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Robin Hood Gardens

Brutalist architecture in LondonHousing estates in the London Borough of Tower HamletsPoplar, London
Robin Hood Gardens AP Smithson
Robin Hood Gardens AP Smithson

Robin Hood Gardens is a residential estate in Poplar, London, designed in the late 1960s by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972. It was built as a council housing estate with homes spread across 'streets in the sky': social housing characterised by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks, much like the Park Hill estate in Sheffield; it was informed by, and a reaction against, Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation. The estate was built by the Greater London Council, but subsequently the London Borough of Tower Hamlets became the landlord. The scheme, the first major housing scheme built by the Smithsons, consisted of two blocks, one of 10 and one of seven storeys, nurturing between them a large green; it embodied ideas first published in their failed attempt to win the contract to build the Golden Lane Estate in the City of London.A redevelopment scheme, known as Blackwall Reach, involves the demolition of Robin Hood Gardens as part of a wider local regeneration project that was approved in 2012. An attempt supported by a number of notable architects to head off redevelopment by securing listed status for the estate was rejected by the government in 2009. The demolition of the western block began in December 2017. The eastern block, which is still inhabited by tenants, is to be demolished later. The site will contain 1,575 residences.Part of the building has been preserved by the Victoria and Albert Museum and was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Robin Hood Gardens (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Robin Hood Gardens
Poplar High Street, London Blackwall

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Wikipedia: Robin Hood GardensContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.50944 ° E -0.00843 °
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Poplar High Street 261
E14 0BB London, Blackwall
England, United Kingdom
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Robin Hood Gardens AP Smithson
Robin Hood Gardens AP Smithson
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Traffic Light Tree
Traffic Light Tree

Traffic Light Tree is a public sculpture in Poplar, London, England, created by the French sculptor Pierre Vivant following a competition run by the Public Art Commissions Agency for the London Docklands Development Corporation under their Public Art programme. Originally situated on a roundabout in Limehouse, near Canary Wharf and Millwall, at the junction of Heron Quay, Marsh Wall and Westferry Road, it is now located on a different roundabout near Billingsgate Market in Poplar. Eight metres tall and containing 75 sets of lights, each controlled by computer, the sculpture was described by Vivant thus: The Sculpture imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London Plane Trees, while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflects the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial and commercial activities. The Public Art Commissions Agency has said "the arbitrary cycle of light changes is not supposed to mimic the seasonal rhythm of nature, but the restlessness of Canary Wharf."Traffic Light Tree was installed in 1998 on the site of a plane tree that was suffering as a result of pollution. It was initially intended that the lights would be triggered to reflect flurries of activity on the London Stock Exchange, but this proved to be too expensive to put into practice.Although some motorists were initially confused by the traffic lights, mistaking them for real signals, the sculpture soon became a favourite among both tourists and locals. In 2005, Saga Motor Insurance commissioned a survey asking British motorists about the best and worst roundabouts in the country. The one containing Traffic Light Tree was the clear favourite.