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Don’t put my name on a building, Mrs Worthington

1 Mar 10 | Re: Alternative sightseeing

On Vauxhall Bridge Road in London, on the right hand side as you walk from Victoria Station towards the Thames, you can see two box-like, red brick buildings that look to be blocks of flats, probably built in the 60s or 70s. What distinguishes them from other such buildings is the pair of placards that sit side by side and proclaim them, in austere, black block capitals, to be NOEL COWARD HOUSE and AUBREY BEARDSLEY HOUSE.

How incongruous that these functional properties should be called after two gentlemen noted for being bon viveurs and persons of taste, leading lights of scenes associated with decadence and refinement. There isn’t even a diaeresis on the e of NOEL. I would like to believe that this represents a judicious application of the developers’ waspish sense of the absurd, but I fear not. What Mr Coward and Mr Beardsley would have to say about it I do not know, but there must be a possibility, just a tiny one, that the word ‘ghastly’ might be involved at some point.

No photo yet - I will take one next time I pass by.

Posted by TED TONKS at 13:38

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