Book browsing is hungry and thirsty work, but there are plenty of options for a prolonged stop: pull up a chair at one of the many cafes that surround the city's squares or head for the Mosae Gusto underground food hall.
"The National Grid had mapped a viable underground route to miss Hintlesham Hall, the local community and woodland, and we believe they should have adopted that route, " Mr Foster said.
Two big projects launched five years ago to help the culture capital swing an underground railway and a glittering concert hall have failed to materialise.
The revised plan also includes a new Euston Tube station ticket hall and a sub-surface pedestrian link between Euston and the nearby Euston Square Underground station.
Yet it is just the highest profile in a string of big-ticket projects including a concert hall in Hamburg, railway tunnels in Munich and Leipzig, a subway line in Cologne and a Stuttgart underground train station that have been plagued by huge cost overruns and delays.