29 OCTOBER 1994, Page 25

Porter's belief in London's decline is full of irony. The

supposed collapse from Six- ties 'innocence' into Nineties cynicism and decay could have been traced at any point in history. He deplores the 'veneer of modernity on an ageing superstructure'. He should have been alive in Pepys's London or Nash's, or during the battles to build Shaftesbury Avenue or Kingsway, or to save Hampstead Heath. He derides Mrs Thatcher's `barrow-boy capitalists' and for- eign investors. Who does he think built Lombard Street? As for bankrupt property speculators, they are as Cockney as Pearly Kings and Queens.