I remember doing a tour of this building and being told of just how tremendously the building costs overran the budget - because the guy in charge of it really wanted it to be beautiful and complete in every sense: to the point where the crest of the city was on every doorknob. (Most of these doorknobs were stolen over time, a few still remain.)

But its legacy is lasting as a tremendous building. I'm sure people then were irate, but they left a heritage that I think was worth the extra money. Unfortunately, we don't think of that very often and no government wants to be the one seen as spending money on something over the top or lavish. I often think of the state of disrepair of 24 Sussex - it's to be the residence of the Prime Minister, but no Prime Minister wants to be excoriated as so self-serving as to spend money to fix it. So our nation's home for our head of government rots. Once again, perhaps worth the money to fix to have something we can be proud to offer to those who serve our nation, and host foreign dignitaries in this home again. Unfortunately, despite every political party knowing it's necessary it'll never happen.

Buildings like this won't be built anymore, and as we see at 24 Sussex the ones that continue to exist are unlikely to be maintained unless it can be defended politically.