Balfron Tower, St Leonard's Road (1)

Image: © Stephen Richards Taken: 4 Jun 2011

A landmark building, with its huge concrete bulk and striking juxtaposition of massive slab and slender semi-detached service tower, at the top of which is a conspicuously oversailing boiler house, a formula the architect returned to for the Trellick Tower in Kensington (Image]). That architect was Ernö Goldfinger, the date was 1965-67, and the client was the Greater London Council. It was a high-spec job with good quality materials and variety in the size and disposition of the flats. Looking back from 2011, it's hard to conceive of a time in which large-scale public housing projects were undertaken at all, let alone with generous budgets. Grade II* listed. Goldfinger designed two other distinctive buildings on the estate (Image] and Image]), but not the indifferent smaller terraces like that seen in the foreground.

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