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Written by Countess du Ruel
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Saturday, 19 April 2008 00:00 |
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London’s art world should be disillusioned with Red
Ken, writes Countess du Ruel. Boris wants to make the city safe, clean,
easy to navigate and all in all a jolly good place to live. Ken wants to bull doze London’s old fashioned neighbourhoods.
The other day I ran into a Dutch friend on Old Church Street. Her
daughter is my god daughter and an urban grafitti artist, who lives in the East End. Ken
has been on a rampage there, destroying the village atmosphere, the tree lined
streets, and the two and three storey housing in favour of more and more high
rise buildings. We Europeans admire London’s neighbourhoods. Sterile, corporate high rises aren’t compatible
with London’s Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian history.
It’s a pity if London becomes another global city of glass and
steel. My goddaughter’s graffiti art will actually give these indifferent buildings
character…so hurrah for graffiti art.
I was shocked to hear Richard Rogers praise an inner city council block,
Robinhood Terrace, (which residents say needs pulling down,) as beautiful as an
18c Bath terrace. Who are we trying to
kid here? The residents of this derelict
building say Lord Rogers should try living there if he thinks it’s so
beautiful. We all have to endure looking
at modern high rises from the 60s and 70s which are a blot on the
cityscape. Now Ken and Rodgers want
more! These grim experiments in living
are not user friendly or easy on the eye, and they don’t promote any civic
pride. This is a cynical testimony to
profit at the expense of how London looks and feels to live in.
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I would be interested to know how many Victorian and Georgian "villages" are being destroyed by Ken in the East End. Given that the vast vast majority of such neighbourhoods have not existed since 1945 I feel the number would be quite low. Most of the stuff being rebuilt is decaying post world War 2 concrete and those buildings from the 60's and 70's that the countess rightly complains about.