London's increasingly chaotic and ugly skyline.
A list of London’s ugliest buildings was published earlier this week. It has never ceased to amaze me that London is fast becoming a litany of horrid architectural structures. To show you just a small example, I set off on my daily walk. My route was from Clerkenwell to Bermondsey and a leisurely meander back again.
During my life, I have witnessed post-war reconstruction, from the new towns and high-rise flats replacing the old, but perfectly saveable, Georgian and Victorian terraces; to the 1960s office boxes; to the advent of brutalism and the world of high-tech, post-modernism and minimalism; and to our present mania for ‘how many different shape buildings can we erect in London?’ ‘Erect’ is the perfect word for those egotistical architects imposing their buildings on us. Let's start with some oldies, many still with us.
Above: some 1960/70's examples on 'home' envisaged by the architects of the day.
A far more enlightened vision of 'home' by Eric Lyons for Span Houses in the 1960's.
The horrors of post modernism.
and minimalism; and to our present mania for ‘how many different shape buildings can we erect in London?’ ‘Erect’ is the perfect word for those egotistical architects imposing their buildings on us.
Courtesy of my iPhone camera, here is a little visual record of my walk. We kick off at the very end of my road with this monstrosity...
And diagonally opposite that, this ugly rust box...
Farther down Farringdon Road, we have a building that flanks the underground line. It’s a feeble, cheap attempt at post-modernism of the worst kind. Part of the building is still in its original grey and pink granite cladding...
with the remaining two-thirds recently painted in matt black, evoking a very sinister stance...
Just across Blackfriars Bridge, and nearing completion, is the latest addition to the ‘mine’s a different shape and bigger than yours’ architectural club...
The £3+ million apartments will no doubt be snapped up by overseas investors to be left half occupied. Just opposite the above is a building with a fold to mark its identity...
On Hopton Street, I then pass Samson House...
a hangover from the brutalist period of the 60's 70's and what must be one of the most bombastic and inhuman-looking structures ever built in London. And just around the corner from that is the new Tate Switch House building...,
this time with an indented fold. I find it shockingly ugly, with the inside spaces even worse. By this time, I felt the need to find something on a human scale...
and some semblance of beauty. And this is Hopton’s Charity Almshouses. They have been in continuous occupation since 1752. This humble little grouping is a perfect metaphor for what is happening in London. We are all being claustrophobically hemmed in. On my dawdle back, there was an occasional glimpse of London’s industrial past.
Back across Blackfriars Bridge, I can’t resist snapping an old favourite: the charmingly intact art nouveau pub The Black Friar...
festooned with beautifully crafted decoration in bronze, mosaic and stained glass. It embraces you the moment you enter its dimly lit interior. It is pure delight.
I carry on down Farringdon Road, stop at Holborn Viaduct Bridge and look up and see this dark, twisted mess peering over the top...
All of the buildings I have criticised have been imposed on us with little regard to their effect on the senses. Beauty seems to be a missing ingredient in most 21st-century buildings. These structures will hang around for many decades to come and, like the swarms of young men and women sporting, from head to foot, brightly coloured tattoos applied to their taught, firm flesh, they will, as their skin wrinkles, lose those once-vibrant colours, fading into a mussy grey, looking like some awful skin disease.
By the end of my walk, I increasingly felt a little like John Betjeman, who lamented what had replaced so many much-beloved buildings.
Finally, out of desperation, I head for Charterhouse Square, not far from Smithfield market, to just spend a little time there...
The recently renovated Charterhouse dates back to 1348 and has served as a monastery, a private mansion, a boys’ school and still today an alms house for the needy. The building and its little garden are utterly tranquil and are the perfect place to end this Betjemanesque little rant.