The tower was designed in 1967 by Clifford Wearden and Associates in the Brutalist style then standard for British social housing. Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council approved construction in 1970, and contractors A. E. Symes of Leyton completed the building in 1974. At 67.3 meters, it was a straightforward concrete structure: a central core containing the staircase, lift, and service shafts, surrounded by perimeter columns that carried the load. The lead architect, Nigel Whitbread, later noted that the tower had been designed with attention to structural strength, particularly in response to the 1968 Ronan Point disaster that exposed the weakness of system-built towers. The design was simple and solid. What it lacked in architectural distinction, it offered in durability -- Whitbread estimated it could last another hundred years.

The tower's residents over the decades formed an unusually diverse community. The original Moroccan families were joined by residents from across the world -- more than 20 nationalities were represented at the time of the 2017 fire. Some families had lived there for generations. Others were recent arrivals. Fourteen flats had been purchased by their residents under the Right to Buy scheme, creating a mix of council tenants and leaseholders within the same building. The lower four floors were non-residential, housing community facilities. The single staircase that served all 24 floors was the building's primary means of access and escape. In the early 1990s, access was restricted with key fobs, and lift service to the lowest floors was discontinued.

Between 2015 and 2016, Grenfell Tower underwent a major renovation. The project replaced the aging heating system and windows, added thermal insulation, and installed new external cladding intended to improve the tower's appearance and energy efficiency. The renovation was part of a broader development of the Lancaster West area that included the nearby Kensington Aldridge Academy. The new cladding gave the tower a cleaner, more modern look from the outside. Inside, two previously non-residential floors were converted to flats, bringing the total to 127 apartments with 227 bedrooms. The renovation was meant to extend the building's life and improve conditions for residents. Its consequences were the opposite.

The Grenfell Action Group, a residents' organization, spent years documenting safety failures at the tower. In 2013, they published a fire risk assessment showing that firefighting equipment had not been checked for four years, with some fire extinguishers marked 'condemned.' In November 2016, they wrote that the building had only one entrance and exit, that corridors were frequently blocked with rubbish, and that 'only a catastrophic event' would expose the management's failures. They were not the only ones raising concerns. The UK Equality and Human Rights Commission later found that the council and government bodies 'knew, or ought to have known' that their management breached residents' rights. On 14 June 2017, the catastrophic event the Action Group had predicted arrived. The tower is now being demolished, and a memorial designed by a shortlisted team will eventually occupy the site. What was once a home for hundreds of people has become a place of remembrance, a monument to what happens when warnings are ignored and the most vulnerable are left unprotected.