The architectural character and scale of the building has received both positive and negative criticism since its construction. Steen Eiler Rasmussen, a friend of Holden, commented that, with the expansive design, "the London University is swallowing more and more of the old houses, and this quarter – which the Duke of Bedford laid out for good domestic houses – has taken on quite a different character." Evelyn Waugh, in "Put Out More Flags" (1942), describes it as "the vast bulk of London University insulting the autumnal sky."