DECEMBER 2008 » book review

Urban Development

Building London: The Making of a Modern Metropolis
by Bruce Marshall
Universe Publishing, a division of Rizzoli International
Publications, Inc., New York, NY; 2008
304 pp; hardcover; 350 photographs; $55
ISBN 978-0-7893-1591-5

Reviewed by Will Holloway

The front cover of Bruce Marshall's Building London: The Making of a Modern Metropolis features a 1927 photograph of Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral; the back cover shows Foster & Partners' 2004 Swiss Re Headquarters. In between, the 304 pages of Building London present a rich visual history of the development of London's built environment, from the royal palaces, churches, museums and galleries that define the city's architectural fabric to the more recent spectacles – such as the Millennium Dome and the London Eye – that poke out from its skyline.

The roots of modern London extend back to the 17th century, when the city was rebuilt after much of what had been constructed in the Middle Ages was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. As the British architect Ptolemy Dean writes in the introduction, London "was rebuilt, miraculously, even more elegantly and crisply in Portland stone by Sir Christopher Wren and his collaborators. This […] was, perhaps, the finest skyline of any city in Europe."

Jump ahead a few hundred years, and Dean's view has changed as much as the city itself. "Now," he continues, "we are encouraged to admire the exciting muddle of new high rise blocks in the City. But London is not New York, and the scale is wrong and the overall sense of composition has been lost. While New York can be seen from across the broad East River, London now overcrowds the Thames. Stand now on any river bridge and see how the scattering of tall blocks along the river has destroyed the physical focus that London once had.[…] New buildings rise up unexpectedly here and there, like weeds in a lawn, sometimes dramatic and bold, but more often they are intrusive and discourteous.[…] While Christopher Wren consciously sought to glorify the city as a single entity, these new buildings seek to dissolve its boundaries, adding new prominence to random locations simply to inflate the profits of their developers and the reputations of their designers."

But Building London is not a debate about architectural styles; it is a visual representation of the full spectrum – a virtual photographic encyclopedia – of the city's architectural history and development. The hundreds of black and white and contemporary color photographs are augmented with bits and pieces of background information in chapters arranged chronologically and by building type – so comprehensive is the book that sections on pubs, public housing, parks and gardens and even public toilets are included.

In "Royal Palaces," Marshall's examination includes the Tower of London, the Caen-stone fortress built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century; Buckingham House, which was purchased by George III in 1762 and expanded before becoming Buckingham Palace; and St. James and Hampton Court palaces. "Places of Worship" stretches all the way from Westminster Abby to the postwar churches of the 20th century, including the Baitul Futuh Mosque in the suburb of Morden with its 52-ft.-dia. stainless-steel-clad dome – which, according to Marshall, claims to be the largest mosque in western Europe. But when it comes to churches, the majority of Marshall's admiration is reserved for Wren: "From inspiration both godly and worldly, church-building contributed the city's greatest glories, most notably the triumphant legacy of Sir Christopher Wren. Eighty seven churches were lost in the Great Fire of 1666. In 30 years, Wren rebuilt 51 of them, the crowing achievement being the new St. Paul's Cathedral set among the modest dwellings of Ludgate Hill. Financed by a tax on coal, Wren had first call on the quarries of Portland in Dorset and used 1 million tons of their stone."

In "Museums and Galleries," Marshall offers these tidbits: "The National Gallery began in a Pall Mall townhouse with just 54 pictures; now it takes up the entire north side of Trafalgar Square"; "The National Portrait Gallery's founding purpose, to display 'the most Eminent Persons in British History,' was first served by 57 paintings; now it has 10,000 portraits and 500,000 photographs"; and "The new British Library was looking for overflow space even before it was opened in 1998; its right to a copy of every new British publication requires two additional miles of shelving each year."

And near the end of Building London, Marshall gets to the Millennium Dome, one of the most controversial structures of recent times. "The impression the Dome gives from a distance is of some alien spheroid that has thunderously buried itself in the unkempt Thames meander," he writes. "It is a structure whose strength is tensile, light enough for gravity not to be the issue limiting its expanse. But that it is merely some temporary tent is an illusion. The Dome is engineered for a long and active life – if only someone can devise something worthy for it to do." TB

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