To be frank, I like the street scape of other european cities more, such as Paris or Brussels. However, there is one part in London where I always feel as if displaced in somewhere else in the continent: that's Covent Garden.

Covent Garden Piazza was London's first real square, built under the patronage of the Fourth Earl of Bedford. Architect Inigo Jones was commissioned in 1631 to produce plans for the square. I went there for the tickets for some ballet show yesterday and found the redeveloped Royal Opear House(1996-2000, by Jeremy Dixon, Edward Jones and Charles Broughton) a big success concerning the sensitive historical context it is located. The ticket office serves not only for the Opera House's sake, but as an urban connection too. I enjoyed such penetration of the space where I could see the open colonade of the Piazza on one side and the street on the other. The efforts made to make art like opera and ballet more accesible to the public phisically was worth a credit.

考文特花园皇家歌剧院的票房/门厅，亦是城市通道，行人自可从容穿行：看到â??花厅â??（floral hall）的经典门脸，推门而入，走过有人排队的门厅，看两眼当季的演出海报，拿两张介绍册页，走出转门，就是考文特花园广场日光活泼的柱廊了。这样的平面安排是否得益于其1996-2000的改造，待考。从1984年皇家节日剧院将底层门厅（foyer）开放为公共空间以来，此类举措在伦敦已不新鲜。泰特现代的底层涡轮大厅也是一个公共客厅。文化机构本不是庙堂，推广本是其公众使命之要，屋宇溶入城市步行道路系统，进而吸引人流，自是顺理成章的策略。我见到泰特现代的建筑师事务所（Herzog & de Meuron)最近的中国国家博物馆投标方案，亦有通贯南北的城市通道安排，是啊，国博有图腾的一面，也可以有近人的一面啊。可惜，他们这一回输了。