4 C O N T E X T 1 2 8 : M A R C H 2 0 1 3 ‘THE BASIC design concept is that the building would look like a Victorian public house converted to residential use. This approach recognises the site’s history of pub use but it appears that the building itself would bear no resemblance to anything that had been on the site. Indeed, the design and access statement describes it as “fake history”. ‘While acknowledging that the design echoes certain local features and materials, the overall effect is bland and uninspiring. The proposal represents an opportunity lost to provide a building of quality and originality that would add to the variety characteristic of the area and make a positive contribution to the conservation area.’ A planning inspector’s decision letter dismissing an appeal for a site in Mitcham, south London ‘ENGLISH Heritage remains committed to the blue plaques scheme that has done so much to inspire Londoners and visitors with the history of the capital and its inhabitants.’ From English Heritage’s announcement that it is discontinuing the blue plaques scheme ‘LONDON-CENTRIC media reporting capital’s blue plaques scheme suspended by English Heritage as if it was national story.’ David Tittle (@dxMADE) on Twitter ‘THE ONLY building worth looking at for miles, and loved by anyone who can’t smell it.’ Ian Martin describing Preston bus station in the Architects’ Journal ‘BE CERTAIN that the Taliban in Afghanistan target the rock-cut Buddhas of Bamiyan with exactly the same sense of resentment against their perpetual peace, as certain thrusters in Glasgow seek to expel the statues from George Square. The thunderball pace with which the re-design of this already highly brutalised place is being pursued is being led by the central idea of having the statues taken away. ‘The statuary of George Square must remain present in the square. They ought not suffer eviction on account of some devious creative initiative pursued in servility to a sports festival on the one hand, and a superannuated idea of civicdesign progress on the other. ‘The revolting expression “fit for purpose” has constantly been voiced by the advocates of statue-felling in Glasgow, and by sounding this phrase they show that they embrace the functionalist ethic that destroys culture.’ Neoclassical sculptor Sandy Stoddart on Glasgow City Council’s proposal to remove historic statues from George Square ‘1. APOLLO lunar surface landing and roving hardware; 2. Unmanned lunar surface landing sites (eg Surveyor robotic landing sites) and impact sites, such as those of NASA’s Ranger spacecraft, as well as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) that slammed into the moon in October 2009; 3. US government experiments left on the lunar surface, tools, equipment, miscellaneous moonwalking gear; and 4. Specific indicators of US human, human-robotic lunar presence, including footprints and rover tracks.’ NASA’s list of features and artefacts on the surface of the moon that should be preserved ‘THE MONUMENT I recall from my youth rose supreme over the Square Mile. London’s dignified streets radiated out from London Bridge towards Islington and Highgate to the north, the Tower and Tower Bridge to the east, the river warehouses to the south, and the Temple, Parliament andWestminster to the west. In the foreground St Paul’s rode over the rooftops like a magnificent galleon heading out of town. ‘Were this Paris, Rome, Madrid or Amsterdam, such an inheritance would be sufficiently valued to regulate the character of its development. Transient uses would be made to conform to the city’s scale, if not its actual fabric, rather than the other way round. To a large extent this approach has dictated the growth of the City of London’s sister,Westminster. It has boomed as a business centre, even where the City has faltered, and is now the richest place in Europe. It prospers almost entirely inside its 18th- and 19th-century skin.’ Simon Jenkins in the London Evening Standard ‘WE DID OBJECT to the proposed park-and-ride scheme initially because it would affect the setting of this significant scheduled monument. However, as it has already been moved three times in the past two centuries, we feel that it could be moved again to a nearby setting which would continue to preserve its character.’ English Heritage agreeing to the moving of the 6th-century Tristan Stone after Cornwall Council gave permission for an estate of 80 houses to be built on an adjacent site ‘WEWERE really taking the piss.We analysed the planning laws and realised that they cover everything about the surface of the ground, but nothing beneath it. There was nothing whatsoever that could stop us from drilling all the way down to the South Pole. ‘Of course, the council hated it. But we had a barrister, and the policy would not cover their reasons for refusal, so they had to grant permission – and it has triggered a whole avalanche of stuff ever since.’ Architect AdemirVolic speaking to Oliver Wainwright of the Guardian about a proposal to create a four-storey basement beneath a 19th-century schoolhouse in Knightsbridge for Canadian former TV mogul David Graham ‘IT’S GREAT to see more subtle appreciation of this type of estate, the listing of not just the most flamboyant and visually impressive part, but also of the background architecture, which provided a variety of well-designed housing types for a range of family groups.’ Catherine Croft, director of the Twentieth Century Society, on the decision to list Erno Goldfinger’s Cheltenham Estate in west London at Grade II.The estate, surrounding Trellick Tower in north Kensington and dating from 1969–73, comprises terraced houses, flats and maisonettes.
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