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Books

The social cleansing of London — and other capital crimes

Rowan Moore deplores the investment-only monoculture reflected in the city’s new building boom, but doesn’t know what to do about it

19 March 2016

9:00 AM

19 March 2016

9:00 AM

Slow Burn City: London in the Twenty-First Century Rowan Moore

Picador, pp.488, £20, ISBN: 9781447270188

You have to get nearly halfway through this book before it starts to show some life. Until that point, as Rowan Moore ambles in his wry manner through pages of familiar description of the capital’s built and social history, you find yourself wondering what it is all for. After all, if you choose to write a book about the architecture of London you are putting yourself in some pretty distinguished company.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £17. Tel: 08430 600033. Hugh Pearman edits the RIBA Journal and has written several books on architecture.

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