The Slab is to rise after all. What is clearly intended as the most prominent office block in central London will dominate the bend in the River Thames directly opposite Somerset House and the Temple. Two glass and concrete slabs, one rising 20 storeys, will replace the London Studios tower between the National Theatre and the Oxo Tower. They will form the fulcrum of every view between St Paul’s and Big Ben. The go-ahead came in a letter this week from Michael Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities. It was addressed to the Japanese developer Mitsubishi, not to the citizens of London. It was addressed to Mammon, not to the beauty of the capital.
Even by the standards of modern London buildings, the Slab is mind-boggling. In bulk, it will be about four times the size of the adjacent National Theatre, which will look like a Tudorbethan cottage in comparison. Unlike the Shard or the Gherkin, it makes no attempt at vertical grace, or indeed at architecture at all. It is just a pile of boxes. Even the Twentieth Century Society, normally tolerant of such buildings, dismissed it as “universally derided”. Designed by the commercial architects Make, it will accommodate 4,000 office workers, whom Gove was persuaded London badly needs. The carbon cost of demolishing and replacing the inoffensive London Studios must be astronomical, and should have been ruled out long ago.
