At last London City Hall plans to clamp down on "Farhi" signs. It's about time. I've been wondering for months why it was necessary for a big-time downtown landlord to let us know just how much of the city centre he owns by way of giant banners on all his properties. Sure Mr. Farhi has the right to advertise. It's just that a) many Londoners already suspect he owns nearly everything, b) he could use a little more subtlety, and c) his signs don't exactly add to the charisma of heritage buildings like Wright Lithographing. Interestingly, the banners contravene a city bylaw, but politicians have preferred looking the other way to taking on someone as apparently big and daunting as Mr. F. Trouble is, every way you look downtown there's a Farhi sign and they're getting harder to disregard.
How can London expect to protect heritage if it can't even protect an assault of advertising signs against its citizens? Put another way: if there aren't sufficient laws to protect against visual pollution, how can we expect anything sensible to come from any discussion at City Hall about preservation.
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