I usually try and avoid Portland Place because I always get angry and depressed. It was one of London's finest streets, laid out by the Adam brothers in 1776 and incorporated by Nash into his magnificent royal road from Carlton House to Regent's Park. Now only bits remain here and there. The way this block of flats chops off the left bay of Nos 59-61, leaving a mutilated pediment and pilaster, is a monument to developer greed and supine authority. And it is
right opposite the Royal Institute of British Architects. Nurse! my pills!
"Now only bits remain here and there."
ReplyDeleteExactly as it should be: London is not for the purist. The finest Adam house (no. 48) is still present, at least. And now it shares street space with two of the finest modernist buildings in London.
If you want boiling blood, right int he middle of what I think is Lower Regent Street (or somewhere near there, anyway) is a 1970s building that looks like a brown plastic rocket ship which has landed in a street full of Edwardian wedding cakes. I have to make a detour to avoid it as it makes me feel physically ill.
ReplyDeleteHello, Just bloghopping. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteBe Well :)