Every vista tells a story, always take the room with a view.
It’s 6.47am on Monday 19 September, 2021. Preternaturally quiet, the crows caws ricochet around Lincoln’s Inn. Looking east from the ninth floor, Holborn to Barbican, never disappoints. The skyline lights up at night with forty spots glowing red and at dawn it is afire.
Rolling right you see the serrated edge of Barbican’s Lauderdale Tower at a dip in the trees. Named after Scotland’s Earls of Lauderdale, it’s in front of the Shakespeare and Cromwell Towers. This magnificent urban Leviathan was built around 1970, when a quarter of our housing stock never had an inside toilet.
Next to the Walkie Talkie- it has a Sky Bar if that tickles you- there’s the dome of St. Paul’s, head up the dome for a scarier and more spiritual high. Christopher Wren’s big church reminds you we have just changed our Head of State and Prime Minister with much pomp but little drama. Other nations should be so lucky.
On the far right Shard of Glass sneaks in. It’s topped with a glowing purple cone and bright red orb. The view is part blocked by King’s College London’s Marshall building. That might put an optimist’s mind to the Marshall Plan. King’s College run Marshall Scholarships, encouraging US undergrads to study in the UK. President Eisenhower asked General George C Marshall to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on his behalf. When the General took his seat at Westminster Abbey the audience rose in respect.
The urban regeneration of Barbican, rebuilding of St. Paul’s after the Great Fire and audacity of The Shard are testament to the ingenuity, chutzpah and optimism of humans.
Despite a proliferation of professional pessimists, the second Carolean Age may be the best yet. Queen Elizabeth II took the reins in the wake of WW2 when Europe needed rebuilding. Everything is better than back then, though you probably don’t believe me (Tip: check the data. Here are two uncontestable facts: we live 15 years longer and poo in our own loo.)
Be an optimist. Or, if that’s too much to ask, think like one.
Russell Wardrop
CEO