• The roundabout was there long before the imax. While in general I agree that roundabouts should be got rid of, this one is unusual enough in its context and character that perhaps it could be kept. A museum piece in a future London of improved streetscape.

    It should also be possible to understand why a building might have merit as a separate point to your opinion about what should be done to that junction. Personally I don't "like" it so much as appreciate it. It's quite a special building of its time and place. Brian Avery was always quite sore about the giant advertising - it was supposed to be a space for art. Perhaps that was naive.

  • The roundabout was there long before the imax.

    Well, of course. But long before the roundabout there was a simple crossroads.

    https://maps.nls.uk/view/102345964

    I'm afraid I think the IMAX building is just in the wrong place. I think architecturally it is very indistinct, but whatever my or anyone else's opinion of that may be, it is not a good idea to build buildings in the middle of junctions, whether they were roundabouts previously or not. It's a 20th century affectation, and quite absurd, that traffic should go roundabout in a city. The junction needs to be made simple and clear and decisions should be made about how to configure public space and where to draw in the building line closer to the junction again.

    At the slightly similar junction at Westminster Bridge, unfortunately the existing building, a car park of all things, was kept and turned into a posh hotel, causing just about the most nonsensical street arrangement anywhere in London apart from Vauxhall Cross or Brent Cross or horrors like that.

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