This is the parliament building in Wellington, New Zealand, designed by Sir Basil Spence in the 1960s; one of his better efforts. I don’t have to look far to see one of his less successful civic buildings, Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall on Phillimore Walk.
Pevsner describes it as “ a great red whale of a building”. I think he’s being kind but maybe whales weren’t so fashionable when he was writing The Buildings of England.
Directly south of Spence’s almost windowless brick slabs is the Kensington Central Library by E Vincent Harris, opened by the Queen Mother in 1960. It is also brick but is “a safe classical composition in the ponderous Kensington tradition established in the earlier C20 … handsome traditional details” (Pevsner, again).
It reminds me of work by Lutyens and that’s no bad thing. However, Harris designed another library which is more impressive.
The Reading Room is under the dome and flooded with natural light from a lantern window. I never did go to Manchester last year for the Manchester & London Investment Trust AGM but it is a city I’d like to explore.
HH is no particular fan of modernist architecture, but at least the Kiwi’s Beehive is ordered. Spence’s efforts at Coventry Cathedral (for which he was Knighted) leave me wanting; there is too much going on without any obvious coherent theme (apart from numerous juxtaposed angles) . This also appears to be the case with Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall, with which I am (happily) unfamiliar.