I used to go there often in the closing years of the GLC and the best thing about it - apart from the riotously heated and often hilarious debates that took place there - were the glass tanks of Thames river fish in the foyer, put there to prove how clean the river had become under the enlightened GLC. These have now vanished, though perhaps the aquarium is some compensation. Finding anyone in County Hall was always a nightmare. The GLC used to have a chief architect/planner who kept two offices at opposite ends of the building - one for architecture, one for planning. You would never find him in either. It was the classic, Kafka-esque, bureaucrat's palace: overbearing, self-important, designed to exalt politicians and make the humble citizen feel very small indeed.

So you could argue that not everything about it since the GLC quit has been for the worst: that all the fast-food outlets and tourist destinations are a kind of democracy in action. Well, it doesn't feel like that. For a start, you have to pay to use them. And much of the complex is private offices and private apartments behind ruched curtains, less accessible than ever to the public. Here's what it's all about. County Hall's best feature is the triumphal entrance from Westminster Bridge Road, leading through an original, awe-inspiring Cyclopean arched walkway to a mysterious internal courtyard where you find, at the top of a forbiddingly tall flight of steps - a Marriot Hotel. I'm sure it's a great place to stay. But like everything else in the building today, it's just a bit of a let-down.