The Marquess Estate (London)

 draw only border, public housing estate

If the government's urban taskforce had been around in 1977, you can imagine it would have warmly approved of the then brand new Marquess estate in Islington, north London.

The estate represented a number of the themes that Lord Rogers, Anne Power and the other taskforce members have so enthusiastically backed. It was on a brownfield site; it was well designed by Darbourne and Darke - leading architects of the day; it put the pedestrian first; and it was built to high density, with 200 bed spaces per acre (or 494 per hectare).

In a deliberate contrast to 1960s tower blocks, the estate was designed as a series of streets and alleys of mostly family houses with gardens around a series of green spaces. In short, it was an environment that Rogers and Power are now calling for - "dense but green".

The scheme was highly commended for good design in housing by the old Department of the Environment, and it was described as a "magnificent showpiece" by the then prime minister, Harold Wilson, when he came to open it. But, soon after, the Marquess became a disaster. It quickly gained a fearsome reputation as an area of high crime, with twice as much vandalism as anywhere else in the borough. Its tightly compact and intricate layout was seen as a major cause of crime and fear of crime on the estate. The police said the design "lends itself to crime".

Rogers and Power now argue that "denser and more compact urban forms" provide more "informal policing" than lower density areas. But research by Bill Hillier, at University College London, found that the Marquess's compact layout meant that very few people walked through the estate. So, in this case, there was actually less self-policing because of the compact layout.

The problems at the Marquess, which also included damp and noisy flats, became so acute that Islington took the drastic step of deciding to tear down 463 of the homes. It is now rebuilding the estate, on a more simple street pattern in partnership with Southern Housing Group (SHG).

Renamed New River Green, the estate is now opened up to encourage more people to walk through. More homes for sale and shared ownership are also being provided in an attempt to promote a mixture of incomes on the estate. Housing minister Nick Raynsford gave his seal of approval to the £22m project when he visited work in progress last week.