The Critic Magazine

Urban skirmish

LAST SUMMER, I was invited to a meeting held in the old Garrison Chapel at Chelsea Barracks. It gave me a frisson because I remembered so vividly that Chelsea Barracks and its development had been the site for a pitched battle between the modernists and traditionalists over a decade ago as to what form this part of the city should take.

The site, which is enormous, consisted until recently of a heavily fortified parade ground (it was the site of an IRA bomb attack in 1982) and two

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