New Museum Of London Foundation Stone Humiliation For Lord Mayor Nick Lyons

A number of minor media outlets – such as Ian Visits – covered the laying of a foundation stone for the new Museum of London yesterday. What we haven’t seen mentioned is that this was a deep humiliation for Nicholas Lyons, the Lord Mayor. As shown here he’s participating in a photograph documenting the laying of a foundation stone bearing the name of Christopher Hayward, the Policy Chair of the City of London council. The fact that Lyons’ name isn’t on the stone shows how emasculated the role of Lord Mayor – nominally the head of the City council – has become in recent decades. In 50 years’ time, though, no-one will know or care who either of them were… like all foundation stones, this one is a monument to human vanity.

Of more concern to many than the local authority power struggle between Hayward and Lyons is the fate of the old Museum of London building. As we’ve made clear in previous posts, the City of London council are pushing ahead with plans to demolish the complex and overdevelop the site by building two massive office blocks on it. The plan for demolition – if it goes ahead – will be a disaster from both a heritage and a climate emergency perspective. The huge office blocks, if built, will also cause a huge loss of light to many flats immediately to the north of the site. For more on the campaign to save London Wall West see this post.