2009-08-18
Charles Windsor vs Jean Nouvel
Prince of Wales tried to topple architect over St Paul’s
This story from yesterday’s Guardian hits two of my points of interest. First, there’s yet more of the heir to the throne’s meddling in urban planning. As the article notes, and the longer commentary piece makes clear, he’s done it before in that part of the city:
In 1990, he waged a successful campaign against a modernist master plan for Paternoster Square, an office development on the other side of St Paul’s. Rogers was working on the plan until the prince stood up at a Corporation of London dinner and implied that the design was more offensive than the rubble left by the Luftwaffe during the blitz. It was scrapped in favour of a scheme inspired by traditional architecture, a result which Hussey felt was “too pastiche”.
I can’t say I disagree with Mike Hussey on that point; the current Square is desperate to be something it isn’t (although for once I have to admit that my own experiences of the 1960s Paternoster Square development were very poor indeed, so I can hardly defend it instead).
The second is that I’ve actually grown a posthumous fondness for the old New Change, a rather anachronistic post-war building that actually looks more like it was from the 1930s, as seen here. In fact, I’m pretty surprised that Windsor wasn’t calling for this building to be retained, but it seems not to have found favour.
Still, the whole thing is, sadly, very little surprise. Unfortunately, I don’t think the new building will be either; a glass and steel (slighty distorted) box with a Pret in its “new public spaces”. Ah well.
