Ill met by tomblight

We went to a lot of trouble in the UK after the war to sweep away the old Britain and replace it

with the modern designs of the new generation of wunderkind architects who apparently knew

what was best for our towns and city-centres. Except that, for the most part, they weren't

very wunderkind at all, and built dull concrete accretions that passed for modern housing and

grim commercial centres that most of us wanted the Luftwaffe have another go at. Whilst we

were busy losing our Empire, it seemed a good idea at the same time to update the old

country itself, in the name of progress. Lucky those communities that escaped first the bombs

then the bulldozers of post-war reconstruction, thereby in with a chance of saving their priceless

heritage.

Betjeman railed against the loss of the nation's heartbeat to the philistine developer, but he

failed, ultimately, to halt the decline. Even today, we are still losing our quality of life to an

unspecified 'better' future with so-called 'improvement' programmes (like HS2!). Which is why

living in East Anglia is such a delight - no motorways, no rampant development, few signs of

industry, never a traffic jam that lasts longer than a Mars Bar... Coming from a rich past, the

area is stuffed with tudor houses, timber framed cottages, ancient churches with hammerbeam

roofs, and the sort of relaxed laissez-faire take on life that allows a churchyard to become

overgrown, a country lane to have wrong directions, a pub to still have its original settles around

the open fire and beer from the taproom.

We went to a lot of trouble in the UK after the war to sweep away the old Britain and replace it

with the modern designs of the new generation of wunderkind architects who apparently knew

what was best for our towns and city-centres. Except that, for the most part, they weren't very

wunderkind at all, and built dull concrete accretions that passed for modern housing and grim

commercial centres that most of us wanted the Luftwaffe have another go at. Whilst we were

busy losing our Empire, it seemed a good idea at the same time to update the old country itself,

in the name of progress. Lucky those communities that escaped first the bombs then the

bulldozers of post-war reconstruction, thereby in with a chance of saving their priceless heritage.

Betjeman railed against the loss of the nation's heartbeat to the philistine developer, but he failed,

ultimately, to halt the decline. Even today, we are still losing our quality of life to an unspecified

'better' future with so-called 'improvement' programmes (like HS2!). Which is why living in East

Anglia is such a delight - no motorways, no rampant development, few signs of industry, never a

traffic jam that lasts longer than a Mars Bar... Coming from a rich past, the area is stuffed with

tudor houses, timber framed cottages, ancient churches with hammerbeam roofs, and the sort of

relaxed laissez-faire take on life that allows a churchyard to become overgrown, a country lane to

have wrong directions, a pub to still have its original settles around the open fire and beer from

the taproom.