Day 1 saw us embark on a walking tour of the city with Ken Allinson, author of London’s Contemporary Architecture. We crisscrossed the city on a
mission to see some of the best and most interesting buildings, ducking down into the tube every now and again to shoot across town. For me some of the best were 10 Hills Place by Amanda Levete [formerly of Future Systems] and a new building by Jean Nouvel nearly complete at New Change, St Pauls.
Perhaps the best moment however was on the corner of Earnshaw St and St Giles High St [just after seeing a new Renzo Piano group of towers] where Ken stopped us, crouched down, and started drawing us a map of the city in chalk on the pavement. The map was diagrammatic, with only a dozen or so major features [including The Thames, St Pauls, The Houses of Parliament etc] however it was told with a mixture of social and geographic history that made the previously hard to navigate city [for me at least] at once intelligible. Despite having been to London more than a few times, I had never really understood how the city was laid out until now, and for the rest of the afternoon found it far easier to position myself in relation to the city. Looking forward to more exciting things on Day 2
.