![]() In his new book Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain, Grindrod explores how these buildings captured national aspirations at a moment before the trauma of 9/11 and the financial crash. And we should think again about their value. Yet despite City Hall’s demotion, Grindrod argues that the building - which opened in 2002 - is one of a clutch of confident, neo-futuristic, turn-of-the-millennium UK projects that embodied a collective optimism unique to that time. ‘Prime site, looks fantastic, brilliant symbol - but it’s not big enough for the job.’ ‘The building represents the role of the London mayor in some sort of horrible way,’ he says. ![]() It took them less than 20 years to outgrow their purpose-built home.Īccording to the architectural commentator John Grindrod, City Hall is a giant glass-and-steel metaphor. But in December, its occupiers - the Mayor, the London Assembly and the Greater London Authority - deserted their glitzy £43 million headquarters for a cheaper building more than five miles east at the Royal Docks in Newham. ![]() The bulbous, Foster + Partners-designed ‘glass testicle’ - in Ken Livingstone’s words - occupies one of the best sites in the capital: Thames-side, squaring off to the Tower of London, and overlooking Tower Bridge.
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