Happy London Christmas

12.45 on Christmas day in Portland Place, London. What more beautiful a city to spend Christmas in than this. The pale Portland stone of buildings which range from the 1890's to the 1960's looked beautiful in the low winter sun. Along this stretch there is quite a variety of styles, but a consistant facing material as well as the uniform height and set-back from the pavement edge is enough.
Design guides are ofter too prescriptive. The variety of design and detail is a joy here and not a hotch-potch. But of course Portland Place has always ensured the developer (of any era) a good return so they could afford to deliver quality. Perhaps that is the secret of it's success.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]