Store Street has suddenly become arty. There have been a couple of galleries opening – including the Political Cartoon Gallery which confirms that political cartoons HAVE NEVER BEEN FUNNY. But best of all is the New London Architecture exhibit in the Building Centre. This is a permanent home for NLA and its job is to have those debates about architecture that Prince Charles always gets really wrong. And the current exhibit kicks it off (and kicks ass as well).
The Changing Face Of London has as its centrepiece a 1:1500 model of central London (along the river in particular) in 2016. You can see the Shard, City Road Basin, Stratford after the Olympics all in one huge model. The model almost overshadows the rest of the exhibits, which includes a borough by borough look at current developments. As well as this there are more detailed models of some of the projects, including a wonderful cut-away of Battersea Power Station*. Its a lovely little drop-in exhibition, but I have found it rather addictive over the last few weeks. The big model is a permanent exhibition, but the more detailed models are there til the 10th September, when more architecture comes in, but do yourself a favour and have a look. You won’t regret it: even if you hate some of this stuff, you’ll know about it…
*Which will never be built as this is the law of Battersea Power Station.