On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:31:09 +0100, Robert wrote

I rest my case. Brunel thought and built on the grand scale. Nowadays
Britain does not (generally - there are exceptions) do public works
well. New hospitals seem always to be a size too small; Stansted has
been made uncomfortable at a time of increasing numbers of passengers
by reducing the circulating floor space by building shops; Heathrow is
cramped, an artifical island in the Thames Estuary with enough space
for sufficient independent runways would seem to be a good solution.
But don't fill the buildings with shops....

By all means provide plenty of shops but design them in from the start so
there are still more-than-adequate circulating areas