Overview

In this polemical book, the architecture critic Jonathan Glancey explores the much-hyped buildings of the Millennium. A fortune was spent on lavish buildings, but little in the way of public services. For all London's inventiveness it is now a city unable to provide its citizens with decent public transport, housing or services. The author explores Londons' opulence and squalor, combining anecdote and analysis, and provides a detailed picture of the state London is in and speculates on how it might be transformed.

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9781859846452

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Reviews

a cri de Coeur ... a final despairing shout from a humanist for whom architecture is too often vacuous bunkum. --Jay Merrick, Independent <br><br> Jonathan Glancey is a wonderful communicator. --Norman Foster

a cri de Coeur ... a final despairing shout from a humanist for whom architecture is too often vacuous bunkum. --Jay Merrick, Independent Jonathan Glancey is a wonderful communicator. --Norman Foster

Spot the connection between the Millennium Dome and the Colosseum? According to Glancey, Architecture and Design correspondent of the Guardian, Londoners are being manipulated into passive acquiescence just like the ancient Romans with their bread and circuses - free food and mass entertainment aimed at keeping the plebs in order. He views todays anti-globalization New Mob, albeit largely middle-class and university-educated, as the direct inheritors of Wat Tylers tradition, and presents an intriguing history of London planning as 600-plus years of clever tricks designed to keep the peasants from revolting. We dont need the free food any more, and were prepared to pay high sums for the right sort of entertainment (especially when we get the take-home souvenirs of the shopping experience) - but its the same principle. Serious public debate has been squeezed to the small corners of the media, abandoned in favour of consumer trends: designer labels, shopping centres, sushi bars, football stadiums, nightclubs, coffee bars, loft apartments, interior d?cor, garden makeovers, cute art, the chance to get rich quick with a lottery ticket were all capitalists now, even nice Mr Blair with his designer Thatcherism. Londoners, Glancey suggests, are being bought off with dashing architecture, modish cafes and sumptuous museums which, attractive though they may be, 'start to look like a shoddy exercise in the promotion of passivity when set alongside the state of Londons transport, schools and hospitals'. But Glancey isnt just an angry young architect, although he dissects various recent projects the Dome, Tate Modern, Royal Opera House, London Eye and Millennium Bridge with professional precision. Yet each is a frontispiece for a serious description of some aspect of real London life: the backstreets, the suburbs, the workers alongside concrete suggestions for education, health care and community living as well as transport and town planning. A worthwhile read for anyone interested in modern urban life and government, whether Londoner or not. (Kirkus UK)

His small book is peculiarly significant because it is totally un-selfconscious, a final despairing shout from a humanist for whom architecture is too often vacuous bunkum.

Author Information

"Jonathan Glancey is Architecture and Design Editor of the ""Guardian,"" a position he previously held at the ""Independent."" An Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, his previous books include ""New British Architecture,"" ""Twentieth Century Architecture"" and ""The Story of Architecture."""

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