All Wells that's not ended yet...

H.G. Wells once penned a semi-autobiographical novel in which he "realized building was the enemy". Elsewhere he envisioned, as a vision of hell, London as "a gigantic glass hive" with a population of 33 million (see John Carey, The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1800-1939 pp.118, 123).

These days it seems we have a government that sees building as the enemy, echoing the authoritarian Wells. My sickbed reading includes James Heartfield's detailed rebuttal of this viewpoint. James seems pretty relaxed about the prospect of 33 million Londoners. Quite right too.