Views of London: pick one

In 1984 the then Prince Charles called a proposed modern-style extension to the National Gallery ‘a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.’

Here’s a view of the London skyline today:

Here’s how it might look without so much award-winning work by trendy architects:

Which looks better?

In 1802 William Wordsworth stood on Westminster Bridge and thought ‘Earth has not any thing to show more fair.’ A contemporary painting by William Daniell gives us a notion of what the poet saw:

Granted, the population of the City of London, urban Middlesex, and Southwark was then only about 1.1 million; about triple that, now.

But couldn’t development be more harmonious?

After the Nazis destroyed 85 per cent of Warsaw ‘with the intention of obliterating the centuries-old tradition of Polish statehood’, the Poles rebuilt the Old Town ‘in its historic urban and architectural form’ to assert their unconquered spirit.

Why is our own country delivered over to vandals, not merely in architecture but in politics? Is there some malevolent Principle at work?