From Neo Bankside to The Shard

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The Financial Times ran a story on November 19th, praising the redevelopment of London’s Bankside neighbourhood:

“Few places can boast a shop specialising in dog collars, professional boxing gyms and an international art gallery within a short walk of each other. But that’s what makes Bankside one of the most interesting areas of London. For years it suffered the legacy of war damage and industrial decline; a rundown riverside, empty warehouses and decrepit housing; its grimy streets overshadowed by the railway viaducts that lead to that most chaotic of terminals, London Bridge station. So close to the City of London, so near the West End, but so far away.

“Now all that is changing fast. Office blocks have shot up in the More London development and the Shard – a dramatic architectural statement that will be the tallest building in Europe – is to be unveiled in 2012.

“Neo Bankside, a striking quartet of ‘pavilions’ emerging alongside Tate Modern . . .

“Nothing symbolises the area’s regeneration more than the Tate Modern, which opened in 2000,” the FT story states.

But will tower blocks be more appealing than warehouses and railway viaducts?

There is no doubt that modern architecture has a place in London, as it does in every big city.

But do we need to measure the impact of the increasing height of these buildings on London’s contemporary historic character?

The FT refers to the Shard, designed by architect Renzo Piano, and under construction behind London Bridge Station, as a “dramatic architectural statement”. The Shard will be a pointed high-rise 310 m (1,017 ft) tall (including 72 floors, plus 15 further radiator floors in the roof), entirely clad in glass.

 

“The shape of the tower is generous at the bottom and narrow at the top, disappearing into the air like a 16th century pinnacle, or the mast top of a very tall ship,” Piano says in an “inspiration” statement on The Shard website. “The architecture of the Shard is firmly based in the historic form of London’s masts and spires.”

But since the tall ships are long gone, how will it fit in with the historic form of London’s cityscape?

As a resident of the area, I have noticed that the Shard already dominates the Bankside landscape and beyond. Much like the Norman Foster-designed Gherkin building in the City, it appears “every place and no place”, standing out like an alien structure.

 

For example, The Tower of London is overshadowed by the appearance of The Shard behind it when approaching in a southerly direction from Tower Gateway to the north of the river, despite the geographical distance. As well, many of Bankside’s tiny streets are now dominated by the Shard.

The FT refers to the Neo Bankside project, designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, as “‘a striking quartet of pavilions’ emerging alongside Tate Modern”, when in fact these four soon-to-be glass high-rise residential towers with red accents are still far from complete.

The view of Tate Modern, designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, from the St Paul’s side of the River Thames and the Millennium Bridge is already compromised because the structures jut up above it, detracting from the iconic appearance of the building.

 

There is nothing new about glass-clad, geometric buildings. Ever since German architect Walter Gropius designed the Fagus Factory (1911-13) major architects have focused on designs using glass and steel to construct buildings.

Growing up without Grayshott

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This story was written for the Grayshott Parish Magazine and published in November 2009.

 

Some of my earliest childhood memories were generated in the small Hampshire village where my maternal grandparents lived when I was a child.

A recent bittersweet return visit to Grayshott after a 20-year hiatus was a bit of a disorienting experience, which highlighted the complexities of remembrance and reality.

My grandparents, Herbert and May Levett, lived at “Bidston” on Crossways Road.

 

Their daughter, my mother, Joan, married Carl Mollins, a Canadian journalist working in London with Reuters, the news agency, 50 years ago on March 21, 1959, at St Luke’s Church.

A clipping from the weekly Hindhead Herald newspaper dated March 28, 1959, describes the event:

“The vicar (the Rev. Dr. A. R. Winnett) conducted the wedding service, during which the hymns ‘Lead us, Heavenly Father,’ and ‘Love Divine‘ were sung. Given away by her father, the bride wore a short full-skirted white lace dress with long fitted sleeves extending in points over the hands, a coronet of orange blossom, and short veil and white satin court shoes.  Her bouquet was of roses, freesias and hyacinths in spray form.”

 

 

 

 

We moved several times when I was a child, which meant we lived in London for only three years before we returned to Canada, where, apart from four years in Washington, D.C., I spent most of my life.

It was an easy trip from London to Grayshott by train and we often visited my grandparents. A cosy, loving atmosphere warmed their chilly home, which was always surrounded by the scent of a bonfire burning rubbish in the garden.

Inside, my sister Tracey and I whiled away the hours by looking at the multitude of ornaments in parlour and sitting room, while outside, we played in tents and with what seemed like a vast amount of plastic garden gnomes and animals.

I also remember the trauma of such outdoor threats as being jumped on by a dog while I was being trundled along the sidewalk in my pushcart.

In an odd twist of fate, since October 2008, I have been working at Reuters in London as my father did, just down the street from where he worked on Fleet Street.

I took a trip back to Toronto, where my parents and sister now live, in March and helped arrange a party for their Golden Wedding Anniversary, which about 50 friends attended.

Returning to Grayshott in recent weeks was a melancholic experience in some ways because my grandparents have passed away, Bidston’s garden has been irrevocably changed and the war memorial and green, which my grandfather tended after he retired from Naval service, has been altered with a fence and children’s playground.

Everything seemed odd as I wandered around the village trying to piece the past together.

I met for a delicious Sunday dinner at the Fox and Pelican pub with Marie Morris, a lifelong friend of my mother’s, who visited us in Toronto several times.

We went for a walk to the Grayshott Pottery and to see the school they attended.

In St Luke’s Church, I was intrigued to find the names of relatives on plaques commemorating those villagers who served in both world wars, and most importantly, I was glad that my visit brought to life the building featured in many pictures of my parents’ happy wedding day on display  throughout their home.