Ruined: Imperial Square, Cheltenham
The authorities in charge of buildings preservation, writes Dalrymple,
often bully owners of listed houses in matters of tiny detail, at great cost to those owners, while simultaneously allowing for the desecration of whole townscapes.
Anyone who doubts this, he points out, should
take a look (just as one example among many) at Imperial Square in Cheltenham, where a criminally hideous tower office block has been permitted to ruin the outlook of a graceful Regency terrace.
Goldfinger Ernő: satanically bad and destructive work
He says that
the preservation order on the satanically bad and destructive work of Goldfinger Ernő, or on the preternaturally vile signal box at Birmingham New Street Station, are attempts to persuade us that there is something more to these buildings than scours the eye.
Preternaturally vile: signal box, Birmingham New Street Station
