Any other business – New Year ideas: put directors in the stocks and knock down Battersea power station

About ten years ago, over a good lunch, I had a debate with the late Giles Worsley about Battersea power station. The distinguished architectural writer said Battersea was an industrial icon that should certainly be conserved but — like its sister station turned gallery at Bankside — found a new purpose. If an industrial icon had ceased to serve the very specific purpose for which it was built, I countered, there’s no need to strive at enormous cost to save its impotent hulk, especially if we’ve kept another just like it a mile or so downriver. Assuming it’s physically possible to knock the brute down, why not create a new, fit-for-21st-century-purpose landmark in place of the old one?

I’m not sure who’s winning this argument so far, but the news is that London’s great pink elephant has just seen off the latest in a line of developers and is for sale again.