Queen’s ascendency began at around the same time as the first residents were moving their Axminster carpets and Party Sevens into Tower Hamlets’ Robin Hood Gardens, the Smithson-designed Brutalist estate that would go on to become a typical example of how post-war ‘streets in the sky’ concepts were almost always doomed to fail. Five decades on, just one small section of Robin Hood Gardens has survived for posterity. It’s been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum to, presumably, warn future generations of what can happen to a neighbourhood when you combine too much cheap concrete with not enough public consultation.

Thanks to Freddie Mercury and co., one solitary example of the very worst excesses of overblown 1970s musical bad ideas persists, too. This one isn’t locked away in a museum. It’s likely you’ve heard it very recently, no matter where in the world you live, or how selective you are with your Spotify shuffle settings.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was released half a century ago this week, and the six‑minute monstrosity has, somehow,........

© The Spectator