Is London’s architectural heritage in danger?

The Georgians and Victorians as urban planners brought together beauty, practicality, tradition and technology to the design of London’s buildings.  In spite of the destruction caused by German bombing during the Second World War, and subsequent demolition and redevelopment; London still has a rich heritage of 18th and 19th century buildings.  However, are these buildings now at risk because we no longer know how to maintain them, because we no longer build in a traditional style?  Have the building skills of the past been forgotten as a result of the dominance of modern architecture for so many years?

The Lighthouse Building located near King’s Cross Railway Station, at the point where Pentonville Road meets Gray’s Inn Road in London: is an example of a Victorian building which has been left in a state of dereliction after not having been occupied for many years.  There is some mystery concerning the building’s history and the reason why it was called The Lighthouse Building.  The building has a metal lantern structure on its roof which may be the ‘lighthouse’ from which its name is derived.  According to one version of the building’s history, it used to be an oyster restaurant and the lighthouse on the roof was an advertisement for the oysters sold there.  This theory has been disputed with some people believing that the lantern structure was taken from a helter-skelter.  The maritime theme of the building could have its origins in that the building once belonged to a shipping company.

Ebury Street today lies in the area of Belgravia not far from Victoria Station and Victoria Coach Station.  The street runs south west from Grosvenor Gardens to Pimlico Road.  It contains some fine examples of Georgian and Victorian architecture.

The land Ebury Street is built on, once belonged to Ebury Manor, part of an estate of 500 acres which lay north of the Thames and west of the then boundaries of London.  During the 17th century this estate was inherited by Mary Davies, who in 1677 married Sir Thomas Grosvenor a landowner from Cheshire.  Their marriage was the beginning of the Grosvenor family’s involvement with London lasting to the present day, with their descendant Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, now head of an international property company called Grosvenor.

During the 18th century much of the modern day Ebury Street was a country lane known as the Five Fields.  In Richard Harwood’s ‘Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southward, and Parts Adjoining. Showing Every House’ dated 1792-1799 - the south west end of Ebury Street was known as Five Fields Row and the street today called Pimlico Road was known as Queen Street.  In those days Five Fields Row was on the outskirts of Chelsea, a separate town from London.

On Harwood’s map we can see that each house in Five Fields Row is clearly numbered.  We know that these dwellings had been standing for at least 30 years when Harwood was making the survey for his map, because the 8 year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed at number 5 Five Fields Row in 1764.  This house is still standing but now has the address of 180 Ebury Street.  According to a plaque on the wall of the house, Mozart composed his first symphony there.

According to an advertisement which appeared in The Times on Saturday, May 13th 1815 - placed in the newspaper just a few weeks before the Battle of Waterloo - the name Ebury Street was already in use then.  The advertisement reads:

Servant of ALL-WORK WANTED: She must be cleanly, steady and industrious, and have the recommendations of a good character from her last place.  Application to be made, after twelve o'clock in the day, at 4 Ebury-street near Eccleston-street, Pimlico.

This advertisement is interesting because it tells us that the leaseholders who lived in Ebury Street at that time, were wealthy enough to employ domestic servants.

The urbanization of the area is clearly visible on a map by Christopher and John Greenwood published on August 21st 1827.  To the north of Ebury Street the fields have disappeared and the new urban street plan of Belgravia including Chester Square, Eaton Square, and Belgrave Square can be seen.  In this map Five Fields Row and The Five Fields are now called Upper Ebury Street and Ebury Street respectively.

The building development of Belgavia was taking place at the same time as the architect, John Nash was turning the nearby Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace for George IV.  Buckingham Palace did not become the main royal residence in London until the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837, however in the 1820s the second Earl Grosvenor would have seen a business opportunity in developing land in close proximity to the Palace for housing for the wealthy and powerful.  The master builder and developer Thomas Cubitt was involved with organizing the development, and architects whose names have been associated with the project were George Basevi; Thomas Cundy, father and son; and William Wilkins.

Number 22 Ebury Street, which comprises of four flats is an unusual building with a colourful history.  It was built in 1830 as Pimlico Grammar School, a private academy for boys.  The building was designed by J.P. Gandy-Deering who as an architect was greatly influenced by ancient Greece.  From 1811 to 1813 he travelled around Greece with Sir William Gell as an architectural draughtsman on behalf of the Society of Dilettanti.

Samual Lewis writing in 1848 in ‘A Topographical Dictionary of England’ described the Pimlico Grammar School building as being “a handsome structure, with well-executed portico of two Doric columns between pilasters, supporting a pediment decorated with triglyphs and dentils”.

The building is also of interest due to some of the charaters who lived there during the 20th century, long after it ceased to be an eductional establishment.  The blue plaque on the wall informs us that Ian Fleming (1908-1964), the creator of James Bond lived there.  However, English Heritage would probably be reluctant to put up a plaque to remember the person who lived there before Fleming.  That person was Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists.

Ian Fleming lived at 22 Ebury Street from 1934 until 1939.  Fleming’s knowledge of the secret services - which gave him experience and inspiration to write his James Bond novels - came from the time he was a Naval Intelligence Division officer during the Second World War.  Just before the war when Fleming lived at Ebury Street, he probably did not spend all that much time in his flat, but may have hosted a few parties there.

Fleming is portrayed as being a rather sleazy individual in S.J. Taylor’s biography of Esmond Rothermere: ‘The Reluctant Press Lord Esmond Rothermere and the Daily Mail’.  He is mentioned in this book because he began an affair with Ann O’Neill nee Charteris in 1938 - while she was also having an affair with Esmond Rothermere, the Chairman of Daily Mail & General Trust - while cheating on her husband.  According to Taylor’s account, the sexual relationship between Fleming and O’Neill had a sado-masochistic element.  Thus Taylor describes it in the following paragraph:

The raw brutality and ruthlessness with which she was treated by Fleming had rather an unsettling effect upon Ann, though she was candid in her estimation of Esmond’s love-making skills.  There could be no doubt, she was fond of saying, Esmond was quite the most accomplished lover she had ever met.  But Ian’s cruelty created its own sensation.  It would develope into something rather more interesting to Ann than simple love-making.

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In 2009 the style of architecture to be used for a housing development on the site of Chelsea Barracks became a contentious issue.  This was an argument about how London should look; whether the style of architecture should be traditional or modern.  Much of the architectural establishment - in the membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) - is dismissive of traditional architecture.  However, traditional styles have much to offer London, both in the provision of the capital’s social housing and in the conservation of London’s heritage.

Just after the Second World War modernist architecture became a powerful force in Britain, when ugly souless housing estates were built in and around London, to house those who had lost their homes during the war.  The architects who designed these estates disregarded local environments: obliterating old street and field plans, which had grown up over centuries.  High rise flats in places such as Roehampton and Newham, disconnected people from the communities in which they lived.  The prefabricated boxes and blocks of modern social housing - which lacked character and decorative features - alienated the people who were forced to live in them.

The debate over modern architecture has been ongoing for over 40 years.  Doubts about the practicality of modern architecture for social housing became apparent after the Ronan Point disaster.  On 16th May 1968, a gas explosion in a flat on the 18th floor of a tower block called Ronan Point in Newham east London, caused the collapse of the whole corner of the tower block, killing four people.  The incident brought to the public’s attention, the sub-standard nature of some of the modern housing stock.

In 1984 Prince Charles voiced his concerns over modern architecture in a speech he gave to RIBA.  The Prince recognised that many modern buildings were oversized and out of keeping with their environment.  He referred to a proposed extension for the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square as, “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved friend.”

This speech was hated by members of the architectural establishment such as Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, but was appreciated by members of the public who were getting sick of the hideous buildings imposed on them by modern architects and developers.

In 2009 Prince Charles was invited again to speak to the architects of RIBA to mark RIBA’s 175th anniversary.  However, this time his speech was boycotted by many of the modernist architects such as Piers Gough of CZWG.  The modernist architects were unhappy that the Prince had asked the Qatari royal family - the owners of Qatari Diar, the company which was developing the Chelsea Barracks site - to use traditionalist architects to design the development.

In a letter to The Guardian of 9th May 2009, a group of modernists architects wrote of the Prince’s request: “This intervention must now be resisted by the profession; not because of the question of architectural style, but because his actions again threaten an important element of our democratic process. To all architects who value these democratic procedures, we advocate a boycott of the Prince’s lecture at RIBA on the 12 May.”

The letter was signed by Peter Ahrends; Will Alsop; Ted Cullinan; Paul Finch; Tony Fretton; Piers Gough; MJ Long; Ian Ritchie; and Chris Wilkinson.  They were rather hypercritical to use the words “democratic procedures” in their letter, as the decision making process for planning can often be far from democratic.  Modern architecture has often been forced upon local communities without popular consent.

A YouGov survey which was taken in October 2009, showed that 77% of respondents prefer traditional architecture over contemporary styles.  Traditional architecture is democratic in the 21st century, and Prince Charles’s opinions are more in tune with the public mood, than those of the architectural establishment.

Many of the modernists architects who are so hostile to traditional styles, would lack the skills to design a classical building if one of their clients demanded it.  This is why they are so fearful of anyone who advocates incorporating the best styles of the past - used by real architects such as Inigo Jones, or Sir Christopher Wren, the Adam brothers, Sir John Soane or John Nash - into modern buildings.

Today there are still some architects such as Quinlan Terry and Robert Adam who design beautiful buildings in a tradtional style.  In a recent interview with Jolyon’s Review; Robert Adam, of Robert Adam Architects was asked why classical architecture - which has been incorporated into building designes for centuries - has been so successful.  He said that classical architecture: “is a tradition so has historical continuity, and at the same time is almost infinitly adaptable so people can connect with their identity and tradition.”

Robert Adam went on to explain that the philosophy behind classical architecture is evolutionary, whereas the philosophy behind modern architecture is revolutionary.

The evolutionary nature of classical architecture means it can adapt itself to modern day circumstances.  This is very important when it comes to important issues affecting us today, such as climate change and the need to save energy.  Many of the surviving Georgian and Victorian buildings of brick and stone are much more energy efficient, than some of the glass, steel and concrete structures put up more recently.

In an article published in The Architects Journal on 24th September 2009, Robert Adam architects was named as one of the practices of ten teams, vying for the project to redevelope the Chelsea Barracks site.  At the time of the interview with Jolyon’s Review on 19th November, Robert Adam still did not know whether or not his practice would be chosen to work on the project.

Robert Adam’s answer was “no”, when asked whether any local authorities or housing associations in London, had shown an interest in the work of his practice for the provision of social housing.  Also, he did not think that any traditional architecture would be used for the massive redevelopment in the East End of London, in preparation for the 2012 Olympics.  He said: “it will be done by the architectural establishment, and the architectural establishment does not believe that people should build traditional architecture.”

©Jolyon Gumbrell 2009