My Ghastly Facadism Book Launch
With every week that passes the plague of ghastly facadism creeps inexorably across London – please tip me off when you see new ones. These are the most recent examples, from Bayswater & Wanstead.
Whiteleys Department Store, Bayswater
Whiteleys Department Store, Bayswater
Chestnuts Nursing Home, Wanstead
Cover design by David Pearson
To launch my new book THE CREEPING PLAGUE OF GHASTLY FACADISM, I am giving an illustrated lecture showing London’s worst cases of facadism, explaining why it is happening and what it means.
I am especially delighted that this lecture will be held behind one of the facades in my book, the former Whitechapel Public Baths of 1846, Britain’s oldest purpose built public baths which were facaded in 2002 and are now part of London Metropolitan University.
The lecture is at 7pm on Monday 4th November at The Wash Houses, The Cass, London Metropolitan University, 25 Old Castle St, E1 7NT.
Click here to book your ticket
This event is presented with the gracious support of The Cass, London Metropolitan University
CLICK HERE TO ORDER A COPY FOR £15
“As if I were being poked repeatedly in the eye with a blunt stick, I cannot avoid becoming increasingly aware of a painfully cynical trend in London architecture which threatens to turn the city into the backlot of an abandoned movie studio.”
The Gentle Author presents a humorous analysis of facadism – the unfortunate practice of destroying an old building apart from the front wall and constructing a new building behind it – revealing why it is happening and what it means.
As this bizarre architectural fad has spread across the capital, The Gentle Author has photographed the most notorious examples, collecting an astonishing gallery of images guaranteed to inspire both laughter and horror in equal measure.
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I agree that the facade was added to the former women’s public baths. Even worse than its physical existence was the subsequent removal of the wonderful women’s library that had previously existed in the basement of the adjacent part from decades previously. That too has now gone from the east end and was placed in the LSE.
Re ‘Whiteleys Department Store, Bayswater’, has it been knocked down again?
Love the misalignment of floors on the book cover. Attention to detail. So what if light & views are blocked? So long as square footage is maximised. They’d have you walking on your knees if they could squeeze a couple of extra floors out.
there’s one on caledonian road that is not even connected to the building