‘Who said it: Nairn or Guardian Readers?’ was one of the more bizarre ways in which the 50th anniversary of Ian Nairn’s London was celebrated last month: whether this was intended to demonstrate the distinctiveness of Nairn’s style or the discerning architectural eye of the average Guardian reader remains unclear. Each of Nairn's entries was included on account of being publically accessible but in the introduction he warned this number was shrinking due to a 'third burning of London at the hands of developers’ greed and planners’ inadequacy'. A modern visit to London's original entries reveals that fire is yet to be put out.
A detached stroll around London with the spectre of Nairn at your shoulder - ‘what follows is a record of what has moved me, my hope is that is moves you, too’ - can all seem rather sentimental set against the likes of experimental geographer Bradley Garrett’s 2013 Explore Everything, in which ‘place hacking’ is presented a means of actively reclaiming the modern city. The growing trend for POPS (Privately Owned Public Spaces) in London (a theme of another Guardian quiz) is by no means a recent phenomenon. Last year Ian Martin described London as the city that would ‘privatise itself to death’, and high-profile projects like the Garden Bridge (itself under fire for a decidedly dodgy procurement process) are again bringing POPS into the public eye.
