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London is an
old city, that continues to succeed
because of its constant reinvention.
It has developed as an adhoc patchwork
of buildings and spaces - formal and
informal, rich and poor, speculative
and prescriptive, big and small, restored
and renewed.
It has been designed through evolution
rather than revolution.
The 1666 Fire of London destroyed
60% of the City of London. Almost
instantly three plans for a perfect
future were drawn up by Christopher
Wren and others. The cost and time
predicted to build these ideal citys-in-waiting
ensured that they were largely ignored.
Instead the businesses and lives where
largely rebuilt on the basis of the
existing property boundaries. Despite
this, a French visitor at the time
commented, “At three years end
near upon ten thousand houses were
raised up again from their ashes,
with great improvements – a
full and glorious restoration of the
city”.
This congestion of difference is what
fuels London’s social, economic
and cultural vivacity. It shapes culture
and it shapes change. It is also the
source of many of its problems. It
demands ingenuity.
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The foreword to
the 1943 County of London Plan lamented
the missed opportunity of not following
the Wren plan, suggesting that post-war
rebuilding was the next opportunity
not to be missed. “We can have
the London we want; the London that
people will come from the four corners
of the world to see; if only we determine
that we will have it”.
15.2 million tourists visited London
last year but I think it is the fantastic,
eclectic experience of the city, rather
than its image, that everyone comes
to visit. You can make your own path
through the plan-less patchwork. It
is individual buildings and spaces that
define your narrative, and your own
city.
A different city for everyone.
BUT CHANGE IS COMING
Current proposals for tower developments
on constrained sites seem more compatible
with the evolution of the past - where
land owners make the most of what they
have got and what they can get away
with. New developments coming up - Thames
Gateway, Stratford City,
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