the times | Wednesday June 8 2022 17
News
STEPHEN CHUNG /ALAMYsunny. It’ll be sepulchral in the rain.
First, the good. Gates has created a
Pantheon in the park. Up the
blackened path, through the crevasse
door and into the belly of the beast.
The timbered interior is panelled, the
ceiling coffered. At the centre of the
tapering dome is an oculus that lets
in light — but not enough — and
sends a roving beam across the walls
and floor.
At the Pantheon proper, an old
Roman retainer mops the marble
during downpours. I hope that
Adjaye Associates, the architects
behind the build, have thought aboutthe drainage. That oculus will leak.
To create a café, a partition wall has
been put up across the space. Why
create a wonderful rotunda, then
chop off a segment? A series of the
artist’s “tar paintings” — his father
was a roofer — hang inside. They
give a bit of glimmer to the gloom.
Gates cites as inspiration the
Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas,
the bottle kilns of Stoke-on-Trent,
Italian Renaissance tempiettos and
traditional African structures such as
the Musgum mud huts of Cameroon
and the Kasubi Tombs of Kampala,
Uganda. A bronze bell, salvaged from
the demolished Catholic church of
St Laurence, in Chicago’s South Side,
will be rung to mark special events.
Nice, but hardly a part of the whole.
Walk a circuit outside. It’s better
seen through the trees, leaves
relieving the relentless black. Apart
from the oculus and the two narrow
entrances, there’s no window onto
the world. Shouldn’t a pavilion say:
“Hello clouds, hello sky!”? Shouldn’t
it serve a ball to its setting and expect
to have it bounce back? A pavilion
doesn’t have to be a mock Chinese
pagoda or a gothic crocketed folly. In
2011, presented with the Serpentine
brief, the Swiss architect Peter
Zumthor built a seemingly forbidding
bunker with Piet Oudolf’s secret
cloister garden inside. It was like
coming through the gates of Hell into
Eden, a park within a park. It’s about
fitness for the commission. Gates has
created a handsome space. But, come
on, lighten up.
The Serpentine Pavilion 2022 is open
every day from 10am to 6pm,
excluding June 30 when it will close,
reopening at 1pm on July 1Fatal Taser bridge
fall man is named
Charlie ParkerA man who died after being tasered by
police and jumping off Chelsea Bridge
in London has been identified as a local
resident who neighbours said was
struggling with his mental health.
Oladeji Adeyemi Omishore, 41, was
tasered three times by officers who
were responding to reports that he was
“screaming and shouting” in the street
and brandishing a screwdriver.
Video on social media showed Omi-
shore writhing in pain on the bridge on
Saturday morning, as two officers
shouted “Taser, Taser!” He got to his
feet and threw himself over barriers
and fell into the Thames.
Police confirmed on Sunday that a
man was rescued and died in hospital,
though he was not named. The incident
is being investigated by the Independ-
ent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Omishore lived in a Victorian man-
sion block estate close to the bridge in
Pimlico, west London. He moved there
about three years ago as part of a
council-supported scheme to house
vulnerable people, his neighbours said.
Residents told The Times he had a
history of mental health issues. Two
homeowners alleged that he had fre-
quently broken the front door of the
block. Elderly residents said a number
of people with mental health problems
had been moved into the block in
recent years owing to an initiative runby the Peabody housing association in
partnership with Westminster council.
A 78-year-old woman said: “We had
terrible trouble when he first moved
here because he kept smashing the
street door open. I only got obscenities
shouted at me when I remonstrated
about the front-door windows.
“It’s happened all through this block,
with different people. They really
shouldn’t be living out on their own.”Another resident said Omishore had
approached him and said “you’re trying
to kill me” and “I can read your mind”.
Other homeowners and shop owners
described him as a “very nice man”.
The Metropolitan Police said: “A
Taser was discharged but this did not
enable the officers to safely detain him.”
Peabody said: “We’re listening to any
concerns raised with us directly.”
Aicha Less, the deputy leader of
Westminster council, said: “We support
the work of the IOPC.” She added: “In
general, it’s vital that we provide homes
to people with complex needs. The
council works hard to take great care of
its vulnerable residents.”Oladeji Adeyemi
Omishore had
struggled with his
mental health,
neighbours said