It’s been a landmark on the Wandsworth Roundabout for 30 years, but the metal cradle’s days could be numbered.
Not very often do people lament the loss of advertising infrastructure, but the one at Wandsworth Roundabout has some special associations.
The circular structure had dominated the junction since 1995, a familiar landmark to anyone passing through the area south of Wandsworth Bridge.
Its design, like a mechanical sphere, could be a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange (1971), which used the underpasses beneath the roundabout as a filming location. (We’ve always thought it resembles Jodie Foster’s wormhole machine in Contact, but that’s neither here nor there.)
Now, the site’s leaseholders Wildstone Estates want to replace the structure with something more efficient. Plans submitted to Wandsworth Council show a peculiar, asymmetric tree-like structure, with four advertising screens up in the branches. The company describes its proposal as “a sculptural, nature-inspired landmark that enhances its surroundings”.
Replacing abstract hoops with something more organic and arboreal sounds like a very good move. It might work rather nicely. Yet from some angles, the proposed structure looks decidedly ungainly; some would say ugly.
Many locals agree. The proposal has now received 133 objections (see planning application), which are peppered with phrases like ‘waste of money’ and ‘eyesore’. And that’s with visuals in which the advertising screens are showing scenes of forestry, rather than giant corporate logos.
As well as aesthetic objections, some fear that the screens — slightly larger than the existing ones — will be a greater distraction for drivers.
Are we also losing something of historical worth? Even we’ll admit that would be a hard argument to sell, but with the recent loss of the similar advertising cradle at Old Street roundabout, there’s a danger we may entirely erase a category of 1990s architecture.
True, there are bigger planning battles out there and, at the end of the day, this is ‘just’ an advertising structure. Yet we can’t help thinking that this is an unwelcome erasure, especially when the replacement looks like a cudgeled wine rack.
You can scrutinise the planning documents for yourself over on Wandsworth’s planning site.
