Enjoy 140 London Wall / Bastion House while it is still there

Regular readers will know that I am rather fond of modernist and brutalist-influenced architecture, and in London you are never too far from a good example. Over the past year, I have spent quite a bit of time around the Barbican Estate, so it has provided a regular fix for someone who enjoys this particular style of architecture.

I have always liked 140 London Wall, better known as Bastion House. It is a building that can be easy to overlook, when compared with the obvious presence of the Barbican Estate beside it. Sadly, its days are numbered. Plans to demolish it - along with the former Museum of London next door - have been approved as part of the London Wall West redevelopment. Demolition is pencilled in to begin in 2028.

Bastion House was designed by the architectural partnership of Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, the same architects responsible for the Museum of London. Bastion House and the Museum of London were part of the same post-war vision for this part of the City. The two buildings were designed as an integrated development and constructed between 1971 and 1976, with Bastion House completed in 1976.

It is a real shame that 140 London Wall is due to disappear. The building has never been universally loved, of course, and it was not listed. Indeed, it had a Certificate of Immunity from listing, meaning that it is not intended to be listed during the period covered by the certificate.

Paying a visit several times, both on foot with Mrs Orange for a walk around the Barbican Estate and 140 London Wall, and solo on my Brompton, there were lots of people doing exactly the same thing: taking photographs from every possible angle while we still could.

A Barbican resident I chatted to whose flat will eventually look out onto the new development is worried that, after the works are complete the view will simply become a wall of windows. They will be sad to see Bastion go. I also spoke to a chap taking photos (with a particularly lovely camera) who, like me, remembers fondly visiting the Museum of London next door. Those conversations brought home the fact that buildings such as these are not simply objects of architectural interest. They become part of people's memories and everyday experience of the city.

The reasons given by the City of London Corporation for the redevelopment are understandable:

• The building is vacant. Bastion House was an office building and has been unused, while the relocation of the Museum of London created an opportunity to consider the future of the entire site.
• The City argues that Bastion House is unsuitable for modern office use. Its studies concluded that refurbishment would leave a compromised building, with significant structural and fire-safety challenges if it were extensively upgraded. The Corporation has also argued that the existing buildings cannot easily be adapted to provide the type and scale of accommodation required today.
• The redevelopment will provide considerably more space. The approved London Wall West scheme is intended to create new office, cultural, food-and-drink and public spaces, together with improved pedestrian routes. The City says the scheme will provide around 56,000 square metres of new office space and accommodate nearly 3,100 jobs, alongside significant improvements to the public realm.
• Finally, the City argues that rebuilding is more sustainable overall. Its whole-life-carbon assessment concluded that, when the additional floorspace and wider environmental and public benefits are taken into account, demolition and redevelopment produce the best overall sustainability outcome.

I do understand the argument for redevelopment. London has always changed...and it always will. There is also a strong case for making better use of valuable sites in the centre of the city. But once Bastion House is gone, we cannot get it back.

The Roman wall nearby will survive, as will the Barbican, but another layer of London's history will have disappeared. For me, that is precisely why 140 London Wall is worth saving. It is not ancient, and it is certainly not perfect. But it is part of the story of London.

Perhaps that is the problem with buildings from the second half of the twentieth century have to contend with. They are still too young for many people to regard them as heritage. Yet they are now old enough to have become part of the memories of our parents and grandparents and, increasingly, our own. For me, this is reason enough to pause before reaching for the bulldozer.

For now, all we can do is enjoy it while it is still there. Take a photograph or two. Walk around it. Look at it from the Barbican's highwalks, from London Wall and from the surrounding streets. Appreciate the concrete, the proportions and the way it sits alongside the Museum of London and the Barbican. Soon enough, those photographs may be all we have left.

Until next time, stay safe out there people.