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| Where the city meets The City - an architecture of contrasts, a richness of depth |
On tour with Ricky Burdett - looking at London from the ground, from the street and the square, this fascinating city is one of continual adaption and change; creating a rich milieu of politics, commerce and culture from which the modern day city stands.
On a blustery Monday morning, Professor Richard Burdett (Director of London School of Economics - Cities) led a tour through the main streets, backstreets, and passages, to map the spatial experience and evolution of London - from Aldwych to The City. Critically, the path maps the connections of key modes of power that have informed the city: from the Law - the Church - and to commerce. At each section, pausing to not only assess how the links between these institutions have been created as a network, but equally, how the spatial organisation, layout of physical forms, and materiality of each are both reflective of the institution's role within the city, as well as exploring how such materiality and spatial organisation have significant impact upon how one experiences the space.
What became apparent is the porosity of the city of London. How successive layers of commerce, disasters (like the Great Fire), and power, have shaped the city it is today. Commencing at St. Clements on Ayldwych - akin to the ordering mechanism that connects power of the Champs Elysees in Paris or Fifth Avenue in New York - the walk then headed to Fleet Street and its power as a media hot-spot; the Inns of Court (Temple Bar) which still bustle with energy within their Georgian facades and clean squares; to then nod briefly at the trade Guilds of times past and pause quietly at St Pauls, before hurtling through to the the confidently 1980s Lloyds Bank, to then finally pay homage the new contributors of the 'Cheese Grater' and the 'Gherkin'. All these moments which have been layered upon the city in a complex fabric of experience, and adaptation.
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| Temple Bar - Bustling legal centres of power and of architectural beauty |
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| LLoyds Bank (RSH+P) - a confident 1980s and the power of the future |
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