tower block

Soaring intimidation

/ mikeosbornphoto / 13 Comments

Dark intimidation

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This is a daunting sight on the west London skyline. It’s called Trellick Tower, a Brutalist tower block. If you’re standing close to this concrete beast, it soars above you and leaves you feeling dwarfed and a little intimidated.

But the curtained windows and bristling satellite dishes show that it’s home to a lot of people. Even an edifice like this has a soul.

Trellick was a slight detour on the canalside walk I took with fellow photographer Richard Cooper-Knight. I also went to visit its east London sibling – Balfron Tower – some months ago and visited one of the apartments inside with its impressive views.

Impressive is the word for architecture like this…

North London vista (2)

Tall and wet

/ mikeosbornphoto / 7 Comments

Tall metal thirdsRecently, London’s winter has been one of storms from the Atlantic with strong winds and driving, torrential rain. One saving grace is that it’s been relatively mild.

These monochrome abstracts are of the newest office block here in Hammersmith, west London – tall, with acres of glass clasped together with metal.

On this grey and sodden day, the rain almost stuck to the facades and my camera lens was spattered as I peered upwards. When summer comes, this building will look sleek and piercing against a burning blue sky… we hope.

Storm spattered

Velvet sheen - clean (2)

A brush with Brutalism

/ mikeosbornphoto / 12 Comments

London is studded with tower blocks. The most modern glint with steely glass, soaring futuristically into the city’s sky. But peel back the decades and you come across lumbering hunks of concrete, apparently blotting the landscape, stark and unforgiving.

My Open House London whirlwind took me to Balfron Tower in east London, an astonishing residential block built in the early 1960s. This building, from the Brutalist school of architecture, is by no means elegant, but was awarded Grade II listed status in 1996.

There was quite a queue to take a tour around this beast. One resident passed by and declared “there is nothing interesting about this building!”

We were ushered in by a young artist who has a one-bedroomed apartment on the 24th floor. Surprisingly, the lift was smooth and didn’t stink of urine. Her flat, on a bleak walkway, had a pleasing Soviet era starkness about it – and a commanding view.

There is little coziness about this tower block, which looms menacingly over the cityscape. It hasn’t fallen apart yet and is going to be refurbished. I’m a huge advocate of the tower block. They are an eternal source of compelling photography.

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For further London tower block action, see:

More joy of tower blocks

London City concrete

Ode to the tower block

/ mikeosbornphoto / 8 Comments

In London, the residential tower block is much maligned and doesn’t get a lot of love.

These buildings are seen as shabby, dirty and blots on the skyline.

And high rises are usually associated with rundown housing estates.

They are dangerous, menacing and places where the urban poor live out their meagre existences.

In my opinion these buildings have a bad press. They’re a source of fascination and great material for interesting architectural photographs.

The west London tower block to the left, swathed in shabby scaffolding, brings a new synthesis to a sunrise shot.

And the picture below shows a handsome trio of tower blocks in Belgrade, Serbia. They’re thriving, healthy and caught by the sun.

Gallery entrance

This photo is just a taste of tower block heaven – those expansive, uniform high rise housing estates built across eastern Europe during the communist era. Does anyone have any shots of them? If not, next assignment is to visit some of those cities and create a photographic study, with great love and admiration.