JUBILANT families are celebrating English Heritage rejecting attempts to have their run-down “concrete jungle” estate in London’s East End listed for preservation. The culture watchdog has thrown out moves by leading architects to list the 1970s Robin Hood Gardens tenement blocks next to the Blackwall Tunnel

By Julia Gregory

JUBILANT families are celebrating English Heritage rejecting attempts to have their run-down "concrete jungle" estate in London's East End listed for preservation.

The culture watchdog has thrown out moves by leading architects to list the 1970s Robin Hood Gardens tenement blocks next to the Blackwall Tunnel approach.

But it has ruled today (Friday) that it does not tick all the boxes to be worth listing. It had "serious shortcomings as housing" with its narrow stairwells and the atmosphere created by "the concrete jungle" with isolated parking areas.

FAILED ITS BRIEF

It experts said: "It failed in its original brief to create a housing development which worked on human terms."

This clears the way for the bulldozers to move in and start work on Tower Hamlets Council's massive Blackwall regeneration plans.

English Heritage had been asked to reconsider its decision not to list the estate designed Peter and Alison Smithson.

But their rejection has delighted many of the residents anxious to get out.

NEW HOMES

Abdul Halim, former chairman of Robin Hood Gardens residents' association, told the East London Advertiser: "The majority of us are pleased. There will be a chance for people to live in new homes now."

He won't be sad to see the back of the estate, he admitted.

There are 260 homes on the estate sandwiched between the A12 tunnel approach and the busy A13 East India Dock Road. It won some notable fans, such as the eminent architect Richard Rogers who joined the battle to save it as "a great example of the best post war architecture" which he said should be kept for future generations.