Striking but useless... just like Boris

摘要

One of the first projects of Boris Johnson's tenure as Mayor of London was to build a new London bridge like the old one. Not the one that is there now, or the one that was sold to an American millionaire, but the one that was demolished centuries ago, where tall houses and shops were built along the entire length. Predictably it didn't happen, although the spectacular pointlessness of many Boris building projects hasn't always stood in the way of their realisation - viz the ArcelorMittal Orbit, or the "dangleway" from North Greenwich to the Royal Docks, both strangely similar in their childish bumptiousness and unpopular populism. Nonetheless, there is obviously an itch for an "iconic" bridge, before the mayor eventually departs to lead the Tory Party - hence the two proposals presented for different sites in the last month.