Lost London

[El_Greco]

Some amazing photos here -

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article..._london_town#0

[Tubeman]

Fascinating, good find

[desertpunk]

Blackfriars Bridge 1880s


http://www.photographium.com/blackfr...land-1880-1890

[ill tonkso]

The rare occasion where the 21st century station looks better than the Victorian version.

[Pub Lunch]

SORRY - that was a test.

Does anyone know how to add pictures to your posts??

Many thanks.

[Pub Lunch]

rrrrr

[Pub Lunch]

Thankyou for this site!

It will allow me to vent my frustrations I have about the absolute disregard for London and its architectural heritage.

I have worked (or studied) in London since I left school at 16 and just cannot believe the changes (in my opinion for the worse) I have beared witness to over the past 14 years (let alone 80!)

I walk the streets and shake my head almost everyday at the continual loss of what was once arguably the grandest city in the world. I really can't believe what they have done and are still doing.

I know London needs to change with the times as we all do but it didn't have to be like this.....

So anyway, here is the first of what I fear will be many pictures lamenting the loss of stunning buildings and streetscapes that just leaves all that see them with nothing but disbelief.

This Building was once the largest hotel in the world and one of the most beautiful ever built. It was replaced with a much loved building but one that is much too drab for its position (see it in the rain) and is just simply an inferior bulding full stop.

This new building forms one of London's best loved views and I agree, it is lovely but I find it hard to enjoy it knowing how much better it looked when it had the Adelphi Terrace, old waterloo bridge and numerous other buildings in its place.

This is the Cecil Hotel



Replaced with the Shell Mex Building.....



I have a picture of both buildings taen from across Waterloo bridge, standing on the South Bank however I can't post it for whatever reason. It is a shame because perhaps more than any picture that I have seen - this one shows how much London has changed and in my opinion not for the better.

[Wispy Wonder]

As nice as it was, the Cecil Hotel only stood for 35 years, and lasted even less as a hotel. Shell Mex House has been there for over 80 - so is arguably more historic. Personally, I love it's art deco simplicity and the views from the top balcony are stunning.

[Light Parade]

Hi PubLunch, welcome to the site.

I am at one with you on the subject of the Adelphi, but I'm torn on the Cecil. Its architecture is magnificent, but in a bombastic, Victorian-pattern-book manner. The sightlines from the South Bank would have been interesting, but (from the same period) I think that eg the National Liberal Club is far superior.

The problem with the Cecil was that it was one of the first modern, city centre hotels, and it was quickly overtaken by better accomodation elsewhere. There's a parallel with St Pancras here - far too few bathrooms and WCs, far too much solid and immoveable masonry construction. No surprise that it went downhill fairly quickly, becoming a much-loved but also somewhat derided landmark. It was used as offices through WW1, reopened as a hotel after the war, but was a financial failure. Its size meant that it was too big to be economically renovated, and its location made it worth more as rubble.

There are quite a few large and grandiose Vic/Ed buildings in London that would be landmarks in provincial cities, and are barely noticed in London - think of the Grosvenor Hotel at Victoria, or the Pearl Assurance building on Holborn. I'm grateful that these have survived (particularly the Pearl), but I feel the Cecil has to be chalked up as a pretty inevitable loss. I'd rather have retained the mansions on Park Lane that - paradoxically - were being replaced by hotels in the same period as the Cecil came down.

Finally, per Wispy Wonder, if you ever get invited to drinks at Pearson/Penguin, cancel all other engagements - the views are magnificent.

[Light Parade]

More about the Cecil at post #1123, here:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...=#post63231659

[Core Rising]

Sorry to be pedantic, but the Shell Mex building is the Cecil Hotel. They just changed the façade. It's the same building underneith.

[i_like_concrete]

Originally Posted by Core Rising

Sorry to be pedantic, but the Shell Mex building is the Cecil Hotel. They just changed the façade. It's the same building underneith.

You are quite wrong to apply that to the entirety of Shell Mex house. The majority of the building, including the river facing side, was a new building, a steel framed construction typical of the time. The only retained and re-clad part of the Cecil was the wing that fronts the Strand.

[I am he]

What year/period do you think London looked the best architectually? Is it now with the Shard?
And also, where do you think London ranks in the world for cities with the best architecture? How does London compare to New York and Paris??

[Black Cat]

The Cecil Hotel was no doubt an amazing place and a sad loss. One assumes that the austere post WW1 times was not particularly profitable, that there were significant upgrading costs after its use as offices, and ultimately it persumably was easy pickings for Shell who must have been looking for a prestigious site for its new HQ. I like the Shell building from across the River, and particularly the crowning clock element, though the rest of the building is rather bland and austere, particularly at the base area.

[Pub Lunch]

I knew that post would have people disagree - the Shell Mex building is a marvellous building but for me the Cecil was far more beautiful

Wispy Wonder - yes, you are right - the Shell Mex has stood for longer than the earlier older building but in terms of architecture and sheer beauty it is surely light years behind.

Coupled with the modern Waterloo bridge it offers a very drab experience (for me anyway) of a crucial part of London. I just never thought the Shell building looked right even before I knew of the Cecil, just too grey and featureless for me. It does look something else entirely being lit up magnificantly but I think this serves to underline its lack of pallor. The effect is made worse when you consider that almost opposite we have the God awful Queen Elizabeth hall and National theatre (again I must say that this is a personal thing - I just don't like these concrete blocks at all - too Communist looking and for me, are just plain ugly).

Other buildings along Embankment, such as Horse guard hotel looks much more regal and I think are more appropriate for its position along the Thames. Just feel that that particular stretch of waterway needs to conjure up London's grand past. We have so much of London (and along the Thames itself) dedicated to great steel structures that despite its age I would give anything to see Cecil back!

Light Parade - thanks for the reply. Yeah, The Adelphi is a big miss and I have to say I am not to keen on its replacement. I am not familiar with the Liberal club building but having just googled it - it looks amazing but has left me confused as it looks like the Horse guard hotel? Is it part of the same building? If so, I do agree and without a question that building is an absolute blinder - the building that takes my breath away. I can only imagine what it would have looked like with the Cecil next to it !!
I will have a butchers at the other buildings you mention but again, the main issue even more than the loss of such a fine building is where it actually is. The Thames has too much dross as it is and could do with some more of its older buildings back. Many thanks for the link - will have a read for sure mate.

Core Rising - no not pedantic at all mate. I am not sure if that is correct though? I will have to find out about that but as I like Concrete mentions - the back of the Cecil is still standing and this is true, it is on the Strand and looks absolutely amazing which only reinforces my belief that this is a great loss for London!!

I am he - I know absolutely nothing about architecture - only how I feel when I look at a building and what I know is from the vast amount of pictures I have seen London looked at its finest (in my opinion) anywhere from 1910 (ish) - 1930 (ish). It was as beautiful as any city at that time. Of course there are many that think London looks better now and they would be no less wrong because there cannot be a correct answer. But I know I'd give a month of my life to spend just 1 day walking around 1920's London.

Black Cat - I agree completely and I do like it also but as said, too bland for where it is. Thanks for the bit of background history though - I accept that I need to consider the actual reasons for a building coming down however with modification surely the Cecil could have been converted to accomodate the Shell Mex - they look the same size from the outside (if anything the Cecil looks bigger?)

Sorry - I went on a bit there didn't I.

[Pub Lunch]

Edit - I meant to say that the Shell Mex looks something else entirely at night - being lit up magnificantly which serves to underline its lack of pallor....

[Light Parade]

London has always been a city in flux - at least since the Great Fire. I'd love to go back to the 1920s too - just in time to see some of the finest Georgian architecture (eg Bloomsbury) being merrily torn down and replaced with office and university accommodation.

I take the view that I'm disappointed at some of the things we've lost - many of them quite transient, like WH Smith's Bridge House in Lambeth - but I'd rather live in a dynamic city than a living museum.

What I do find upsetting is when new build is so much worse than what went before. I like the mantelpiece clock that is Shell-Mex House; but some of the riverside development in the City - well, most of it actually - is dire. And that isn't just because of St Paul's sightlines either...

[Core Rising]

Ludgate Circus, Now and then:

image hosted on flickr

Ludgate Circus - Old and New together by Another Partial Success, on Flickr

[The Champ]

There were 2 of those obelisks, one disintegrated when they tried to move it, the other in just a few hundred yards from where it originally stood and can now be found in Salisbury Square

[Core Rising]

Cheers I was wondering about that. Any idea what happened to that train bridge/ line?