West Midlands

Goldfinger Office visit

Thank you to everyone who braved the wet and the wait to get into this little Goldfinger gem of an office block. Here’s a link to Gillian Darley’s review of Ernö Goldfinger: The Life of an Architect by Nigel Warburton in the London Review of Books which we talked about http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n07/gillian-darley/dont-teach-me.

Eva tells us that the building has changed a little since her last visit, before the recent pre-sale refurb, but that it has not been too mucked about with, which is good news. And the office for Mr Carr(?) still has its original fitted furniture, though sadly the desk and sink have been removed and most of doors have been replaced with modern fire resistant ones.

A big thanks to Vanessa for organising our first Scouting Visit – there she is, pointing to an original site photograph of the Carr’s office building, which amazingly was gracing the walls of the good local café!

For those who don’t know it, I took some photos of the Lucas building, which is on the roundabout just before the Goldfinger building. It looks to Vanessa and I like ’60s or early ’70s: it’s fabulous from the outside. A gentle curving building made for the roundabout circle in front. But I cannot find any mention of it in Pevsner – any thoughts on the architect and date?

So please, local members, step forward to offer to organise another Scouting Visit for January 2014 onwards. Remember, no notes (unless you want to), just get us in, that’s all it takes (though as Vanessa knows, that is not always easy). We are currently in negotiations with the Landmark Trust about a December or January visit to the Stirling Prize winning Astley Castle.