CHANGES IN LONDON

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 112, 4 February 1933, Page 9

CHANGES IN LONDON

Plans for Rebuilding Carlton House Terrace OPPOSITION TO SCHEME (Reuter—Letter to “Dominion.”) As a rule the average Londoner hardly notices the changes that are taking place all around him, but every now and then the almost imperceptible process of transformation is brought home in a startling manner. Imposing plans have now been put forward by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the rebuilding of Carlton House Terrace, whose dignified stucco front looking down on the Mall is familiar to all Londoners. The terrace consists of ti number of magnificent private houses recalling the spaciousness of Regency days. Some have fallen vacant and others are likely to fall vacant soon, so it is proposed to rebuild on lines more suitable to modern conditions. These imposing new edifices are rarely private dwellings. They are either divided‘into flats or dedicated to business. In the case of Carlton House Terrace the Commissioners of Crown Lands have already committed themselves to aiding and abetting the new order by granting the lease of No. 4 to a company of wholesale paint manu- | facturers. Leases to Run. It lias been pointed out that the leases of several of the houses do not expire for 50 years, so that the architect’s design for the entire block cannot be completed for over half a century. Meanwhile, it is urged, the new building at No. 4 will wreck the amenities j of the neighbourhood as well as “completely baulk any further attempts to make the new Carlton Terrace keep pace with modern conditions.” The critics recall the similar difficulties which arose over tlie Piccadilly Hotel, which “within seven years of its completion called for two successive Government Committees to try to save the Regent Street quadrant from the commitments laid upon it by Norman ■Shaw’s design.” But no alternative has so far' been proposed except to “leave well alone.” Piecemeal rebuilding appears to be more or less inevitable, although doubt is felt in some quarters whether tlie demand will be sufficient to fill the new and greater terrace. Not a Regency Gem. Criticism was, of course, inevitable, but probably few people will agree, putting sentimental considerations aside, with the claim that Carlton House Terrace is worthy of preservation as a “gem of London’s heritage of beauty and history.” The Regency, as Sir Reginald Blomfield has pointed out. did not produce many gems either of architecture or anything else. It has been well said of Nash and his colleagues: “With the aid of a few columns stuck here and there, or rich windows and rustications in another place, and aided by the fatal facility of stucco, they managed to get over an immense amount of space with a very slight expenditure of thought.”