We wandered through the streets of Poplar, past the Municipal Baths (it was Lady’s only), through the ghost of Crisp Street market, to the great hulk of the Balfron Tower looming in the distance:-
It gets a much better write-up from Pevsner than Robin Hood Gardens: ‘The twenty-six-storey block is immediately arresting’:-
I’m not sure I don’t prefer the sinuous monumentalism of the Smithsons.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Have you been inside the small split level flats? Quite impressive use of relatively small space.
No. Weren’t they opened by the National Trust (weirdly) ?
There was some scheme for artists to use the rooms on the top[?] floor as the base for work related to the building. I am not sure under whose auspices . Some of the work was good. The balconies for little flower gardens must have been one of the attractive features in the building. We went to see Lucy Harrison’s work – she is often involved in projects of this type in unusual places such as the Warner Estate in Walthamstow [the estate too little known] and Canvey Island.
Catherine Yass wanted to drop a piano from the top. Charles