Comments on: Why Facadism Is Happening

By: John Moss

John Moss — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:48:53 +0000

This all goes to show that Lady Judith Hackett’s view of building regulations, in her report on the Grenfell Tower fire, should be extended to cover all aspects of buildings and their creation, not just what is listed in the current Parts A to …..Z of the said regulations as currently defined. The extension should cover all aspects of planning and the involvement of “societies” from local amenity groups to the various Government Depts who have a say.
We need an order of precedence of organisations, and also an order of importance, starting with safety now, working through sustainability, to crttiques of appearance and matters described by the “gentle author”. Without this extra and collective discipline, which we have brought upon ourselves, there will continue to be loopholes and alliances that cause the amazing visions you illustrate.

By: the gentle author

the gentle author — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 09:59:07 +0000

In reply to nicola baird. Your support is much appreciated, Nicola. We need all the help we can muster to pay the printer's bill!

By: nicola baird

nicola baird — Sat, 21 Sep 2019 09:11:17 +0000

Hello gentle author.
I’ve ordered a book in the hope that is helpful for your fundraising. If you also need me to make a donation (I was thinking one or the other…) then I could do this. You are such an inspiration and your blog and campaigns superb. Power to your pen. Nicola from islington faces

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 13:56:32 +0000

I wonder how one could get the destructive government policy changed…??

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 09:11:54 +0000

In terms of irresponsible planning going on in London, your readers might like to know about the proposed plans for the City of London Girls School in the heart of the Barbican. If these plans go ahead a large part of the Grade II listed brutalist architecture of the Barbican will be lost including the views through the double height piloti shown on this website. https://sosbarbican.com/
See also https://anngeorge.smugmug.com/London/20190910-Barbican-Brutalist-Architecture-under-Threat/

Barbican residents are having to put up a tremendous fight to save their estate’s heritage whereas it should be the Corporation of London protecting it themselves. The school has already been allowed to spoil key elements of the architecture in previous developments but this recent plan, which follows on from last year’s failed plan to take over the residents’ carpark beneath Thomas More House as a pre-prep school, is totally unacceptable.

And all of these architectural concerns go side by side with the nuisance to residents who will have to put up with an industrial kitchen in the space between the pillars below their flats with attendant early morning deliveries and extraction equipment pumping cooking smells into their flats. It also ignores the fact that the school is fee-paying and draws the vast majority of its pupils from outside the City of London. It cannot be said to be in any way a benefit to the Barbican community as a whole.

By: Peter Holford

Peter Holford — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 08:04:49 +0000

Keep up the good fight GA! It’s probably the last actions of an increasingly neo-con system that has to pursue ever more extreme policies to turn a profit. It will collapse but the long-term damage wrought on our built environment will persist long after the vandals have gone.

I, for one, will continue to write letters and sign petitions as my contribution to combatting this evil system. But that is just one of the reasons I read your blog – there are otherst

By: Juliet shipman

Juliet shipman — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 08:00:49 +0000

I admire your book but I can’t bear to see this hideous facadism in action. It is worse than pulling the building down. None of it should ever have been given permission. It is an insult to the building and a joke attempt at conservation.