london lanscapes : architecture and power. this lesson is to study a city’s heritage a heritage...

LONDON LANSCAPES :

Architecture and power

• This lesson is to study a city’s HERITAGE

• A heritage is: • something inherited from the past or

something meant to be left for future generations

• the UNESCO lists WORLD HERITAGE SITES which are places listed as of special cultural or physical significance

London gathers all forms of power : political, royal, religious, media, financial, cultural…

This power finds expression in some monuments and new landmarks through the city

Moreover, London landscapes have evolved around the monuments but also through renovations and new buildings

London

EnglandIreland

Wales

Scotland on a worldwide scale

London is the capital of England in Western Europe.. Alongside New York city, Paris, and Tokyo, London is often listed among the four major global cities.

on a national and local scale

London is located in the south of England. The population is : 8,174,000 in Greater London. London is a port on the Thames.

I. A DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE THAMES

(how the City became the capital of the United Kingdom)

I/ANTIQUE AND MEDIEVAL LONDON

• A/ London during the Roman occupation

- the Romans first developed the square mile now known as the City of London. It was around 43 AD.

- The name London comes from the Latin name Londinium

- This fortified settlement was the capital of the Roman province of Britannia.

- They built a bridge and an impressive city wall , and made the city an important port and the hub of their road system.

TRINITY SQUARE Portion of Old London Wall

BBC HERITAGE EXPLORER

City of London

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Londinium was abandoned and a Saxon ( Barbaric invasions) town named Lundenwic was established.

Indeed, the Romans left but trade went on.

Few traces of London dating from the « Dark Ages » can now be found, but London survived the incursions of both the Saxons and the Vikings, and retained its position as the most important town in the British Isles.

B/ the Middle-Age• At first London was not the main English city,

but Westminster city ( a nearby city) was the royal centre from the 10th century

• The famous abbey-church was built by the English king Edward the Confessor( 1004-1066) and he also built his palace there

• William the Conqueror, who took over from him was crowned as king of England there in 1066.

Westminster(where Westminster Abbey is located) was a separate city,

not a part of London.

Westminster Palace• Royal Palace

since the 10th century.

• no surviving plans

• Buildings close to the river

.

• WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR’S ROLE:

• He made London the richest and largest in the kingdom.

• He raised the Tower of London ( the White Tower was the first part to be built) and confirmed the city’s independence and right to self-government.

• The transfer of the Exchequer ( ministry of finance) as well as main courts of justice, to London in the 13th C consolidated its political importance.

• London quickly asserted as asserted as the capital of England

THE TOWER OF LONDON • It served as fortress and arsenal to

protect and control the city of London, royal residence, prison, and symbol of royal authority.

• the White Tower retains many of its original architectural features

Today the Tower of London houses the Crown Jewels and is open to the public as a museum.

The Tower of London, seen from the River Thames,

II/The modern history of London

A/ Tudor and Stuart’s time

1) Tudor dynasty ( 16th C)

In Tudor times the City was the centre of trade and commerce as well as a very populated city

Westminster housed both the king and parliament.

Many areas that are now London parks were used as Royal hunting forests: ex: Hyde Park and St. James Park.

View from the River ThamesFrom the middle of the 11th century until 1512 the Palace of Westminster was the royal home to the Kings and Queens of England

WESTMINSTER AND WHITEHALL

•An international exchange was founded by the mercer Thomas Gresham in 1566 to enable London to compete for financial power with Amsterdam.

After the Reformation, theatres were banned in the city of London (some thought they wasted workmen's time)

the theatres moved across the Thames to Southwark: The Globe Theatre, scene of many of Shakespeare's plays, was built there!

Unfortunately, many of London's Tudor buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666

London Bridge

2-The Stuart dynasty : 17th C• Covent Garden was built

• In 1637 Charles I opened the royal reserve of Hyde Park to the public.

The Great Fire of London and its consequences

• One reason for the rapid spread of the fire was the fact that London was a city built of wood

• Pulling down houses seemed the only way to stop the fire spreading.

• The Fire destroyed 60% of the City, 16 persons were killed.

London was partly rebuild by Christopher WREN (1632-1723)

He is famous for designing St Paul’s, 1670 and some of the 15 other churches

MEDIEVALAFTER WREN

II. THE IMPACT OF THE XIXth-XXth CENTURIES ON THE CITY CENTRE

A/At the beginning of the 19th century

London was the world’s largest city and capital of the British empire.1800 : 1 million dwellers1900 : 6, 7 million dwellers

At the beginning of the 19th century, Georgian architects replaced the last of medieval London with their imposing symmetrical architecture and residential squares.

One of the most famous was John NASH

He planned many new sites but the most famous were :

Regent’s ParkRegent StreetTrafalgar Square St James ‘s Park.He was also responsible for the transformation of Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace.

Trafalgar Square

Regent’s street

B. Victorian London 19th-20th C

In 1834 the Houses of Parliament were redesigned by Charles Barry

The clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben was built in 1859.

Transports developed:

-railways and underground railways, ralways stations like Paddington (1838), Waterloo (1848), King's Cross (1850).

-Tower Bridge

A large system of sewers was built

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

The Palace of Westminster contain the bell Big Ben that is struck each quarter hour. A light in the clock tower tells when the House of

Commons is in session.

Tower bridge

In 1851 Crystal Palace was build to hold the great exhibition

Buckingham Palace is the Queen's official and main royal London home. It has been the official London residence of Britain's monarchy since 1837. 

Queen Victoriawas the first monarch to live there.

C/ World Wars and urbanisation

In WWI there were destructions due to zeppelin raids in 1915

In WW2 damage was linked with the Blitz: London had to be rebuilt and some cities like Plymouth were wiped out !

On the night of October 14 1940, a bomb penetrated the road and exploded in Balham Underground station, killing 68 people. A No 88 bus travelling in black-out conditions then fell into the crater.

Rebuilding

The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of architechtural styles and has resulted in a lack of unity in architecture

Patrick Abercrombie rebuilt London with:

-a green belt encircling London

-satellites cities

-building of the Royal Festival Hall ( 1951)

-rebuilding of the Port

Royal Festival Hall

III. OLD AND NEW LANSCAPES OF LONDON

How is London evolving?

A. The Docklands : changing functions Containerisation and other technological changes led to a

rapid decline of the port .

By the early 1980s the docks had all closed.

The area has been transformed (1981-1998) and regenerated by :

- new offices (the Daily Telegraph and Canary Wharf Tower)

- housing (gentrification of the East End) - transport development (The Docklands Light Railway

and Jubilee Line extension , City Airport ).

London's docks: past and present

The West India Docks and Blackwall Basin, c. 1956.

The West India Docks in 2001

Surrey Commercial Docks.

1920s-1930s

• New housing, offices, shops and leisure facilities, such as the water sports centre at the old Greenland Dock

East India Import Dock, 1902 and 2003.

a small part of the dock was retained as an attractive water feature.

Canary Wharf Tower

The Tallest building in the UK is in Canary Wharf, part of the London Docklands. 244 metres high and covered in stainless steel.

B. City of modernity

1) Its CBD:• the oldest in the world, has been imitated by all other major business centres overseas.

•London has three city centres: the City of London and its extension the « Isle of Dogs », the medieval City of Westminster and the transformed Docklands area .

The City of London is a small area in Greater London

The City of London is the principal financial district of the United Kingdom, and is one of the most important in the World. It is governed by the Corporation of London, an ancient body headed by the Lord Mayor of London.

THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE ISLE OF DOGS

The city of London

The Isle of dogs

The City is the old economic center of London. But this area had become too small for major global economic activities.

The Isles of Dogs is an extension of the City. It has the same functions : it is a CBD.

2. avant-gard(e) buildings

FACTFILE : The 180-metre, forty-storey Swiss Re Tower, nicknamed the "gherkin", was designed by the world-famed architect Norman Poster and completed in 2004

Norman Foster's "gherkin" dominates the skyline of London City.

WORD BOX A gherkin: un cornichonEngineering: l'ingénierie, la techniqueThe skyline: la ligne d'horizonA skyscraperA tapering steel curve: une courbe en acier effilée An aerodynamic shape To hail: saluer, acclamer To laud : célébrer, chanter les louanges An innovation / innovating Material / steel / glass Triangular and diamond- shapedglass panels Stunning: stupéfiant Unusual / astonishing Good taste * bad taste

THE GHERKIN

Between tradition and modernity : the new London City Hall or « the glass egg »

Vocabulary : to stand in striking contrast to/with;

a bold architecture ( audacieuse)

a technical feat : exploit technique

the hallmark of the new millenium : empreinte, marque

urban regeneration

• Vocabulary : to stand in striking contrast to/with; a bold architecture ; a technical feat ; the hallmark of the new millenium ; urban regeneration….

THE TATE MODERN « re-built »in 2000 in a former power station

Founded in 2000, it is the United Kingdom's national gallery of international modern and contemporary art

It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year.

The Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass is a 95-storey skyscraper in London.

Its construction began in March 2009; it was inaugurated on 5 July 2012.

It opened to the public on 1 February 2013.

Standing 310 meters high the Shard is the tallest building in the EU

( same designer as the Pompidou center in Paris: Richard Rogers)

Qatari investors. 80% of the stakes THE SHARD ( l’esquille)

Floors Floor area Space designation

73–95 Spire

68–72 758 m2 (8,159 sq ft) Observatory

53–65 5,772 m2 (62,129 sq ft) Residential apartments

52 Spa

34–52 16,198 m2 (174,354 sq ft) Shangri-La Hotel

31–33 5,945 m2 (63,991 sq ft) Restaurants

2–28 54,488 m2 (586,504 sq ft) Offices

1 2,102 m2 (22,626 sq ft) Lobby

THE PINNACLE ( under construction)

The Pinnacle formerly called the Bishopsgate Tower is a 288 m skyscraper in the CITY of London

Construction started in September 2008 but has been on hold since March 2012 with only the concrete core of the first seven of the 64 stores built.

The Pinnacle was planned to become the second tallest building in the EU after he Shard ( 310 m)

The Economic Development Corporation of Saudi Arabia is part-funding the construction in return for a 90% stake in the structure.

However, work has stalled because of a lack of additional funding.

3. THE 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES

Aerial view of the Olympic Park in April 2012

The ArcelorMittal Orbit (designed by Anish Kapoor

and Cecil Balmond)

a 115-metre-high sculpture and observation tower in the Olympic Park in Stratford, London.

Britain's largest piece of public art

It is intended to be a permanent lasting legacy of London's hosting of the 2012 Summer Olympics 27/07-12/08 2012

Political centre

Popular centre

economic centre

Tourist centre

CONCLUSION • The city grew on a privileged geographical

location ( The thames) with 2 poles emerging during the Middle Ages :

Westminster became the political centre, and the City became the economic centre.

• London grew into a national capital over the centuries before turning into a global capital with 9 million inhabitants today.

• It combines all the political, economic, financial and cultural features of a global powerhouse in its different districts.

DOCUMENTSELEVES

FACTFILE : The 180-metre, forty-storey Swiss Re Tower, nicknamed the "gherkin", was designed by the world-famed architect Norman Poster and completed in 2004. It has been hailed as a triumph of design and engineering: the tower embodies a highly progressive environmental strategy, as it maximises the amount of natural lighting and ventilation to significantly reduce the building's energy consumption. Its aesthetics break with the conventions of traditional box-like office buildings and are widely acclaimed by the public.

Norman Foster's "gherkin" dominates the skyline of London City.

WORD BOX A gherkin: un cornichonEngineering: l'ingénierie, la techniqueThe skyline: la ligne d'horizonA skyscraperA tapering steel curve: une courbe en acier effilée An aerodynamic shape To hail: saluer, acclamer To laud : célébrer, chanter les louanges An innovation / innovating Material / steel / glass Triangular and diamond- shapedglass panels Stunning: stupéfiant Unusual / astonishing Good taste * bad taste

Political centre

Popular centre

economic centre

Tourist centre