Instead of designing an extension to the elegant facade of the National Gallery which complements it and continues the concept of columns and domes, it looks as if we may be presented with a kind of municipal fire station, complete with the sort of tower that contains the siren. I would understand better this type of high-tech approach if you demolished the whole of Trafalgar Square and started again with a single architect responsible for the entire layout, but what is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Instead of designing an extension to the elegant facade of the National Gallery which complements it and continues the concept of columns and domes, it looks as if we may be presented with a kind of municipal fire station, complete with the sort of tower that contains the siren. I would understand better this type of high-tech approach if you demolished the whole of Trafalgar Square and started again with a single architect responsible for the entire layout, but what is proposed is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend." in the context of "Speech at the 150th anniversary of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Gala Evening at Hampton Court Palace (30 May, 1984) as reproduced on the Prince of Wales' website
 • The Prince had presumably read The Spencers on Spas published the previous year by Raine, Countess Spencer, his step-mother-in-law, which included on p. 14 the observation that "Monstrous carbuncles of concrete have erupted in gentle Georgian Squares"." to mean that wisdom is timeless.