Spitalfields Life

The idea of finding "lost" plants immediately reminded me of this story on the stupendously compendious "Spitalfields Life" daily blog by the notionally anonymous "Gentle Author", whom details the past and present of a specific part of East London.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/05/11/wild-city/ - "A Lost Botanic World In Aldgate"

"Last year, I joined a group of intrepid plant hunters descending into the depths of the last remaining bomb site in the City of London. We climbed all the way down into the hole until we reached the level of the platforms of what was formerly part of Aldgate East Station, until a V2 bomb dropped nearby in the Second World War.

Consequently, the plant life that flourished in this rare haven of nature remained untouched in all these years because the proximity of the tube line precluded any redevelopment until now, and so the project was to record this lost world of botanic richness at the eleventh hour. The plant species collected included many that were once commonplace throughout the City and the East End yet which no longer thrive here."

Of course in this case the plants are not "lost" per se, but the population is a snapshot of a lost _ecosystem_, left untouched more or less, telling you something about how London used to look (and smell).

The writer of this is the pseudonymous Gentle Author, who writes the Spitalfields Life blog:

http://spitalfieldslife.com/

He's definitely more concerned with preserving the old ways from being abused than he is with protecting the new ways for me and for you.

My favourite bit of facadism in London is the Lloyd's building. In 1928 Lloyd's of London built a big wedding cake sort of thing for their headquarters:

http://archiseek.com/2013/lloyds-leadenhall-st-london/

Then in 1978 smashed it down and built a giant oil rig, thus summoning Margaret Thatcher to our dimension:

https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/lloyds-of-london/

But the wedding cake had a nice bit on the front, so they kept that:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/maggiejones/5738790055

If you walk along Leadenhall Street from the west, on the south side, you're walking past a number of fairly low-rise buildings of various ages, and you don't really see the modern bit. Until you walk past the Lloyd's facade, and look through the front door, and instead of there being an atrium, receptionist, etc, there's a yard with an oil rig in it.