Brutalist towers are worshipped by the young urban crowd

The Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge, has ordered the demolition of an East London sink estate at a time when other brutalist blocks are flourishing. What do the others have that Robin Hood Gardens doesn't? “National importance”, says Steve Bee, of English Heritage, who describes the London housing estates that have been listed as “distinctive and distinguished, with architectural integrity”.

These iconic structures from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies are now sought-after living spaces for a discerning few with an eye for design and a nose for a bargain. Their brutalist style is worshipped by a young urban crowd, designers and architects.

Erno Goldfinger's 31-storey Trellick Tower, near Portobello Road, is London's most famous piece of ex-council concrete. It has a lesser-known twin by the same architect, the 27-storey Balfron Tower, in Poplar, East London, near Robin Hood Gardens. Both are listed, but the Trellick Tower has benfitted from its location while the Balfron Tower languishes in semi-obscurity. The Balfron is beloved by those who value style over location. Matt Gibberd, the founder of the specialist estate agency The Modern House and grandson of modernist architect Frederick Gibberd, says: “Our buyers would move to an area to live in a block like this.”

A top-floor, two-bedroom flat in the Balfron is for sale at £225,000. It is two doors down from the flat in which Goldfinger lived for a brief time. The imminent refurbishment of the building, together with the Olympic regeneration of the area, means that the price may rocket.
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To those who find the architecture inherently overbearing, Gibberd says: “It is stark, yes, but the notion of feeling threatened comes from social associations we have with living on an estate. Once you understand the intention of architects like Goldfinger to take city living into the future, it becomes interesting and beautiful.”

Modernism fans looking for a central location favour the Fifties Golden Lane estate, which was commended this year in the Housing Design Awards. It is a budget option for people who long to live in the Barbican next door, designed in the Sixties by the same architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. Flats here cost about 10 per cent less than those in the Barbican, which has always been private. A two bedroom duplex with unusual double-height sliding windows and original parquet flooring is for sale at £485,000.

For some people, a tower block is a tower block, but for aficionados they represent a Utopian vision for urban living. As Matt Gibberd says: “You either get it, or you don't.”