Not £4.50

Sir Stuart Lipton at POST PRESS (Matthew Blunderfield)

POST PRESS kicked off last Wednesday with Richard Hall and Emma Rutherford of General Office interviewing the 83-year old titan of the London property wold, Sir Stuart Lipton. Richard and Emma had produced a map for the occasion detailing the extraordinary extent of Sir Stuart’s influence on the development of London.

Map of Sir Stuart Lipton’s projects in central London by General Office

Speaking to an audience that included such former collaborators as Eric Parry, Alan Stanton and Paul Williams, Sir Stuart recalled his early career as an estate agent, the crucial role that Richard Rogers and Peter Foggo had played in his architectural education, his battles with the then Prince of Wales over the redevelopment of Paternoster Square and his abiding concern with the creation of public space. He spoke too about his hopes for London’s future and, in particular, the imminent pedestrianisation of Oxford Street. Here, we share some of his thoughts about the project’s potential, edited for clarity:

Don’t put buses in the adjoining streets. Most of the buses are empty. Why don’t we put driverless buses in Oxford Street? They’re very small, like a big car. If you walk in front of them, they stop dead. So there’s not a safety problem: people could walk up and down. That would be an easy move: much more civilised and wouldn’t take much space.

Secondly - forgive the vulgarity - if you want to pee in Oxford Street, do you know where to go? I’ve got a secret map. John Lewis is quite good. Selfridges is not bad. But in the alleys off Oxford Street, mothers take their children to pee. So I’d start with where are the toilets going?

Where’s the public space going? I’d destroy some terraces. Opposite Selfridges is a Victorian terrace of no merit. Tear it down and build an elegant tower, which gives you an open space. I’d start looking for open spaces so the street returned to its civic dream. I’d like to think of a space where there was a concert. I’ve been trying to tease the City that when the Barbican closes for its refurbishment, could the LSO perform at the Bank Junction in Guildhall Yard? They’d be amazing, and I’m sure corporates would pay. So where in Oxford Street would the music be?

And where could you get a coffee for a pound? Not £4.50. Okay, you’d have to have a pass as a resident, but, in one of my ventures, the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham, you can get a cappuccino for a pound. Personally, I’m not on the drug - happy with a straight espresso from a capsule for 30p - but the social side of it is important. Where is it that we can talk to each other?

And I’m sure Oxford `Street could have some trees: big trees, not 3-metre whips, which is standard Westminster product, but maybe 10-metre trees.

Where’s an art gallery? Where are there other civic activities? What could be fun? I had a very pleasurable trip to Japan a few weeks ago, where many of these values are still retained. I went to two airports and there were children’s play areas in the lounges. You go to a shop in Oxford Street, wouldn’t it be great to have a crèche? It’d be great to have an area where kids were looked after properly.

Richard Hall, Emma Rutherford and Sir Stuart Lipton (Matthew Blunderfield)