Thatcher's support

I can only answer yes, but not in a way that a lover of state control would recognise. I myself have experienced two examples of her support for architecture.

The first was her espousal of the Architectural Association School of Architecture. In the mid-1970s I was a member of Council when Shirley Williams was secretary of state for education in Callaghan’s government. She famously resisted the private sector in education and fewer and fewer British students were able to study at the AA, our oldest and only independent school of architecture. Mandatory grants were awarded to British students to study architecture at all the other British schools of architecture, but were not available for study at the AA. During these years the chairman of the school, Alvin Boyarsky, prepared numerous surveys and relative costings to show that in fact the real cost of studying at the AA was considerably lower than at any other comparable school of architecture in the country, all of which were entirely state-funded departments of a university or else a polytechnic. A situation of appeal to a free-marketeer like Margaret Thatcher, one might think.

Within two years of Mrs Thatcher becoming prime minister she had restored mandatory grant status to the AA, thus overturning the previous state monopoly on higher education. Once again it was possible for British students to get a grant to study at the AA.

The second time I encountered Margaret Thatcher was when she came to open the Business Design Centre in Islington in 1986. I was responsible for the listed building aspects of the regeneration of the grade II listed building, which was being transformed by one of Mrs Thatcher’s constituents, Finchley businessman Sam Morris. There were countless obstacles to overcome, but from the outset Margaret Thatcher lent her support. When finally she was invited to open the building, she joked with the crowd and then delivered one of the most impressive speeches I have ever heard from a politician — on the importance of design to the future of this country.

These are just two examples of Mrs Thatcher’s contribution to architecture; I am sure countless others could be recounted. These were not grandstanding gestures but help to those who were prepared to help themselves. They were good examples of how she really did change the climate of enterprise, and of how new architecture and its patronage became possible.

John Melvin
Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire