Trafalgar Square has become completely uncivilised, with loud music and loutish behaviour destroying the tranquillity of the National Gallery, the collection’s director says.

Nicholas Penny is so concerned by the “bloody awful” state of London’s central square that he would prefer to restore the road that separated it from his gallery before a £25 million redevelopment programme in 2003.

“It’s impossible for anyone in my position not to really want the traffic back,” he told The Times yesterday.

The square was laid out by the architect Charles Barry in the early 1840s, soon after the construction of the National Gallery. It has made headlines this week because of the artist Antony Gormley’s scheme for the empty plinth in its northwest corner, in which members of the public take turns to become a living work of art.

Times Archive 1840 Trafalgar Square: The Nelson Testimonial

It was concluded that the proposed Nelson Column would have an injurous effect upon the National Gallery

• Trafalgar Square, 1844

• Trafalgar Square unveiled to public, 1844

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Dr Penny thinks the installation is “interesting” and underpinned by “intelligent ideas”, but he also sees it as symbolic of an unwelcome shift from architectural and artistic appreciation towards spectacle and performance in the square.

He said: “The chief result of pedestrianisation has been the trashing of a civic space . . . Official agencies not only fail to protect historic buildings but are complicit in the destruction of a major amenity in the centre of our capital city. The conversion of the fourth plinth into a soap box or theatrical stage may be high-minded in intention but is symptomatic of this pervasive antagonism to architectural order.”

Dr Penny’s office overlooks the square and what he sees each day fills him with despair. “I hate what’s happening,” he said. “Levels of civil behaviour are incredibly low. As I speak, people are riding the lions and climbing up as far as they can on the reliefs of Nelson’s Column.”

Worst of all, in his eyes, are the official events staged there; last year there were 146 of them, including 35 demonstrations, 19 promotional events and 60 supported directly by the Mayor of London. Amplified music is distractingly audible inside the building, where it can often be heard or felt vibrating through the rooms and has “an impact on the ability of the public to appreciate the works of art”. According to Dr Penny, noise restrictions are flouted routinely, although the mayor’s office denies this.

Then there is the behaviour of the crowds that such events draw to the area. “A lot of people find it rather extraordinary that a temple of art should be surrounded by abandoned beer cans and litter.”

Dr Penny does not mind the buskers or the artists outside the gallery and quite likes the “incredibly skilful” rollerbladers. “The problem is the events. This is a great city square, but its actual nature is denied by these events. They put barriers up so no one can walk across it. No one is speaking out for the civil uses of the square — the idea of a village green where anything can happen.”

Shani Rhys-James, winner of the Jerwood Prize for painting in 2003, much prefers the square since the north side was pedestrianised. “The thing about London is that it’s a place of people, so you cannot get away from them. I think it’s rather nice to have no traffic there. It’s like a piazza in Italy. You could have fire-eaters and circuses and performances outside. Any place where there is less traffic is terrific.”

Mark Wallinger, whose Ecce Homo was the first temporary exhibit on the fourth plinth, was grateful that people no longer had to contend with traffic but was sympathetic to Dr Penny’s argument. “I haven’t experienced being in [the National Gallery] when something tremendously loud has been going on, but I can see how that would be annoying. You have to decide who the square is for — that’s a tricky philosophical number.”

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