London Borough of Tower Hamlets, United Kingdom

Robin Hood Gardens

London Borough of Tower Hamlets, United Kingdom

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Reference#SOSBrutalism↗

Robin Hood Gardens was a brutalist housing estate in Poplar, London, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in the late 1960s and completed in 1972. Commissioned by the Greater London Council, it was the Smithsons' first major housing scheme, consisting of two concrete blocks—one of ten storeys and one of seven—arranged around a central green space. The estate exemplified the "streets in the sky" approach to social housing, featuring broad aerial walkways that linked homes across long concrete structures, drawing inspiration from and responding critically to Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation and the earlier Park Hill estate in Sheffield. The design embodied principles the Smithsons had previously proposed for the unsuccessful Golden Lane Estate competition. The estate was later managed by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. In 2012, a redevelopment scheme called Blackwall Reach was approved; despite efforts by notable architects to secure listed status, the proposal was rejected by the government in 2009. Demolition of the western block occurred in 2017–2018, while the eastern block was demolished in 2024–2025. Portions of the structure were preserved by the Victoria and Albert Museum and exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018.