incorporating light switches, and cupboards. Cork flooring running into curved skirting.

Doctor's Surgery (no. 13) with original shop front, projecting sign and door. Interior retains original plan of waiting room, consulting room and nurse's area. Many fitted cupboards survive, together with doors and frames with switches. Separate sliding door to nursing area at the rear. A fine surviving example of an original Goldfinger interior.

Included as the ultimate expression of Goldfinger's philosophy of high-rise planning. It also embodies the best ideas of the time on high rise housing.
Source: James Dunnett and Gavin Stamp, Erno Goldfinger, 1983

Listing NGR: TQ2460082053

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Trellick Tower at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q1571416

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)