Tales of the riverbanks
Originally published in NLQ - New London Quarterly Issue 56
River banks have been anchors for the creation of cities for as long as humans started to choose places to settle. I can imagine the Romans sailing up the river Thames and finding the ideal place to go ashore and start the city we recognise today. The Thames has been the gateway to produce, culture, and talent from all parts of the world. It inspired the likes of Turner and Monet to leave their impressions on famous canvases.
I have been an SE1 resident for most of my time since I arrived in 2010, and the Thames Bank, especially the stretch between Lambeth Bridge and Chelsea Bridge, has been my space of reflection, meditation, distraction, or simply a place where to enjoy an amplitude within the confines of a dense city. It reminds me of my homeland, Valencia, only that the Turia River was diverted around the south of the city following the big flood of 1957, and its original river bed turned into a park during the 1980s.
I remember my evening runs along the empty sidewalks along the river during the first lockdown in Covid times. I had just started Moll Architects, my own business, a couple of months before – who knew? - Those moments of solitude helped me find the headspace and resilience to keep working despite the uncertainty of those times, and it still is the place I recur to when I need time for myself to think or to train for the next triathlon race I signed up.
The cityscape along this stretch of the Thames has changed drastically in the last few years. Towers have sprouted in Vauxhall, and a new neighbourhood has been developed around the American Embassy in Nine Elms. The first Foster + Partners Christmas party I attended during my period in the office happened in a tent in the middle of a derelict Battersea Power Station. Fast forward thirteen years, the area is buzzing with people eating at restaurant terraces, shopping, visiting art galleries, and walking around the fountains and gardens.
But London is failing to develop in a cross-demographic way at all levels. The late Richard Rogers wanted it to be a place for all people. I agree with him. Recent growth is directed to the World's wealthiest. All these new areas are unaffordable for most, and they have been designed and built by the same old players that keep doing the same mediocre designs everywhere. That is boring and lacks character. We can do a lot better. Opportunities need to be given to the new generations of architects and designers with fresh ideas to shape the city's future. Change is happening at an incredible speed around us. Why are we still building with the same ideas from a century ago? We are aware that things need to change and I remain optimistic because my London is intelligent.
