In article ,
James Farrar wrote:

English Heritage are right and the 20th Century Society (whoever they
are, I've never even heard of them before) are wrong.

The C20th Society aims at preserving the best 20th Century buildings.

The original design intent wasn't to have 80-year-old tiles looking
terrible, and you just have to have looked at the difference between
Queensway and Lancaster Gate to see the difference retiling can make.

The remaining tiles at Great Portland Street don't look terrible.
And the samples of the new ones did not look like much of an
improvement.

Now that doesn't mean the responsible person in LUL shouldn't be
punished for violation of listed building regulations, but I'm
surprised that the committee felt a site visit was necessary. It's a
no-brainer to me.

I wasn't actually on the committee for the decision to make a site
visit (I'd swapped duties with someone else). However, there is a
limited amount you can learn about historic fabric without actually
seeing it in situ. And not every member of the committee travels
by tube (I do, but not all the Tories).

Westminster is not a planning authority which often goes on site
visits.

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