I wonder what in 100 years from now it will be, London. The city that privatised itself to death. Abandoned to nature, maybe, the whole place a massive, feral version of that mimsy garden bridge over the Thames currently being planned by the giggling classes. Poor London, the ancient and forgotten metropolis, crumbling slowly into an enchanted urban forest.<\/p>\n
Imagine. In 2115, all the lab-conjured animals in Regent\u2019s Park Jurassic Zoo are free to roam, reliving their evolution. A diplodocus there, grazing in the jungled Mall. Look, a stegosaurus asleep in the ruins of Buckingham Palace. High above the forest canopy, a lone archaeopteryx soars, where once hundreds of drones glided through YouTubed firework displays.<\/p>\n
Perhaps eminent historians will study London in the early 21st century, see how its poorer inhabitants were driven out, observe how its built environment was slowly boiled to death by privatisation. And they will wonder why people tolerated this transfer of collective wealth from taxpayers to shareholders. And they will perhaps turn their attention to Eduardo Paolozzi\u2019s fabled mosaics at Tottenham Court Road underground station.<\/p>\n
ack in 2015, a debate has bubbled briefly, after some of these lovely,\u00a0publicly owned mosaic murals were quietly dismantled<\/a>\u00a0as part of the station\u2019s thorough \u00a3400m Crossrail seeing-to. I say \u201cdebate\u201d; it was really only that polarised quackbait thing we have now: Click If You Think The Mosaics Are Great, We Should Save What\u2019s Left Of Them v Smash Them Up They\u2019re Ugly, Anyway Who Cares It\u2019s Just Patterns On A Wall.<\/p>\n