The Observer - 04.08.2019

42

The Observer

04.08.19

Critics

The Neave Brown award is a

long overdue initiative honouring

Britain’s best affordable housing,

a sector woefully neglected by

successive governments – Boris

Johnson, please take note...

Architecture

Critics

burbs, while a miasma of insidious

social cleansing seeped into the

fabric of London, shaking up and

skewing the city’s historically mixed

demographic.

This may be a broad-brush

picture, but it does gives some sense

as to what might be in store for the

nation. Given Johnson’s predilection

for delegation, his choice of cadres

to steer the housing and built

environment briefs connotes an

intention, of sorts, even as Brexit

continues to derail politics as usual.

Following the Night of the Blond

Knives, Robert Jenrick was installed

as secretary of state for housing,

local government and communities.

The fi rst cabinet minister to be born

in the 1980s , it has been mirthlessly

suggested that he is the ideal man

for the job since he owns three

homes. Like his predecessors, he is

not short of platitudes. “I’m going

to strain every sinew and try to pull

every lever that’s available to me to

help communities build the homes

they need,” he told Inside Housing.

Esther McVey was also appointed

to be the ninth housing minister

ABOVE AND

RIGHT

‘A modern

reincarnation

of Victorian

terraces’:

Goldsmith Street

in Norwich,

the best of the

four schemes

shortlisted for

the fi rst Neave

Brown award

for housing.

Photographs by

Tim Crocker

Inscribed on the tomb of

Christopher Wren in St Paul’s

Cathedral is the following

injunction: “Reader, if you seek

his monument, look around you .”

Were you to seek Boris Johnson’s

monument, your gaze might stray

in the direction of Nincompoopolis

by Douglas Murphy. Published in

2017 , it’s a forensic evisceration of

Johnson’s architectural and design

follies during his eight years as

London mayor. The book’s cover

depicts the comedically grotesque

tableau of a peroxide Struwwelpeter

toup ee plonked on the ArcelorMittal

Orbit , the hellish helter-skelter

that squats like a gutted toad on

the edge of London’s Olympic

Park. “An ugly man’s ugly legacy of

chaos concentrated into a single

ugly object”, as the critic  Jonathan

Meades wrote in his review of

Nincompoopolis for the Morning Star.

Murphy’s grimly entertaining

book should be required re reading

for anyone who cares about the built

environment and is now casting

the runes to see what Johnson’s

elevation to prime minister might

portend. The auguries are not

good. Running riot in London, the

nation’s largest playpen, he was

insatiably and gullibly drawn to big-

ticket vanity projects of stunning

vacuity. Like stations of the cross,

the Boris bridge, the Boris bus, the

Boris cable car and the Boris Orbit

(the Borbit?) came to defi ne the

modern Via Dolorosa of London’s

anguished “iconic” calvary.

During his tenure, big-picture

bluster and laissez-faire tendencies

contrived to orchestrate a distracting

cacophony of “can-do”. Its strident,

maniacal tone was reprised from the

Downing Street lectern in Johnson’s

ascension address. But whether

you “should do” is another matter.

Notorious for waving through a

barrage of contentious planning

applications – refusing only seven

of the 130 that came before him

• Johnson’s penchant for market
  appeasement merely served to
  exacerbate the corrosive effects

Vote Neave for a better Britain

Catherine

Slessor

of social inequality and infl ame
London’s chronic housing crisis.
Appreciably less photogenic
than a cable car or fantasy bridge,
affordable housing is the problem
child perpetually tugging at the
sleeve of any London mayor
and, indeed, any nascent prime
minister. In keeping with his
well-known disdain for detail,
Johnson’s inclination has always
been to forcefully bat it away into
an outfi eld of deputies, minders
and supporters, enabling him to
bask in the obsequious glow of
more easily attainable spotlights.
One clear theme that emerged was a
concern for overall numbers, rather
than the percentage of affordable
homes – in other words, quantity
rather than quality.
Any old housing would do, as long
as the top-line stats looked good
and could be cited as evidence of
dial-moving. It didn’t matter if most
of it was fl ogged off to overseas
investors, facilitating the hollowing
out and banlieuisation of London.
Previously characterful locales, such
РЕЛИЗ as Vauxhall, became gated ghost-

ПОДГОТОВИЛА

ГРУППА

"What's News"

VK.COM/WSNWS

РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS