18 APRIL 1992, Page 25

Bombed out

I AM SAD at the destruction of the Baltic Exchange. An opulent mercantile cathedral built of purple marble, it seemed to reflect the Greek Orthodox taste of its ship-own- ing clients. Potato futures were celebrated in the south transept. The Baltic was a monument — and too few remain — of the Edwardian City. I could sooner have spared many more recent buildings, and their own- ers, given the state of the property market, could spare them too.