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Why won't architect Lord Rogers pay us a visit in grim estate he wants preserved?
Last updated at 01:37am on 10.03.08
Aloof: Lord Rogers, pictured with wife Lady Rogers, refused an invitation to meet residents who want the estate torn down
But for Britain's leading architect Lord Rogers, Robin Hood Gardens in East London is a "beautiful" work of art, worthy of comparison with Bath's magnificent Royal Crescent.
However, it appears the peer's love of the sink estate doesn't extend to spending an evening there, to experience what life is like for its 400 residents, who have overwhelmingly voted for their homes to be torn down.
The Mail on Sunday invited Lord Rogers – whose work includes the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Millennium Dome – to leave his £4 million townhouse in an exclusive Chelsea street and visit the building he wants saved.
But he simply ignored the offer, instead insisting that, with investment, the concrete buildings, designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson and opened in 1972, could be renovated.
In a recent letter to Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, pleading for the Government to give the estate listed-building protection, Lord Rogers said: “The juxtaposition of the repetitive window frames, the columns and the linear terraces creates a unique and powerful aesthetic.
"The siting of the buildings around an elegant man-made mound creates a harmonious spacious enclosure, reminiscent of the great Georgian crescents and squares in Bath.”
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Eyesore: Robin Hood Gardens, which Lord Rogers wants to see listed
But local councillor Phil Briscoe said: “These architects should try living here if they think it's so great.
"They think it's a quaint, living museum-piece, when it's a place people have to call home.
“The reality is that it has a reputation as one of the worst estates in East London. It's not in a fit state for the people living there.
"To compare it to the Royal Crescent in Bath is ridiculous. It's ugly; a real monstrosity.”
Residents' association vice-chairman Aktar Hussain added: “Why don't they come and live here? It's hell.
"If they ever came, they would find lots of noise; the staircases are really dirty and there's loads of anti-social behaviour which can be very intimidating.”
English Heritage is compiling a report for Ministers on whether Robin Hood Gardens should be listed – but insisted no decision had yet been made.
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