David Gentleman

David Gentleman has captured London (and some of the western suburbs) through the eyes of an artist, and as such is naturally drawn to looking for the most picturesque and dramatic view. By doing so, even some of the capitals most insulting eyesores such as Centre Point or even under the Westway are made to appear slightly more refined by the stroke of an artist's brush; in the same way that concept visuals for a new shopping centre can appear elegant and gentrified on paper, but look ugly and depressing in the cold light of day.

This book was published in 1985. I visited the capital again last week (having not returned for almost 20 years) and I cannot begin to express my horror at what has befallen this once proud city. It is, to put it plainly a second blitzkrieg. London is now as lacking in character as any other metropolis in the world, with increasingly taller skyscrapers taking the form of shards and slabs of mirrored glass, and even a horrific egg case apparently layed by a giant fly (St Mary Axe). These and other mismatching monstrosities vomited up by overpaid and pretentious architects seem to burst their way out of London's bedrock to rape the skyline like some perverse phallic hazing prank - "cocks out lads, and wave 'em at the ladies!"

One of my favourite parts of the book is when David draws comparisons between two otherwise unconnected images:

The City (from Tower Bridge), with it's tall oblong buildings sitting like dark slabs against the sky, juxtaposed on the facing page with an image of Bunhill (Bone Hill) Fields grave yard taken from a low angle with the headstones appearing like monoliths rising up to match the tower blocks on the preceeding page.

The Tricerotops skull (from the Natural History Museum) shown in silhouette, facing another dinosaur from the industrial age 'Old Bess' (Science Museum).

The chimney stacks of Battersea Power Station mirrored on the next page with the 'Frenchified' suspention towers of Hammersmith Bridge reflecting the overall proportions in a way which only an artist's eye would have ever spotted.

Even though I am fully aware that the London this book attempts to represent was already much diluted, even at the time, by weak throw-away architecture; David Gentleman did manage still to shine a photogenic light on it's best side. He'd find it very much harder to do so today.… (mer)