From: fedora@fea.st
On Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:01:07 -0500, Wilson
wrote:
>On 2/18/2026 11:12 AM, Tara wrote:
>> On Feb 18, 2026 at 11:07:04?AM EST, "Tara" wrote:
>>
>>> On Feb 18, 2026 at 11:00:04?AM EST, "Wilson"
wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2/18/2026 10:36 AM, Julian wrote:
>>>>> On 18/02/2026 15:28, Wilson wrote:
>>>>>> On 2/17/2026 6:20 PM, Tara wrote:
>>>>>>> Tara wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Feb 17, 2026 at 4:24:25?PM EST, "Julian"
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I’ve got a new thriller out this week, under my pen name of S.K.
>>>>>>>>> Tremayne. I am pleased with the book, and I believe it’s
>>>>>>>>> entertaining. I
>>>>>>>>> am also aware that, in a tough and competitive market, that may not
be
>>>>>>>>> enough for it to succeed. I am even more aware that readers might
>>>>>>>>> decide
>>>>>>>>> the book is dreck. They might give me one star reviews, and no sales.
>>>>>>>>> Then the book will crater, my publishers will probably abandon me,
and
>>>>>>>>> my nice career will drift to an end.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> And that, of course, is how it should be. No one in any career is
>>>>>>>>> entitled to a free ride. That especially applies to people who get
>>>>>>>>> to do
>>>>>>>>> a desirable, creative job such as novel writing. Whether you’re a
>>>>>>>>> writer, actor, director, sculptor or musician – if you want that
>>>>>>>>> enviably fun creative profession, you live and die by public
approval;
>>>>>>>>> and if you are bad, goodbye.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Unless, of course, you are an architect. I was reminded of this
>>>>>>>>> peculiar
>>>>>>>>> anomaly by last week’s furore over the latest architectural wart to
>>>>>>>>> attach itself to London’s battered face: the already notorious
>>>>>>>>> ‘Belgrove
>>>>>>>>> House’, that now dominates a prime corner of Euston Road, where it
>>>>>>>>> sits
>>>>>>>>> right next to King’s Cross and St Pancras.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I presume it has been situated in London after the original design
was
>>>>>>>>> rejected by a horrified Uzbek government, as being too ugly for
>>>>>>>>> Tashkent.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If you have not seen it yet, the best way to get a sense is to look
at
>>>>>>>>> photos like the one here.
>>>>>>>>> https://x.com/ianvisits/status/2020440287785443433
>>>>>>>>> Briefly. The second best way is for me to describe it, but that is
>>>>>>>>> actually quite hard. Because it’s difficult to verbally capture this
>>>>>>>>> weird, stupid and meaningless collision of styles, materials,
>>>>>>>>> dimensions. The closest visual analogy, to my mind, is one of those
>>>>>>>>> plates piled high at a hotel buffet by an idiot: with a splodge of
>>>>>>>>> curry, some sauerkraut, five potatoes, some lemon pie, a lamb cutlet,
>>>>>>>>> smoked herring, and several cheesy crackers, and everything banal and
>>>>>>>>> tasteless even before you smush them together.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> In short, the building is appalling, and it’s not going to get better
>>>>>>>>> over time. It is a dud. A turkey. A calamitous flop. It is the
>>>>>>>>> Millennium Dome. It is Fyre Festival. It is Triangle, the BBC soap
>>>>>>>>> opera
>>>>>>>>> set on a North Sea ferry route. It is Raise the Titanic. It is Harry
>>>>>>>>> Hill’s I Can’t Sing. It is Keir Starmer’s prime ministerial career,
>>>>>>>>> rendered in concrete and plastic. It is my first novel, Absent
>>>>>>>>> Fathers,
>>>>>>>>> which got a cheque for zero pounds zero pence, as a computer could
not
>>>>>>>>> believe an author could sell so few copies, so sent a cheque anyway.
>>>>>>>>> Finally, it is the architectural equivalent of Via Galactica (1972),
a
>>>>>>>>> space-themed musical with actors on trampolines, which lasted seven
>>>>>>>>> performances.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> But here’s the thing. For all the creative disasters listed above,
>>>>>>>>> someone responsible paid a price. Even the lavishly coddled
Millennium
>>>>>>>>> Dome project damaged careers. And yet, if you design and erect a
>>>>>>>>> hideous
>>>>>>>>> building, equivalent to these aesthetic catastrophes, you pay no
price
>>>>>>>>> at all. And this despite the fact that, unlike a rubbish novel, you
>>>>>>>>> can’t chuck a bad building in a bin. No, the building squats there,
>>>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>>>> decades, blighting the lives of everyone who must look at it. And
>>>>>>>>> given
>>>>>>>>> that this particular building is situated in one of the most
>>>>>>>>> conspicuous
>>>>>>>>> sites in the capital, opposite two of its grandest railway stations,
>>>>>>>>> that is going to be a lot of people.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Worse, there’s a decent chance the architects of this carbuncle
>>>>>>>>> will get
>>>>>>>>> an award. Because that’s what they do in architecture world. They
have
>>>>>>>>> hideous ideas, then they force them on the rest of us, and then they
>>>>>>>>> give each other prizes. Until, about 40 years down the line, everyone
>>>>>>>>> accepts the obvious truth, and the pile of ugliness is finally
>>>>>>>>> demolished.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If you need proof, just look at the lists. Salford’s laughable
>>>>>>>>> Centenary
>>>>>>>>> Building, Britain’s very first Stirling Prize winner (in 1996), was
>>>>>>>>> set
>>>>>>>>> to be knocked down just 30 years later, to much applause. The Tricorn
>>>>>>>>> Centre Portsmouth won the Civic Trust award in 1967 and yet was
>>>>>>>>> demolished in 2004. Pimlico Comprehensive School collected a RIBA
>>>>>>>>> prize,
>>>>>>>>> then it was flattened in despair. Gateshead’s Trinity Square car park
>>>>>>>>> was recognised as a ‘most outstanding modernist building’ by the 20th
>>>>>>>>> century society after it was blasted to hell. Add to this, our own
>>>>>>>>> Belgrove House: yes it won a World Architecture Festival Award in
>>>>>>>>> 2023.
>>>>>>>>> Yes, they’ve already given it an award. Perhaps they got excited by
>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>> potential ugliness. In any other art form, failure is failure. In
>>>>>>>>> architecture, terrible failure makes for a garlanded career.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Clearly, what is needed is some kind of disincentive for architects.
A
>>>>>>>>> way to punish them for the pain they inflict. Or they will keep
>>>>>>>>> inflicting this pain on us. We need the equivalent of West End
reviews
>>>>>>>>> so bad they close a dismal show, thereby bankrupting producers.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> So who are the Guilty People responsible for Belgrove House? Who
>>>>>>>>> should
>>>>>>>>> we hold to account? It’s invidious to name names, but the names are
>>>>>>>>> Simon Allford, Jonathan Hall, Paul Monaghan and Peter Morris, and
they
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