Notions of streets in the sky, massive concrete vertical or horizontal fortresses, quickly fell victim to the realities of bad housing management and maintenance, rising crime and lack of security – not to mention the growing distaste for the sweeping redevelopment of residential areas. After Ronan Point would come Broadwater Farm. Policy came to be dictated by drama and virulent reaction. Those who had ventured into housing – Peter and Alison Smithson, Denys Lasdun and Goldfinger, the ‘angry brigade’ of architecture – took far more than their fair share of the blame. And who could have guessed that ‘right to buy’ legislation would soon give the better London tower blocks another chance – while also draining the public estate of affordable housing? Since the early 1990s, a new generation has come to live in Trellick Tower and its peers, secure and comfortable, but this time they are residents by choice.