0:00:02 > 0:00:06BBCFour Collections - archive programmes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09For this collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected
0:00:09 > 0:00:12programmes about Post-War Architecture.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections,
0:00:15 > 0:00:17are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:00:44 > 0:00:45The old joke goes -
0:00:46 > 0:00:50"I say, I say, I say, at what address does a policeman live?"
0:00:50 > 0:00:54And the answer is, he lives at Letsby Avenue.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57But - I say, I say, I say,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00where does a City of London policeman live?
0:01:00 > 0:01:05And the answer is - he lives in a neoclassical Italian palazzo.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15You get a better class of criminal round here.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18It's big stuff. It's fraud. It's international.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24It's not blags plotted out in The Dog and Duck.
0:01:24 > 0:01:30It's scams worked out over a glass of Chardonnay in wine bars.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32It's big stuff.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33DOOR CREAKS
0:01:37 > 0:01:39It's bigger in every way.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46If this were Venice, you'd moor your gondola here.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Ciao! Ciao!
0:01:59 > 0:02:02When I first walked round this building, I thought,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04"This is really a joke.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07"This is a police station that looks like an Italian palace."
0:02:07 > 0:02:10And then I later found out that that's precisely what McMorran
0:02:10 > 0:02:14intended, and apparently he laughed while he was designing it.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19He's designed a police station which looks like an Italian palace,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23and you can see that there are sort of echoes of the classical tradition.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26The lower floors, which were where the lesser orders and the stores
0:02:26 > 0:02:29would have been, are quite small.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32And then you look up and you see the big, grand windows
0:02:32 > 0:02:35which is like, in an Italian palace, would be the "piano nobile".
0:02:37 > 0:02:42There's the granite skirting, then there's Doric stonework.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45All the details on this building are really beautiful,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47they're very simple.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49And they're all in the stonework.
0:02:49 > 0:02:54I like this door because I like the beading round it.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58It's just very plain and well cut,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01and the door itself is very robust,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04and also very beautifully designed.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08And round the corner there's a bit that looks like a dovecot,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11which is actually part of the ventilation system.
0:03:15 > 0:03:16It's a very simple,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19restrained and elegant building.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21It's got an air of permanence.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25It's got a lot of class. It's got breeding.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27It looks like the house of an aristocrat,
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and at the very least it should be the headquarters of an Italian bank.
0:03:31 > 0:03:32But it's not.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18BURST OF TALK ON POLICE RADIO
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Oh! A museum!
0:04:37 > 0:04:39Skeleton keys...old uniforms...
0:04:39 > 0:04:41and whistles.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48And a mustard bomb in a mustard tin -
0:04:48 > 0:04:50a-BOMB-inable!
0:05:21 > 0:05:24This horse is Polish.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28And I think he's been introduced to Lech Walesa.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31His name's Nobby.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35The only word I know in Polish is "cabbage".
0:05:35 > 0:05:38Kapuska! Kapuska!
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Kapuska! Kapuska!
0:05:43 > 0:05:48When this was first built, people were really condescending about it.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52It wasn't modern enough, it's not a glass box.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55That was the hour of the tower block and everybody believed in them,
0:05:55 > 0:05:56like a religion.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00And everywhere, there were enormous erections going up.
0:06:00 > 0:06:06McMorran did give us a tower block, but a very little one.
0:06:06 > 0:06:08"Mine's bigger than yours!"
0:06:14 > 0:06:17From this facade,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19the tower looks like a bell tower,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and in fact you'd expect to see some bells up in those niches,
0:06:23 > 0:06:26but it's not a bell tower, it's a high-rise.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30And similarly, these chimneys aren't really chimneys,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34they're part of the ventilation system.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36There are other things in this building
0:06:36 > 0:06:38which aren't quite what they seem.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Apparently, there are squash courts in the basement
0:06:41 > 0:06:45whose walls fold down and become a sort of emergency centre.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08This is Fraud Squad.
0:07:18 > 0:07:19Cor!
0:07:19 > 0:07:22This is the holiest of holies!
0:07:22 > 0:07:26You wouldn't expect to find all this technology
0:07:26 > 0:07:29inside an Italian palace.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31You'd expect them to be watching The Borgias,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33and listening to Monteverdi,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36and chucking pheasant bones over their shoulders.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46MAN: Like every other surface, the lights collect dust,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48which gives a cleaning problem.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52And it's much finer particles, so that gives you a problem, as well.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55It's not a dust you can dust off, it's got to be cleaned off.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00You've got all that surface area on those globes.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04I think the difficulty is that you've got to get up there
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and change those bulbs when they go, and that's a practical problem..
0:08:07 > 0:08:10MAN 2: Yeah, that is a maintenance problem that we have.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14It's an ideal surface
0:08:14 > 0:08:16for dances, or whatever.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Wood Street makes the surrounding buildings
0:08:27 > 0:08:31look rather...rather flashy, rather parvenu.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34Apart from their sheer size,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38they're covered in a plethora of different materials.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42It's rather like comparing a Jean Muir suit,
0:08:42 > 0:08:47which is all cut and hang and timeless elegance,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50with a high-fashion Christian Lacroix,
0:08:50 > 0:08:54they've got gold buttons on, and bits of braid and lots of pockets.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58It's a very posh cop shop!