This magnificent example of Art Deco style and architecture made the Odeon in High St Ken outstanding and quite unique.
Below is what happened when New Delhi based Lodha got its greedy hands on the building.
So much for the redevelopment respecting and retaining the facade of the original building.
What we have actually ended up with is a half-hearted pastiche.
The Council has a Conservation team.
The Dame's experience with the team is a tedious obsession with the minute internal details of a development.
It would have been more honest had the Council agreed demolition of the building rather than pretending to residents it would be preserved....what an insult to us all.
And of course opposite the totally ruined Commonwealth Institute. It would have been far better to be honest and to have just demolished & memorialised the old copper roofed Institute than to allow the current developers 'cubes' which hide what's left of the previous building and which do not resonate with anything else in the borough
ReplyDeleteAre the Candy brothers responsible for both these atrocities or just one of them ?
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DeleteCouncillor Dent Coad knows a bit about Architecture!
ReplyDeleteI would have thought that any politician with qualifications in the field, regardless of being on the hard left left, should be able to influence the architectural debate to make sure that our beautiful borough retains it specialness.
EDC isn't respected by Councillors on the right or the left.
ReplyDeleteShe serves no purpose whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like they'v retained the front of the cinema but built a monstrous new building on the back of it - case of a 'much-loved friend on the face of a carbuncle'?
ReplyDeleteThey promised to preserve the facade but if you visit the site now it is clear to see that they have not even delivered on that commitment. They are now clumsily erecting a vague copy of the original facade . It looks so ghastly that l do not know why they are bothering
DeleteWhy do so many interesting and varied threads on this marvellous blog end up rehashing stale arguments about Mrs Dent ? She is no longer relevant and with nothing new to report this obsession has become boring, boring boring .
ReplyDeleteWith Spring aand Easter breaking as well as the exciting possibility of the return of Monica Press to the Council lets agree to look to the future and stop harking back
No, staying silent about "Dent" would be a catastrophic mistake. She would like everyone to forget her past, whilst she slags off other candidates and, that is what would happen if we were silent about her. She would like to present as a moderate voice to the people of Kensington but those of us who know her, know just how calculating and manipulative she really is. And calculating and manipulative is not for Kensington.
DeleteShe is not irrelevant until she stops dissembling and leaves the political scene. She is entitled to stand and we are entitled to oppose her every step of the way- it is called democracy, have you ever heard of it? This "marvellous blog" courtesy of the Dame provides the opportunity to oppose her. Hornets can go for anyone they like and sting them badly and "Dent's" lot can defend her but few do so. As this blog has so many readers, people are clearly well informed about her and will make up their own minds on polling day.
But what we should be doing is to deny her 'the oxygen of publicity'. ( & she will hate that !)
DeleteCut the psychobabble and don't come the raw prawn with me 15.34.
DeleteWith around 70, 000 views a month, the more who get to find out what she is really like, through bad publicity, and by passing it on to others - the greater the chance of her being sidelined by voters.
She has already been sidelined & buried by the electorate . Please stop digging her up !
ReplyDelete