The City of London’s decision on 22 April to destroy the heart of its Fleet Street conservation area was the most brazen defiance of conservation law. The demolition will extend not just to one building but over an entire block between Fleet Street and Salisbury Square. Among other buildings it includes a handsome neo-baroque bank, the historic Chronicle newspaper building, a Victorian pub and the restored Georgian mansion of No. 1 Salisbury Square. The conservation area was redefined as recently as 2007. Chronicle House, 71–78 Fleet Street, built in 1924. Photo: Poster House The buildings along Fleet Street form an integral link, in the nearest London has to a processional way, between the Cities of London and Westminster. To Marcus Binney of SAVE Britain’s Heritage – which is currently petitioning against the decision – it is one of the most historic thoroughfares in London, ‘its lively commercial architecture remarkably unchanged since the Second World War’.