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"who’d a thunk it"

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Disabled tower block residents "threatened" for posting about broken lifts on Reddit (www.londoncentric.media)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Balfron Tower. But the designer was Ernő Goldfinger.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ian Fleming hated modernist architecture, to the point of naming his villains after its perpetrators.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It is said that Fleming despised Erno Goldfinger’s architecture and personality so much, he decided to borrow the distinctive surname and apply it to one of his most notorious villains- ‘Auric Goldfinger’!

Auric Goldfinger… Fleming’s fictional creation and Erno’s unfortunate namesake When the novel was released in 1959, Erno Goldfinger was furious.

As well as the name, the fictitious baddie shared an uncannily similar family background to the architect; both being East European Jews who’d emigrated from their homelands in the 1930s.

So, note that “It is said” and not some direct quote of Fleming himself, FWIW.

https://blackcablondon.net/2012/06/30/the-trellick-tower-from-doom-to-desire/

That said, lawyers got involved, so there was definitely something going on.

Erno Goldfinger decided to get his lawyers involved and the matter was quickly tided up- all the publishers had to do was pay the relevant costs and declare that all characters in the novel were fictitious.

Ian Fleming meanwhile was enraged at the fuss… and almost persuaded his publishers to change the fateful name to the rather more offensive ‘Goldpri*k!’