“You are now
In London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow
At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore
Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more.
Yet in its depth what treasures!”
The Cenci 1819 by Percy Shelley
You have to hand it to Shelley, the ability to capture in five lines of verse that restless energy of creative destruction that constantly re-shapes London through forces we sometimes struggle to identify and control.
‘Lost London’ is Paul Knox’s sweeping biography of London tracking these forces of destruction; the Great Fire, the Blitz, IRA bombs, changing technologies and infrastructure and capitalist imperatives of investment and gain. In a richly detailed and beautifully presented treasure trove of 25 lost buildings, Knox presents not just a description of each building, its genesis and eventual obliteration but uses it as a key through which to explore different dimensions of London’s history.
The demolition of Milbank penitentiary (1892) enables Knox to take us through the history of penal reform, the loss of the Lyons Corner House on the Strand (demolished in 1980) the development of the restaurant sector and the shift of female labour from cheap domestic service into hospitality. Whilst the botched redevelopment of Clifford’s Inn (parts of which dated to the C14) provides an overview of the evolution of London’s legal precinct.
Alongside buildings with an institutional or entertainment role and a smattering of factories, a number of examples touch on how London accommodates its workers and families. From the speculative development of the Adelphi Terrace (demolished in 1938) that struggled to attract the wealthy clientele its backers were targeting, to the contested re-development of Burtonwood House in Hackney (demolished in 2021) and the loss of homes for the council tenants for which it had been originally designed.
Knox has unearthed some real ‘lost’ gems and through his telling you will look at parts of London anew. During the Victorian era Camden sat at the interchange between road, rail and canal. In order to shift produce from one transport means to another a variety of horses were required to haul the cartloads. Altogether the Camden stables (built in the 1840s) provided accommodation for between 700 and 800 heavy horses. Then in the period around the Second World War as lorries finally replaced horse-drawn carts the stables were abandoned. The whole area then became a victim of planning blight after the GLC published its plans for the notorious ‘Motorway box’. Knox maps the waves of redevelopment and gentrification that followed. Whilst the transformation of Camden into a major part of London’s ‘experience economy’ continues on apace you can still see the odd sign of its equine history in the names that remain and in features such as the horse ramp at Stanley sidings.
Knox deftly unpicks the meta-story of the tensions that exist between those who want to preserve and those who want to modernise. He shows how the destruction of certain buildings led to movements for conservation which saved others, as campaigners came together into amenity groups which morphed into Societies focused on preservation. The Euston Arch and the Coal Exchange were lost (in the early 1960s) but the furore and campaigning to keep them probably saved Gibson Hall. Shifting tastes can also act as a force for preservation. Brickwork is back in fashion and there is a greater appreciation of the value of everyday buildings (such as workmen’s cottages) as well as the grand architectural statement.
But who decides what should be kept and why? There is a delicate balance between conservation and modernity. We don’t want to freeze London, but we do want to recognise, celebrate and where possible repurpose its past as the economy and people’s needs change. We want to keep what makes London ‘London’ and not lose it to a jumble of steel and glass. And in this very live debate books such as this and indeed the London Society itself contribute to the discussion of the future shape of this great city while honouring the best of the past.
Publisher – Yale University Press
