Chelsea Barracks Proposal Withdrawn

In a victory for Prince Charles, the planning application for the Chelsea Barracks development was today withdrawn by the firm Qatari Diar, less than a week before Westminster Council was due to consider it. The Prince's intervention in March, where he criticised the design, sparked a whole slew of silliness from both classical and modernist sides, with a botched boycott of Charles' tepid address to RIBA being just one highlight. Yet the heir has had the last polite chuckle as the (admittedly unattractive) scheme by Lord Rogers' firm will now be remembered as just another carbunkle that never made it. The developers plan to submit a new design later in the year, and have said that they'll consult with the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment. We suspect that Charles' favourite architect, the classicist Quinlan Terry, is waiting by his phone (a replica model of Alexander Graham Bell's) with baited breath.