But it has been well photographed, and was used to excellent effect in the Reconstruction exhibition – and now publication – as part of a discussion on the controversial façadism that was settled upon in the 1980s to 'preserve' the now rapidly disappearing Clarendon Hotel. This is where the Queen stayed; this is where the Beatles stayed in 1964 and waved to fans from the balcony; blah, blah, blah; all those stories we know.

The painting carries new reasons now for noticing it – or at least more than it did before. While Cecil Kelly is not often thought of as an exciting painter, he did in fact produce a gem or two. (Boats at St Ives, the work in this first link, really puts me in mind of William Nicholson. It's good. The Clarendon painting is not bad either.)

So now the cranes rattle round the old façade, and day by the (ridiculous) block behind it evaporates. Of course, the remnant of the old hotel should be saved, but no one is having this conversation. It's simply not something that we'll hear raised.