I like Georgian townhouses. Their appeal to modern eyes is understandable: they are elegant; both comparatively rare (swathes of them having been demolished in post-War slum clearances) and quintessentially London; they tend to be in desirable central neighbourhoods; and, like fossil fuels, their supply is finite.
Beyond that though, is there anything that makes it a housing type worth replicating in the 21st century, as Labour are promising to do should they win the next election?
Mass building in growth areas – i.e. places where people actually want to live – is a worthy ambition, as is promising “gentle, urban development” to placate the NIMBYs.
You won’t find me disagreeing with a drive to build more. But trying to make this new building as non-threatening as possible by dressing it up in period costume strikes me as a fool’s errand and one that is, frankly, embarrassing. Worse that it is promoted by both main political parties (see the Conservatives' Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission).
It offers a depressingly backwards view in a country that should be looking forward and working out how to tackle contemporary challenges such as population density, climate crisis, affordability, accessibility and healthy homes, alongside good-looking design.
It also ignores what I suspect is the main reason many people say they do not like new building – that much of it is built as cheaply as possible with the main motive to maximise profit, not build something beautiful.
Ensuing scandals from the cladding crisis to leasehold scams then create an association between new builds and poverty, horror, and lack of autonomy.
The issue here is not with design per se but with rapacious developers, management companies and freeholders. Will this be any better if the homes in question have been built in the Georgian style? It seems unlikely.
You only have to look at the Barbican, where high rise flats sell for similar sums to nearby period terraces, for an example of how radical new architecture can be hugely aspirational. Far better to invest in the future instead of aping the past.
