Ah Pantomimes! Never a more hotly disputed art than that of the cliche-laden, audience-engaging, man-in-drag featuring panto. These scared me as a kid with their vibrancy and liberalism, but I have to say that a viewing two years ago at my local village hall swiftly turned my emotional tide. The commercial juggernaut panto featuring C-list celebs does little to tickle the senses and one has to question whether they would go out of their way to impede their lives with such crass banality. Kirsten from Childrens BBC? Brian Blessed? Are they deliberately trying to turn people away from the theatre? Pantomimes are a nice tradition but one in which I am not quite sure how to respond.

Man-made objects can sometimes be a glory and a bane to behold. However, you are correct in observing how over ambition is an interesting thing. These glories are not just London’s alone but look at some of our other European neighbours. Barcelona’s Sagrada de Familia is a monument in size, scale and ambition but a century after its conception it still remains a work in progress. Lamenting the idea of what could have been sometimes leads to a bit of desensitising for what we already have. Wembley is a symbol of completed ambition but it seems a little tame to those abandoned plans you mention.