As part of the lecture series ‘Critic’s Choice: London’s Most Important Building’, author Will Self has proposed the Stockwell Bus Garage designed by Adie, Button and Partners, with the engineer A E Beer for its revolutionary, beautiful and highly utilitarian form. When constructed in 1952 it was the largest area enclosed by a single roof in Europe. The whale-backed roof made of reinforced concrete, shows how shortages - in this case of steel - can produce aesthetic as well as functional solutions. Having passed it everyday he has appreciated it as ‘a working building, integrally connected to London’s public transport’.
