Restoration

We do not subscribe to the view that all dilapidated historic buildings deserve to be restored. Often a modern replacement would be preferable. But when a building of exceptional aesthetic merit is saved from ruin and restored to its former glories, as in the case of Nicholas Hawksmoor's baroque masterpiece, Christ Church Spitalfields, in east London, we are happy to laud the achievement.

We do not subscribe to the view that all dilapidated historic buildings deserve to be restored. Often a modern replacement would be preferable. But when a building of exceptional aesthetic merit is saved from ruin and restored to its former glories, as in the case of Nicholas Hawksmoor's baroque masterpiece, Christ Church Spitalfields, in east London, we are happy to laud the achievement.

Hawksmoor, one of Christopher Wren's most talented disciples, had a command of architectural form that was the equal of his great continental contemporaries. How fitting that, at a time when London is thriving, one of its great edifices from a former self-confident era should be resurrected.