I’m very delighted to read that Michael Gove has ordered a halt on the works proposed for the old ITV studios near the National Theatre. If planning is to have any authority, then the proposed scheme by Make should not be allowed: not because of its architecture, but because of the extreme sensitivity of the site immediately opposite Somerset House and on the bend of the river between the Houses of Parliament and the huge scale of the proposed building, making the National Theatre look like a dwarf. This comes after denunciations of the project by Rowan Moore in the Observer, Richard Morrison in the Times, an editorial in the Times, and by Simon Jenkins in the Guardian. It demonstrates that Gove may not be such a puppet of the developers and provides an opportunity for the planning system to review an appropriate balance between conservation and new development, particularly in the central heart of London, where the scheme by Make would be such a damaging intervention. I’m so glad that Gove recognises this and has intervened.

https://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/gove-steps-in-and-puts-makes-400m-plan-to-turn-itv-studios-into-office-complex-on-ice/5117459.article?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Building%20Design%20%20Breaking%20news&utm_content=Daily%20Building%20Design%20%20Breaking%20news+CID_b89c1ec681c0f36e4c43b325e72aa2bc&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor%20emails&utm_term=Gove%20steps%20in%20and%20puts%20Makes%20400m%20plan%20to%20turn%20ITV%20studios%20into%20office%20complex%20on%20ice

Given the fact that the Daily Mail has been hounding the Durham police to prosecute Keir Starmer and seems to have been the organisation which by its daily coverage persuaded them to re-open their investigation quite contrary to their stated policy; and given the fact that they published a story today that we should feel sorry for the Prime Minister that he was so sick before his recent television interview that he puked all over his nice blue suit, so was unable to answer any of the questions very well; we should perhaps remind ourselves that it was Downing Street that persuaded/ordered its proprietors to ditch their editor when he was critical of it (see below). Criticism used to be the role of the Fourth Estate, but not apparently any longer in the Johnson State.

Do the people in Downing Street really think that voters are so colossally naive that they can’t differentiate between the Prime Minister having booze-ups in 10, Downing Street in the early stages of a lockdown which he himself was promoting on a daily basis and the Leader of the Opposition having a meal with party workers nearly a year later after the government had themselves blown up the moral consensus behind the original lockdown and themselves been encouraging everyone to get back to work ?

And do they really think that we should feel sorry for the Prime Minister that he may have been so hungover that he was so useless at answering questions in a rare television interview ?

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/nov/17/geordie-greig-ousted-as-editor-of-the-daily-mail

The pundits seem to think that it’s only the liberal elite who are hostile to the Prime Minister. The attached suggests otherwise.

I read on twitter yesterday that John Harris had died and have now had it confirmed. It’s a great loss to architectural history. There will be many people who know more about his life than I do, but I know the gist of it. Born in 1931, so died aged ninety one; left school aged 14; got a job at the RIBA in 1956 and developed an astonishing knowledge of architectural drawings; attracted the attention of Nikolaus Pevsner who recruited him to help with the writing of his volume on Lincolnshire; established the RIBA Drawings Collection in premises next door to the Courtauld Institute with funding from Drue Heinz; organised the publication of its series of published catalogues which remain an important source for architectural history; helped to organise the exhibition The Destruction of the Country House in 1974, an exhibition of exceptional importance in changing the climate of public opinion towards country houses; published the major monograph on William Chambers in 1970; advised Paul Mellon on the acquisition of architectural drawings for what became the Yale Center for British Art; recruited many of the current generation of architectural historians to work for him at the RIBA Drawings Collection, including Neil Bingham and Tim Knox. But a catalogue of what he did does not convey the vitality of his personality, which is perhaps better conveyed by a photograph:-

I have been trying to figure out what really happened in the local elections now that political commentary feels so unreliable, so influenced by what the government wants the narrative to be, setting the agenda for the BBC and feeding it to the newspapers. But it is hard to see it as other than pretty disastrous for the government: losing its flagship councils – Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet; losing Tunbridge Wells; losing Somerset; in other words, losing the bluest of its heartlands. I can see it’s not necessarily a great result for Labour – actually better for the Liberal Democrats which provides the opposition in the south west. The opposition is so fragmented. So, it remains to be seen whether enough MPs make the calculation that they will lose their seat at the next election under the current leadership. It only needs fifty four.

I have been trying to figure out the big vote in favour of Mayor Rahman and against Mayor Biggs on Thursday and what part Biggs’s support for the redevelopment of Brick Lane played in his downfall. He certainly was pro-development and very hostile to conservation. One just hopes that Rahman might take a more strategic approach to the development of Spitalfields, looking at a better balance between new building and cultural heritage. He could make a start by asking his conservation officer what can be done to protect what remains of 113, Redchurch Street. Then find out why the Whitechapel Bell Foundry has not been preserved. And then commission a strategic plan for the redevelopment of Spitalfields from Assemble who have the right local knowledge.

I am really glad that Simon Jenkins, a veteran warrior against ugly new developments – he has been a member of the committee of Save since 1976 and I first encountered his work as the author of The Companion Guide to Outer London published in 1981 – has now weighed in on the scandalous and monster proposed building on the south bank which is on a scale which may be tolerable next to Battersea Power Station, but not opposite Somerset House.

People seem to have completely forgotten that there was a big battle over this stretch of the river in the 1980s when instead of a big new development by Richard Rogers, Coin Street built a small park and clever new housing by Lifschutz Davidson. The river path is rightly and deservedly hugely popular because of the way it joins up interesting buildings south of the river. Now six councillors in a committee room in Brixton have decided to destroy what remains of Canaletto’s view from Westminster Bridge.

It’s a scandal, not least because, as Jenkins correctly implies, it is often lubricated by wining and dining. I have been told that the key to winning Sir Simon Milton’s approval was to serve him his favourite wine. One wonders why Lord Lister who has worked his life in local government is now so rich. It is because we now live in an old Etonian version of a banana state. The only solution is going to be be at the ballot box to vote these people into eternal perdition.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/06/london-planning-river-developments-thames-south-bank-block?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

As someone who lives in one of a pair of eighteenth-century houses which somehow miraculously survived in spite of being unoccupied from the 1870s till 2000, I am distressed to read of what is happening to two weavers’ houses in Redchurch Street. The whole character – and indeed prosperity – of Spitalfields is thanks to the establishment of the Spitalfields Trust in 1977 which has had an amazing track record in restoring eighteenth-century houses whilst retaining as much as possible of their original character. It is really bad that Tower Hamlets has not involved them in the development of two weavers’ houses in Redchurch Street. Even now I would hope that the Zeloofs who own the houses might be encouraged to get their architect to seek the advice of Heloise Palin, who now runs the Trust, and Dan Cruickshank, who has such deep knowledge about how to care for the surviving fabric of such houses. It’s depressing that so little seems to have been learned from forty five years of conservation and that Tower Hamlets have become so supine about their conservation responsibilities.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/05/07/how-to-demolish-a-listed-building/?s=09

This is a beautiful small project by Martin Edwards above what was an old pub near us which has rightly won an RIBA Award, as did his project for us in North Wales. It will be good if the Stirling Prize pays more attention to carefully considered small projects closer to what clients want than brand new megastructures by the big names.

https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/regional-awards-2022-london-south-east-martin-edwards-architects-artist-studio-stepney

We have just got a copy of Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear, a lovely and beautifully designed, post-lockdown book, explaining, as far as possible, how to live the natural life, cultivating your own allotment, dye your own clothes and make them as well, with patterns included. There’s a picture of our rhubarb plant in Wales.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690810/grow-cook-dye-wear-by-bella-gonshorovitz/