Edward Burd at home with his majestic collection of clocks [Sarah Ainslie]

HARRINGTON was never lucky enough to step inside Edward Burd’s home but those who did say the collection of clocks on the wall, ticking as one, was something of a masterpiece.

“If you have had a hard day and it is raining and it has all been bit much, and you come in and there is this ticking, and you have a cup of tea and put your feet up for a few minutes, then you are all right – it is looking after you, it has its own spirit,” he once said in an interview with Spitalfields Life.

It’s been five years since the 79-year-old passed away, which perhaps in itself shows you what a never ending debacle the government’s High Speed 2 rail project has been.

He was a great opponent of the scheme and posthumously has been proven right about the damage it has caused, and continues to cause.

Edward, who grew up in Vincent Square in Pimlico and whose parents both worked at Westminster School, deserves to be remembered for his work as an architect which was rooted in good causes, more often than not the design of treasured units of social housing.

Many of the homes people badly needed in east London came from his practice.

His wife Mary told me after his death: “Of all his projects, the one of which he was most proud was the redevelopment of the Mother’s Hospital in Lower Clapton as the new Mother’s Square for Newlon Housing Association.

“Opened by Prince Charles in 1990, it is an estate of social rented, supported and shared ownership homes, and was described by Lord Justice Scarman as “a little piece of Heaven on Earth”.

Prince Charles is of course now King Charles III but no matter how many monarchs pass through Buckingham Palace, Edward’s homes – vital homes! – will stand the test of time.

And time, after all, tick-tocking away, was what he found calming.

About the clocks, Mary told me he had spent years amassing a collection of timepieces, often bringing a lost cause back to life.

“Edward was quite capable of restoring a wrecked English wall clock, which he took great pride and pleasure in saving for future generations to enjoy,” she explained.

The photo of his front room still raises a smile.