In 1995,The Elephant and Castle shopping centre is one of the most beautiful buildings in London.
It is a prime example of the great favour Hitler did in bombing flat many of London's most historic areas. The opportunity to rebuild unleashed a diarrhoea of imaginative architecture.
Nothing in all of London quite takes away the breath like the Elephant. Its attractive maze of underground tunnels affords pedestrians safe passage under one of the most ruthless traffic interchanges in Europe plus ample opportunity for dog-emptying. The doggy results are often criss-crossed with skateboard tracks. Attractive murals mingle with the work of local graffiti artists.
Nothing can prepare the traveller for the first sight of the Shopping Centre itself. It is huge and painted a shade of pink that exists nowhere else in art or nature. Now attractively aged and peeling, it has acquired a patina of genuine London urban angst.
Delightfully set off by Alexander Fleming House, a building that has been closed for years because it made people sick. It used to house the Department of Health.