This was the headline above a letter from Alistair Lexden which appeared in the London Evening Standard on October 25, reminding its readers that the colourful, and sometimes controversial, Dowager Countess Spencer was a champion of urban conservation.
Princess Diana’s stepmother, Raine Spencer, who died last week, deserves a plaque in Covent Garden. In June 1972 the Greater London Council submitted plans to develop the area to the Tory Environment Secretary, Geoffrey Rippon. Hundreds of historic buildings would have been torn down. However, before plans could be approved, Raine Dartmouth, as she was known then, resigned as chairman of its development committee, declaring that the project would do “irreparable damage to an historic part of London”. In 1973, Rippon turned the plans down.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords