THE ROUND HOUSE from ‘Thunderbirds’ (1965) created by Gerry Anderson

One of the three buildings we see on Tracy Island in the classic TV series ‘Thunderbirds’. The others being the Tracy House and Pool area and the Cliff House.

This painting imagines the Round House and its surroundings, with some artistic licence. The Round House is seen in only a couple of shots. Its appearance in the feature films ‘Thunderbirds Are Go’ and ‘Thunderbird 6’ differ from the TV show in that it appears to be larger. Some original promotional materials for the show listed Thunderbird 3 as being 200 feet tall, but in the Series 2 episode ‘Give or Take a Million’ Jeff Tracy states it is 287 feet tall, suggesting the updated Round House model was intended to favour this new size, in addition to adding detail for the cinema screen.

This painting represents a Round House that is 85% the TV show version and and 5% the movie version and 5% me. I have included a second storey in the main ring and adjusted the scale of the steps and the railing, favouring the movie version. The surrounding area, including the pat is not seen in the show or the films, but it seems logical that there would be pedestrian access. This crazy paving design seems like something the Tracy’s would have chosen. I have made the ground beneath the House a sandy area (it is cement in the series and the films) as people should be discouraged from walking up to the edge of the hole beneath the House… not only for safety reasons, but because if someone peered over the edge and looked into the hole they would likely be able to see Thunderbird 3’s nose cone. I have included the ring of stones around the rim of the hole. Presumably this was some sort of natural rocky phenomenon, a sort of deep vertical cave or something that Jeff Tracy decided to embrace for aesthetic and architectural reasons and as a convenient location to be adapted into the Thunderbird 3 launch silo.

The general size and shape of the Round House is similar to Thunderbird 5.