Balfron Season – AmeliasMagazine

Last week I was invited to view the inside of the Balfron Tower in advance of a ‘pop up’ opening with the National Trust as part of Balfron Season. As a long term fan of Brutalist architecture I was excited at the prospect of seeing inside one of the famous Goldfinger tower blocks, so Snarfle and I trundled over to Langdon Park in Poplar, East London.

Balfron Tower Flat 130 interior bedroom

We were ferried up in the coffin shaped lifts (presumably built to accommodate emergencies… and deaths) before arriving on a top floor to view Flat 130, a maisonette flat once occupied by the architect Ernő Goldfinger for a few months after the block was built in 1968, apparently to demonstrate the benefits of high rise life. For the pop up the flat has been redecorated in an earnestly retro style by the Hemingways; think shag piles, Tretchicoffs and G Plan. Of course, I particularly liked the little illustrated details.

Balfron Tower Flat 130 interior bedroom 2

The walkways in the sky are connected to the ‘service tower’ by suspended concrete paths, not the most salubrious of passages after nearly 50 years of use. Gosh I do love a brutalist building but I wouldn’t want to live in one: arrow like windows recall the defensive architecture of medieval castles, and the predominant view below is of the A12, from which we usually view this building at high speed, on our way to places more pastoral.

Balfron Tower windows
Balfron Tower view
Glenkerry House Goldfinger
We made our way home via Glenkerry House (above, a later Goldfinger addition to the Brownfield Estate), the Festival of Britain clock tower and Chrisp Street market, where we stopped to enjoy some street food and music from Paul Mosley.

Chrisp street graffiti

Sadly this is the swan song for Balfron Tower as social housing: the flats are being scrubbed up to be sold off on the ‘luxury’ market – far from what Goldfinger originally intended.

Tours with the National Trust take place between 1st-5th October and 8-12 October and are will include a discussion on the local area, modernism and the development of post war social housing. Book your ticket here if brutalism tickles your fancy.

UPDATE! Due to popular demand the National Trust have now extended the tours of Flat 130, Balfron Tower for a further two weeks. Grab your tickets now as they’re sure to sell out again soon.

Tickets are being released for 6 more days of tours, Friday to Sunday 17-19 and 24-26 October. Tours are on the hour, 11am to 4pm. Please note places on tours are ONLY available by booking in advance at here. To register interest in visiting with a local community or educational group please contact london@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Joseph Watson, Programme Manager of National Trust London – “The National Trust is delighted to announce that more tickets for the Balfron Tower are now being made available for the coming fortnight. As part of the extension, we are undertaking further work with local schools and community groups, inviting them to visit Flat 130 for free. I would like to record our special thanks to local residents for welcoming us and allowing us to extend the run.”

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday September 30th, 2014 2:14 pm

Categories ,1968, ,A12, ,Balfron Season, ,Balfron Tower, ,Brownfield Estate, ,Brutalist, ,Chrisp Street, ,East London, ,Ernö Goldfinger, ,Festival of Britain, ,Flat 130, ,G-Plan, ,Glenkerry House, ,Hemingway, ,Langdon Park, ,National Trust, ,Passing Thoughts and Making Plans, ,Paul Mosley, ,Poplar, ,retro, ,Snarfle

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How did you meet and how and why did you decide to make music together?
D: I was bicycling one night and saw Eleni sleepwalking outside of the little village we lived in. So I guided her home. I knew where she lived, had seen her at school and knew she was a great dancer. That’ s why I assumed she would be a great singer, too. When I finally dared to ask her if she could sing she said: I can scream! That’ s how our punkrock band Jumbo Jet started.

Why the name Evropi?
E: It’s Greek for Europe. We had a three year tour across Europe going on with 600 shows in 22 countries where we also started writing the songs for the new album. We were inspired by the music we caught and the conversations we had with young people whose ideas of how Europe could be were very similar.

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How did you hook up with wave machines producer Tim Bruzon and what was it like making the album in Liverpool?
E: We met Tim in Stuttgart while he was joining his girlfriend on tour and ever since we’ve stayed in contact with him. He told us about his project Wave Machines and that he’s also into mixing.
So we had this track we were working on and we were kind of stuck with it in the mix. We send the track to Tim and were so excited about how our song turned into something really cool that we decided to
work on our album with him. I was really amazed about his anarchistic approach and that he had zero respect for the material he got from us. The way how he acted like a third band member.
I really liked that. He’s very experimental and there is no German Angst in him.

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What kind of music inspires you, do you have different tastes?
E: I’m always inspired by music where artists create their own cosmos and genre. How do you describe the music of Kate Bush or Prince or DJ Shadow or Arvo Pärt? It’s music that just those people
are able to do and no one else.

Who played the traditional greek instruments on the album?
D: I played them. I spent months in Greece, listening, watching and understanding those instruments. I usually don’ t practise instruments cause observing very close is enough and you still keep your own approach to a strange instrument that way.

Sea-+-Air-press-pic_printDanielWeisser
What inspired the lyrics on the album?
E: My own family history. It’s the story of three women and their journey from Asia Minor to Greece, Germany and back across Europe. But you could easily change the names and make your own
story out of it.

How do you feel about the current migration issues across Europe and beyond?
E: Half a year ago 34 young men from Gambia arrived in our village. I was touched by our little communitiy’s willingness to help. They organized a lovely welcome party for the refugees so we could
easily get to know each other. As for myself I’d rather help without a big fuss than talk about it. So I started to give German lessons at my house and Daniel started to organize excursions where
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What can we expect from your live show?
E: The effort to sound like a seven-piece band even though it’s just the two of us.

Find Evropi on tour with Duke Special here:

> Oct 15 – Apex, Bury St Edmunds
> Oct 16 – BOTW, Manchester
> Oct 18 – Fibbers, York
> Oct 20 – Flowerpot, Derby
> Oct 21 – Louisiana, Bristol
> Oct 22 – Copper Rooms, Warwick
> Oct 23 – Boileroom, Guildford
> Oct 24 – The Convent, Stroud
> Oct 25 – Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, Portsmouth

And they are playing in London on 27th Oct at The Finsbury, with Flights of Helios and Business Lunch.

Sea + Air is out now on Glitterhouse Records/Shellshock.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday September 24th, 2015 11:59 am

Categories ,album, ,Balfron Season, ,Business Lunch, ,Daniel Benjamin, ,Eleni Zafiriadou, ,Evropi, ,Flights of Helios, ,Ghost Pop, ,Glitterhouse Records, ,Greek, ,interview, ,Jumbo Jet, ,Sea + Air, ,SEΛ + ΛIR, ,Shellshock, ,Tim Bruzon, ,Wave Machines

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