24 Sussex: A Parting Thought
(This blog resumes a discussion of 24 Sussex Drive begun here and continued here.)
What if, in spite of all the compelling counter-arguments, the demolitionists won the day? What would happen if we tore down 24 Sussex and replaced it with a shiny new modern residence?
Here’s what my crystal ball says:
- People will be scandalized by the cost when it becomes clear that demolishing a building and starting again from scratch is not, in fact, cheaper than fixing it. The fact that it’s grossly irresponsible to treat buildings like disposable products will sink in much more gradually.
- The new residence will be unfit for purpose, blighted by penny-pinching, and shabbily made. That’s because the procurement process will be infused by the same ethos of parsimony, mean spiritedness, and false economy that caused the original building’s demolition.
- The new building will be poorly maintained and sink into disrepair, because the idea that it’s scandalous to spend money to maintain the Prime Minister’s official residence will have been immovably entrenched.
- Within fifty to seventy-five years, another generation will be having the same argument that we’re having now about what to do with the decaying, rat-infested hovel that passes for the PM’s official residence. Calls to demolish it will be supported by the claim that the building isn’t really ‘historic’ – after all, it’s not even a century old, and it’s been altered since it was first built.
- A few who really care will look back and wonder how we in the first half of the twenty-first century could have gotten this so wrong.