David Lee
Sept/Oct 2021
I took a wrong turn on my bike recently near Russell Square and came upon Wallis Gilbert’s 1931 Daimler car hire garage in Herbrand Street. Set back almost hidden, and only yards from where I attended university, I had never suspected its existence. It now pleases me so much I regularly detour past it. Now used as offices it is attractively maintained in pristine white. Those arriving to work here must feel lifted and lucky as they approach. I would. Mr Wallis’s masterpiece is the Hoover building on the A40, now more or less just a facade. Passing this on school trips into London in the early ’60s was for me always an anticipated treat, a major capital landmark. Art Deco architecture is not everyone’s cup of tea but to me it is deluxe English Breakfast. I love its simple shapes and generous reticulated windows, its echoes of classical detailing from Egyptian to Greek, the courage of unusual forms not always symmetrical and the pride taken in its construction – look up Harry Weedon’s Odeon in York, it is a monumental poem in small bricks.
I also discovered recently, while being driven out of London, that one route north passes Charles Holden’s early ’30s stations for the Piccadilly Line; Wood Green, Turnpike Lane, Southgate, Arnos Grove, Cockfosters. These original and ingenious buildings stand out as beacons
Claiming poverty as a reason for neglecting good buildings is no excuse. Two recent examples of huge sums squandered by the Mayor of London come to mind. At Marble Arch, the old execution site of Tyburn tree, £6 million (the cost doubled in months due to maladministration) has been spent constructing a mound 75 feet high. The lack of judgement involved in this hideous intrusion astounds. Whoever dreamed it up should be barred from public office. The presiding committee must
301 Moved Permanently
The second waste of money, part of a £7 million scheme of ‘public art’ (again) to boost tourism, is a series of bland banners and pedestrian crossings in Piccadilly painted in gaudy abstract patterns; a joint venture between the Royal Academy and Art of London (“a new cultural initiative” set up by the Mayor). In trecento Tuscany it was demanded of artists that they could