The Xtra Diary - Cutting short the height of sophistication

Published: 20 January, 2011

GAZE to your left next time you are on a bus trundling down Whitehall and you will see, looming behind the London Eye, what looks like some gigantic chimney from the pages of a steampunk fantasy novel. 

It is the “trunk” of The Shard a building that, when completed next year, will be inescapable. 

Critics have derided it as a monstrosity, the crowning obscenity of a laissez approach to tall buildings.

Diary does not lack sympathy for this perspective but wonders what these naysayers would have made of the imposing London Underground headquarters near to St James’s Park when that building was unveiled in 1929.

Back then this was London’s tallest building after landmarks like Big Ben

Now its importance has been recognised with an award of Grade I listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

“When this building opened it would have represented the height of sophistication and a move towards the development of modernism,” the minister responsible, John Penrose, said. “The building is also a showcase of pre-Second World War British sculpture with all the major names of the period on show, including Henry Moore’s first public commission and what may be his only work to show the human figure in motion.”

It was not the building’s height that caused controversy so much as the two sculptures of nudes by Jacob Epstein adorning the façade, which sparked debate about public morality. 

Perhaps swayed by the furore, Epstein apparently reduced the size of the penis on one of his sculptures by two inches. More recently erected skyscrapers like the Gherkin have been dismissed as phallic, so perhaps today’s critics of tall buildings would have been at one with their forerunners.

Exercise in conspiracy theories

WAS there a gunman in Oxford Street this week? 

Was it a hoax? 

Or perhaps just an innocent mix up?

On Wednesday the West End Extra received reports, via a colleague who had seen something on Twitter, of an armed man roaming London’s flagship shopping street.

A reporter was dispatched but found nothing untoward. 

Later that day this email was sent to Diary by the police: “We can confirm that there has been no firearms incident in Oxford Street today. 

“It would appear that some information about a routine police training exercise being held today has inadvertently got into the public domain. 

“As part of that exercise, participants have been given a hypothetical written scenario which involved an armed incident on Oxford Street. 

“We would like to reaffirm that this is a training exercise only.”

Conspiracy theorists do your worst.

Theatreland was made for you and me

There was a standing ovation at the Arts Theatre following Tuesday night’s performance of Woody Sez, the new musical celebrating the life of American legend Woody Guthrie. 

There has been concern over this venue’s future in recent months after producers pulled the plug on a Christmas pantomime following a dispute between the theatre’s then tenants and the landlord Consolidated St Giles LLP.

Following a refurbishment the venue has recently reopened. 

There have been some teething problems – theatregoers report difficulties with the website, while critics complained about long queues for the toilets on press night.

However Woody Sez looks set to be the biggest hit at the Great Newport Street playhouse for some time.

The phone was ringing off the hook in the theatre’s box office when Diary visited the venue on Wednesday. 

For tickets call 020 7907 7092 or visit www.artstheatrewestend.com