Comments on: Decanted From Robin Hood Gardens

By: Lesley Spencer

Lesley Spencer — Mon, 20 May 2019 09:26:38 +0000

What Malcolm said Lovely to see happy people. Everyone should have a garden. Unless of course you don’t want one

By: Pat Turnbull

Pat Turnbull — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 22:02:21 +0000

Many thanks to Delwar Hussain for this excellent series of articles which truly tell the whole story. The problem is not the architecture of Robin Hood Gardens but what will replace it – mainly expensive housing not intended for the current and past residents of the estate. I am pleased for the lucky ones who have found a decent home, especially the family who fought so hard to keep the estate, and really were given no option in the end but to try and get the best for themselves. What has happened and will happen to the others, especially the temporary tenants to whom Tower Hamlets Council now has no obligation? Little or no housing is being built to house London’s working class. Tenants on other London housing estates may draw the conclusion: protect what we have. Because the government, the councils and the developers are all eyeing up our housing estates.

By: wendy mukluk

wendy mukluk — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:50:07 +0000

i love the snowman (animal?) photograph.
so beautiful & fun

By: Franco

Franco — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 10:08:13 +0000

We do not need Robin Hood Gardens style development (and by extension Blackwall Regeneration Project) but we do need a return of Robin Hood!!

Thank you for this series. Come back soon.

By: Patty/NS

Patty/NS — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 23:41:20 +0000

Thank you so much for your series, I have enjoyed reading the stories so much. All beautiful people. I hope we hear from you again, and soon!

By: Mike Marriott

Mike Marriott — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 17:12:48 +0000

What a beautiful story.
And what wonderful people.
Thank you

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:03:06 +0000

Well said Malcolm, I agree with every word.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 14:23:43 +0000

I was really captivated by this story. It was funny, sad, heartwarming, uplifting and yet tragic and worrying as well. That communities and people should be treated in this callous and hardhearted fashion is shocking. I can only wish all of the residents of Robin Hood Gardens (those who have moved out and those who remain) the very best for the future.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 11:29:52 +0000

My Aunt Lil and Uncle Bill lived in Robin Hood Gardens. They were among the very first tenants when it opened in 1972. They lived on the ground floor in the west block, the mound was right outside their windows. Not much of view. In those days these were council flats but it was clear from the start that they were not a great place to live. There were problems with damp, there were problems with rubbish, there were problems with social integration. Nobody liked living there.
Architects such as Richard Rogers, who loftily claims that this development is: “the best piece of social and architectural thinking in the last 50 years” are not only deluded, but complicit in the urban destruction of our great City of London and of giving politicians and developers the excuse to carry out social cleansing and the rape of London and its people on a massive scale. This disgusting monstrosity and it’s equally horrendous neighbour the Balfron Tower should be razed to the ground, along with every other brutalist carbuncle in London.
My Aunt Lil hated living there and eventually got re-housed in a small terraced house in Bow. The pollution from the traffic fumes in Robin Hood Gardens almost killed her because she suffered from asthma.
There is no reason – none at all – not to blow up this awful, ugly, shoddy piece of concrete ideology and replace it with proper housing on a more human scale. But what will happen is that it will be replaced with something equally horrible, designed by another arrogant architect but not for local people.

By: Joan

Joan — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 07:53:44 +0000

A great testiment to a community overcoming adversity.
These stories of Robin Hood Gardens have shown how nothing is ever black and white but really a combination of far more complex and varied shades of grey shot through with shafts of light. In this case, light created from human endurance and neighbourbly kindness. (And the sense of light and space created by the architects – a feature appreciated by several tenants/residents, despite designs faults and Utopian concepts of communal living.)
LIfe affirming without sentimentality.
I have enjoyed these posts.