The Robin Hood Gardens Estate in Poplar (1972) was the only completed residential project by the architects Alison and Peter Smithson. Famous for wide street decks, the so-called 'streets in the sky', these were symbolic of east end pavements as well as the architects social concerns. After less than fifty years and two attempts at listed property status, it was demolished in stages as part of the Blackwall Reach regeneration scheme.
These photographs were mostly made over a few months while visiting the estate in preparation for London Open House in 2016. The weekend included building tours with access to see inside a vacant flat on the second floor and an exhibition, for which I'd been making a short film with people who had lived at Robin Hood Gardens when the estate was new. It was pure coincidence that the flat we had access to, was where one of our interviewees grew up during the 1970's. Over the Open House weekend, he and his family memorably re-visited the flat for the first time in many years. The film, which was made in collaboration with the photographer Mike Seaborne, is shown below. It was kept short for the purpose of playing on repeat for London Open House but, as there is much more footage, I would like to edit a longer version, when the opportunity makes it possible.
