Hungarian-born architect Ernö Goldfinger moved to Britain in the 1930s, and was an important figure in the British Modern Movement. His strong conviction that Corbusian-influenced high-rise housing was the answer to Britain’s post-war housing problems won him many admirers. (It also gained him enemies, most notably the Bond author Ian Fleming, who named his most notorious villain after the architect.) Goldfinger’s two major high-rise social housing projects were the Balfron and Trellick towers.

Trellick Tower, in particular, has become one of London’s most recognisable architectural landmarks. Commissioned by the Greater London Council in 1966, it was completed in 1972. Goldfinger’s design referenced the earlier Balfron Tower, with a separate service tower linked to the main building by a walkway at every third storey. He drew it freehand in 3B pencil on butcher’s paper.

The building contains a total of 217 flats, all of which were originally rented as council flats. Many are now in private hands. The flats were designed to dovetail each other: where one flat has a front door at the top of a staircase leading down to the living area, the next-door flat has the opposite design, with the entrance at the foot of the staircase. This reduces noise transmitting between the apartments.

Trellick Tower was Grade II*-listed by English Heritage in the late 1990s.