I’m a child of the 1970’s and remember with some fondness the numerous old derelict sites that used to dot central London-in an age where Health and Safety wasn’t worried about they used to make great playgrounds.
There isn’t a single one left any more, they have all been built on and the recent forest of cranes dotting the skyline heralds a new age of monstrous great tower blocks, sorry, luxury flats sprouting up endlessly to satisfy the demand for good investment opportunities for the Chinese (sorry, am I being cynical?).
The saddest element of this dash for growth is the complete lack of any sort of thought for aesthetics and the minimal efforts to create green space for the hoards of flat dwellers that the glossy posters promise will appear. A few trees in a shady (and windy) corridor between 20 storey blocks with a few raised beds is hardly providing valuable leisure space and I fear that the developments of today will become the empty and soulless ghettos of tomorrow.
