Comments on: The Relentless Rise Of Facadism

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 20:47:10 +0000

I grew up in Chelsea until I was 11, so really concerned to see yet another piece of my old history changing unnecessarily out of all recognition. The Sloane Square end and near surrounds were still still totally recognisable when I was there last year, but lots of places going up the Kings Road towards the Worlds End now seem to be having a radical change. Madness! And sadness.

By: Irene Potter

Irene Potter — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 06:43:03 +0000

Its dreadful! All in the name of progress! It breaks my heart as I hate to see all these changes. Thank you for your wonderful articles. Always a joy to read of bygone days.

By: Jo N

Jo N — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 18:12:38 +0000

I too was in Piccadilly Circus the other day and was shocked that its essence had totally disappeared – now I understand why. No building visible behind the ad-screens, because there isn’t one! How does something like this get through planning?

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:26:23 +0000

We have the same thing going on in Toronto.
They either save the façade or ‘oops, too bad it fell down and now we can’t use it’ happens.

Does Dante have a level in Hell for Facadists?
Maybe they have to spend eternity rebuilding what they destroyed?
Hmm….

By: paul loften

paul loften — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 13:28:02 +0000

In a strange way, I was a professional in the world of books dealing with those who abused public libraries It was a job I loved, never even applying for another job in all my 30 years of serving a treasured public service. My office was in a library basement of a huge building set deep amongst the dark and dusty archives of the rows of reserve stock. My desk was situated at the end of thousands of rows of out of print books shelved in rolling stacks operated by giant steel wheels that moved them back and forth, often myself taking down a rare book and perusing the pages
. I have a signed copy of the Creeping Plague of Ghastly Facadism in front of me It is a book worth owning not just for its unique cover and design. The Gentle Author tells the story of how London’s history is being taken away before our eyes and replaced by imagery. Anyone who does not own a copy of this beautifully written book should take this great opportunity to attend this lecture and buy a copy from the author in person. and also hear the stories behind the book

By: Gilbert O'Brien

Gilbert O'Brien — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 11:51:21 +0000

Interesting article about Denman Street and the Curse of Facadism. Denman Street and the surrounding development is part of an historically long, long, running saga dating back to at least 1945, during which time there have been many attempts to rebuild on the site. The frontage onto Piccadilly and Shaftesbury Avenue was known as the Monico Site, after the famous Edwardian restaurant that was there until the SS gave a new meaning to the concept of development potential. The site, and indeed the whole (re)development of Piccadilly (up into Regent Street, where there was a proposal for unlimited vehicle traffic only at ground level, with exclusively pedestrian walkways at first floor level up as far as Oxford Circus), was a contentious and much fought-over proposal (actually one of a series of proposals) in the 50s and 60s. The Monico Site was an especially bitter fight as I remember it, and the hideous building that eventually went up on the site was the end result of many compromises and little insight or taste. It is what is known in this household as ‘revenge development’ a particular kind of development which is common in London (or common ‘to’ London?) and there are instances of this all over the town. (Peter Palumbo’s Mappin & Webb development, No. 1 Poultry, is another example, where an acrimonious battle of at least 25 years resulted in a building of arguably better quality and design than anything that went up in Piccadilly.) That the building whose frontage faced onto Shaftesbury Avenue has been demolished (ugly, tarnished ‘gold’ tiles; rough, brutalist columns; an unlit and dark back-stepped ‘arcade’, the chief benefit of which was to give shelter to the many homeless people who have slept there off and on since the building was built; and a series of dim, unvisited and unprofitable restaurants [sic] which have serially gone bust over the past 45 years) is not a bad thing. So it is not surprising that commercial forces and the perhaps darker motives I ascribe to the development history of the site have resulted in the sole (?) remaining building being reduced to a facade is not surprising. If the whole concept of facadism was not evidence of such a corrupt understanding of architecture and the environment one might almost want to be grateful for the token reminder of what a building of stone, or bricks and mortar, once signified. But my larger point (yes — it was a long time coming) is that this facade in Denman Street may in the future provide other generations a clue, a single remaining piece of a puzzle, a reminder of a long running and bravely fought battle, many battles in fact, to the history of what has evolved over the past 70-odd years, and we might come to look on the Denman Street facade as a tombstone to mark the passing of a place we once knew and loved. It isn’t enough, of course. And we should never have allowed it to happen. But it might just be enough to identify the villains who have tried to obliterate the past.

By: James Harrison

James Harrison — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 09:52:07 +0000

Where I live, we have a case of reverse historical facadism. One street of ostensibly grand Georgian frontages hide the buildings’ original medieval structures standing behind.

Seems our Georgian architects thought nothing of stamping their “modern” design on the front of the town’s existing 300 year old properties. I don’t suppose they ever considered they might be accused of “tarting up” the existing houses with their “modernisation”!

However, today’s facadism reflects a lack of confidence in our own architectural abilities muddled with the apparent desperate need to “modernise” everything in sight.

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:37:09 +0000

GHASTLY!!

How many more lovely buildings are going to suffer this horrible fate??

But I was pleased to read a recent article by Oliver Wainwright about how there is a movement afoot in Europe to repurpose old buildings, and to recycle as much building material as possible rather than start every new build project from scratch.

He also re-stated the point about how the VAT rules in the country are in favour of new builds, and how changing that could be a major step in the right direction.

Perhaps we should start a major campaign of lobbying MPs to persuade them of the ethical, ecological and economic reasons to do this as soon as possible to stop the ghastliness spreading even further?

By: Lisa Hirsch

Lisa Hirsch — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 04:18:36 +0000

I hate the loss of the Odeon; I love old movie theaters. Very sad, still, about the Queen’s Head on Tryon.