Whilst the "winding streets" and "character" of London's awful road layout may be romantic for visiting tourists, it has resulted in a city needlessly choked with traffic, that feels cramped and claustrophobic compared to Europe's great capitals. Some of London's most famous streets are heavily polluted by noisy dirty standing traffic, and give little room for pedestrian movement.
The district around St Pauls feels so anonymous and cramped, in a way that affects so much of London. London cries out for open squares, wider pavements and pedestrianised areas. You need only visit Trafalgar Square (which itself could use a redesign) to see how many people the few open spaces that exist in London attract.
It's not a beautiful compromise, it's a failure to manage, it's a failure of vision and ambition.