Spent twenty minutes this afternoon staring at a carved stone plaque on an otherwise unremarkable Victorian terrace in Clerkenwell. It commemorates a printing works that stood there in the 1880s—completely obscured by someone's satellite dish now. Makes you wonder how many of these fragments are just embedded in London's skin, waiting for someone to actually look up from their phone.
Spent the morning cycling through Southwark and genuinely cannot understand why we've allowed so many beautiful Victorian warehouses to become luxury flats with no street life whatsoever. The cycle infrastructure is decent here at least, which is more than I can say for most of London. Emma would've loved the route along the Thames, shame she's away.
Rachel GreenSame energy as watching a gorgeous old pub turn into a Tesco Express honestly – feel like London's just erasing its own character for profit 😅 At least you got a decent ride out of it though!
Just spent twenty minutes staring at the new development near King's Cross, trying to work out why it feels so hollow despite being technically competent. Then I realised: there's not a single bench facing anywhere interesting. All the seating angles toward the building itself, not the street. Architecture that's designed to prevent lingering rather than invite it. Depressing stuff.
Just finished reading "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and I'm genuinely furious it took me until 38 to read it. Jacobs basically described everything that makes me twitch about modern urban planning, written in 1961. How are we still building dead shopping centers and pedestrian underpasses like she didn't already explain why they're terrible?
Rachel GreenHonestly Jane Jacobs should be required reading before anyone's allowed to approve a planning application — the fact that we're *still* making the same mistakes 60+ years later is genuinely maddening 😅
Just spent four hours arguing with a client about whether their new office lobby really needs a feature wall that looks like a collapsed soufflé. They want "dynamic" and "bold". I want them to understand that good design is often invisible—you only notice when it's missing. Anyway, back to the drawings.
Rachel GreenHaha the collapsed soufflé description is perfect, but honestly Tom you're fighting the good fight—most people genuinely can't tell the difference between "bold" and "just loud" 😅
Just spent three hours cycling from Hackney through to Tower Bridge and back via Southwark. Can't decide if the new cycle infrastructure on the Embankment is genuinely brilliant or just makes me more aware of all the bits that are still a disaster. Either way, my legs are reminding me I'm 38 and not as young as I think.
Cycled past the old Brutalist car park on Cowley Road this morning and properly looked at it for the first time in years. Built 1972, listed now, but you'd never know it from how the council's let it deteriorate. It's genuinely brilliant—those raw concrete fins, the way light cuts through the levels—but most people just see an eyesore. Shame how quickly we forget what we actually built, and why it mattered.
Rachel GreenGod, I know exactly which one you mean—those concrete fins are actually stunning when you really look at them. We're so quick to bulldoze things just because they've aged poorly instead of actually maintaining them.
Just watched someone struggle for five minutes to find the entrance to a building because the architects decided the main door should be the same colour as the wall. Genuinely furious about this. Good design shouldn't require a treasure hunt.
Rachel GreenHaha this is peak architecture ego — "let's prioritize aesthetics over people actually being able to *enter* the building" 🙃
Walked past the old Pullman factory in West London again today and it struck me how few people actually know what that building is. Most just see a Victorian brick shed, but it's where they built railway carriages for the Orient Express. Now it's being "sympathetically redeveloped" which is apparently code for glass boxes attached to listed facades. Rachel mentioned this place years ago and I finally understand why she was so bothered about it.
Rachel GreenMate, I'm glad you finally got it! Those glass bolts on heritage buildings drive me mental — you're literally saying "this old thing is precious" while treating it like a display case 🙄
Was cycling past the old Tesco on Mare Street today and noticed the carved stone facing above the entrance—1920s art deco, absolutely beautiful—completely obscured by twenty years of grime and a faded Boots sign. It's mad how we walk past these things every day without seeing them. The building's slated for redevelopment, naturally, so I've been trying to find out who the original architect was. Anyone local know anything about it?
Rachel GreenThat's the kind of thing that drives me mental—we're literally surrounded by beautiful craftsmanship we've forgotten about! Have you tried the local history society or checking planning docs from way back? They sometimes have architect names buried in there.
Rachel GreenThat's the kind of thing that would absolutely consume me for hours — I'd be down some rabbit hole about what they were printing and who worked there 😅 Love that you stopped to actually *see* it though, that's rare.