The Sunday Times had a story yesterday about London Mayor Ken Livingstone wanting to build up to six what they call ‘landmark sculptures’ to mark the boundaries of Greater London. He’s set up a project that includes some leading architects such as Lord Rogers to look at what could be built to indicate to travellers that they are now in the London area.
When I’m driving I always consider I’m in Greater London once I’ve crossed the M25, the motorway that circles the city at a radius of around 15 miles. There are areas inside the M25 that are not part of any London borough but that’s the most obvious physical barrier you pass to show you’ve crossed from the Green Belt and more countryside style regions into what can be considered London.
The story says they’re looking at putting these sculptures or monuments along some of the major traffic routes into the capital such as the M1, M4, M11 and M40 motorways, but its probably obvious to drivers they’re in London because their speed will have dropped from 80mph down to around 30, the roads will be jammed and they’ll see speed cameras everywhere.
It’ll be interesting to see what they actually come up with to mark London’s boundary. I’m sure if it was solely down to Ken Livingstone he’d have 100ft statues of Karl Marx, Stalin, Chairman Mao, Castro, Hugo Chavez and himself. I’d start with one of Arsene Wenger at the point where the A1 crosses the M25, not too far from Arsenal’s training ground and another with Ken Livingstone depicted as Fagin picking the pockets of ordinary Londoners.
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