Gabion: What's wrong with the new Trafalgar Square: it's changed shape. 1/3

Text and photos © Hugh Pearman. First published in Design Week magazine, July 10, 2003. (Note: on returning to take the photos in September (and seeing what looked like remedial work under way in two places on the new upper piazza) it was interesting to see how people responded to the new space. While they still naturally congregate in the original square and on the steps of the National Gallery - and on the new steps down to the lower square - they tend to shun the new upper piazza where the road used to run, preferring to cross it quickly rather than linger)

What a long way a bit of paving and a flight of steps can get you. Particularly when these humble ingredients are given massive topspin by none other than London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone. Because when you look at the "new" Trafalgar Square as tiddled up by Lord Foster's firm of architects, there is really very little to see. It is a traffic management plan, a part-pedestrianisation. That's all. But its impact - good and bad - is enormous.