10 Membranes

Greenwich

The view from Greenwich is one of the most impressive in London, indeed perhaps the only view from which Canary Wharf could be said to look attractive.

What appeals so much is the collision of history. Elizabeth I’s palace, later rebuilt as Queen Anne’s House, the awe inspiring symmetry of Wren’s epic Royal Naval College, creatively bisected to allow river views from the House, the sweep of Greenwich path up the steep hill to Flamsteed’s Royal Observatory and the sharp line of the Prime Meridian. Add to this the majesty of the Cutty Sark, in its time the world’s fastest boat, and the off beat, old world, maritime hustle of Greenwich and one has one of the most perfect instances of British nautical supremacy I know of. It speaks at once of aristocratic charm, classical overtures and the command of the ocean.

Its an area of incredible historical, scientific and architectural density.

Matched against it, just across the Thames, is the Docklands development of Canary Wharf (and the subsidiary wharf redevelopments around it): soaring chunks of glass, with airy marble atria that have, where employees have the highest mean salary of anywhere in Europe.

This vista is a fairytale of past, present and future glories. Thats why it works; from this angle neither compromises and each is aggrandised by that refusal to compromise in the face of the stark, and surprising, brilliance of the past and the future.