This is where it all started to go wrong. The Smithsons were wedded to their "streets in the sky " idea of broad aerial walkways in long slab blocks. Robin Hood Gardens, a 213-home council housing complex in East London, gave them the chance to practise what they preached on a grand scale. It was disastrous. The brutalist concrete structure turned out to be defective, but the social aspects were worse: Robin Hood Gardens became a hotbed of crime. The Smithsons were exposed as both arrogant and fallible. Their reputation never recovered in Britain, and though they later added modest buildings to Bath University, they were never trusted with such a large public project again. Having said which, Robin Hood Gardens is still there, and still inhabited.