Buildings & Beauty

Clarendon Drive in Putney, London (where my London colleagues had organised my home away home) seemed to be a posh locality. Beautiful houses stood in neat rows, on both sides of the almost empty roads. After reaching there suddenly I realised why the ‘videshis’ and our very ‘phoren returned’ talk about dirt and filth in India. The roads were absolutely clean, stretching from end to end between two houses on both sides. One does not get to see any cracked road, ‘broken at the edge’ road or ‘with pot holes’ road.

The mostly brick colour houses at the first glance look perfectly uniform; creating a synchronised rhythm of visuals. But two days after my stay, a visit to central London and exposure to lot more beautiful structures, a closer look at each building revealed to me that almost all houses were different in their design. But the designs are so ‘in sync’ with the others in material, colour, design and size that they create an illusion of uniformity though they are quite diverse in forms and designs.

It was amazing, not able to find a discordant note among buildings in any residential area or any market place. While driving down to Clarendon Drive, Putney from Twickenham my friend Ravi informed about the town planning department of London. If anybody wants to build or renovate a house in any locality, then you need to get permission from the department. The department not only scrutinizes the plan, but also checks the design according to the approved plan of that locality and prescribes the material, colour, built and height of the house. And you can not deviate from that.

Is there any penalty involved for violation? I really do not know. But the Londoners I found are quite proud of the beautiful and harmonised look of their city and fiercely guard against spoiling that look. The big and high rise building are not quite appreciated and Caroline, my host in fact commented that they look ugly.

Being the spouse of a structural engineer I have over the period developed an eye for buildings and London was a treat to my eyes. I am sure those who are from that very field must be finding it even more delightful. It’s fascinating to see very well maintained old buildings standing elegant and absolutely at ease with the new ones. And in fact the new ones in some localities could be around 60 to 70 years old!

To understand this beauty of London, it’s enough to step out of it and go to a nearby place. My observation comes from the visit to Birmingham and Brighton. Any city in my country will be able to provide a contrast to this, but to me the classic contrast is Kolkata – the city of joy!