For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Up in the air (02.10.12)

Central London is starting to look as if a giant mole has been at work, with holes appearing at the most unlikely locations the largest of these is to be found beside Centre Point; and just what did happen to the iconic fountains which once stood outside?

Said to be the biggest engineering work being carried out in Europe, CrossRail is, at £15bn, certainly the most expensive. The only compensation is that Knowledge students will never have to memorise the “Dirty Dozen”, twelve road which form a shortcut through Soho from west to east, now that Great Chapel Street has been turned into a hole.

CrossRail is just the latest of the Capital’s grandiose rail schemes, which started in 1836 with the London & Greenwich train line; its name would indicate that Greenwich was not part of the Metropolis at that time.

Unlike CrossRail it was planned to run the tracks over an elevated Roman-style viaduct with its terminus modestly styled on the Acropolis. It was routed through some of the poorer parts of London, so that less compensation had to be paid when demolishing people’s houses and making them homeless, even so, it was costly and time-consuming for no fewer than 878 separate brick arches were constructed, making it at the time the world’s longest viaduct, the surviving arches and station booking office can still be seen in the Spa Road area of Bermondsey. When completed the cabbies at that time, no doubt were among those who complained about “the thundering steam engines and omnibusters”.

For those new to CabbieBlog or readers who are slightly forgetful, on Saturdays I’m republishing posts, many going back over a decade. Some will still be very relevant while others have become dated over time. Just think of this post as your weekend paper supplement.

Razor sharp carbuncle (28.09.12)

Of all the arts architecture is the most inescapable, you can stop reading your novel, never listen to poetry, no one forces you to go to one of London’s free art galleries, buy a ticket to an opera, the ballet or theatre (if you deprive yourself of any of these in this chaotic and diverse city you really are missing out), but one art form cannot be ignored – architecture. Like it or not we all have a vested interest, with have to live with it, and in it, architecture can either uplift your spirits or irritate you intensely.

I was asked recently by the producer of a BBC documentary about London, “What do you think the best view is of the Gherkin?” As a Londoner, it was embarrassing because I could not think of which vista showed the Swiss Re Tower to the best advantage. Thinking about it later I concluded that, although it is a huge building, its shape and proportions allow it to sit perfectly within the City’s landscape. Try it out, for even in St. Mary Axe at the building’s base it retains the impression of having small proportions.

Le Corbusier, the darling of 20th-century architecture, once penned: “The house – a machine for living in.” Although strangely most people don’t want to live, or work, in a machine, they seem to prefer to inhabit a building which is more intimate. In fact, in a poll which asked which was Londoner’s favourite post-war building, it wasn’t the Lloyd’s Building, Shard, Canary Wharf or Centre Point. More popular than any of these was Shakespeare’s Globe, now recreated from the original which first opened in 1599.

Many recent towers are vainglorious tributes to the greater glory of the clients, who commissioned them and their architects, but one sits heads and shoulders above them all for it can be seen in London from wherever you view it – and it’s not a pretty sight. London’s Strata Tower, the world’s first skyscraper with built-in wind turbines, is stylised to look like it comes straight out of Gotham City, the perfect place for a hero and a villain to have a rooftop showdown falls into that mould, and if any dwelling was designed as a machine for living in, this is it.

The structure does not sit within the landscape, in fact, it seems to scream – look at me – and the exterior is designed so that it is recognisable from miles around. That would be fine is it held some kind of symmetrical beauty like The Shard, but the shape, height and black and silver cladding have destroyed what little of London’s comfortable if jumbled skyline we had left.
Now the building (or should that be machine) has won the ultimate accolade The Carbuncle Cup. Despite fierce competition for the trade publication Building Design least coveted prize, the Strata Building has won this year’s dubious honour. One nominator said “I used to live in south London and moved partly because – and I’m not joking – the Strata tower made me feel ill and I had to see it every day.”
So now the next time a passenger gets in my cab and asks to go to south London I can say to them “Sorry I’m not going south of the River that Strata Tower makes me ill”.