![]() Investigative financial journalist George Turner – who fought an unsuccessful campaign to prevent the controversial high rise redevelopment of the Shell Centre on the south bank of the Thames – believes the high-rise horse has bolted. Johnson's critics argue that by the time "High Rise Boris" left City Hall for the House of Commons this year (2016), London was well on the way to becoming "Lonbai".Īccording to a recent Ipsos Mori poll, commissioned by the pressure group Skyline Campaign, a majority of inner London residents now demand height caps and no-build zones as they finally wake up to the fact that over 400 skyscrapers (defined by Skyline Campaign as 20 storeys or more) are either built or in the pipeline – changing their city's skyline for ever. Ironically, one of the most telling campaign promises Britain's current Foreign Secretary made in 2008 was to prevent his predecessor as mayor, the equally controversial Ken Livingstone, turning London into "Dubai on the Thames". Like the Shard, many of those now heritage-listed and much-loved buildings faced criticism in their day.īut never before in the history of London has there been so much uproar about so many buildings – many of them skyscrapers, and most built or approved during Boris Johnson's eight-year reign as London's Mayor. Yet perhaps the viewfinders are also there as a reminder that even Wren's St Paul's Cathedral and Sir Charles Barry's 19th Century Palace of Westminster were newcomers once. Such historic comparisons are fun (and the Shard is now among London's leading tourist attractions). Click the relevant tab, and images appear comparing the contemporary panorama with how London's skyline looked in Roman times, the Middle Ages or the Victorian era. London is in a perpetual state of transformation – something graphically underlined to every visitor who looks through the computerised viewfinders that adorn the Shard's interior viewing deck, on Level 79. Looking down at the seemingly minuscule Norman keep which William the Conqueror ordered after his victory over Harold in 1066, it's easy to forget the White Tower, too, was once the city's tallest building. Tourists use their smartphones to take 'selfie' photographs as London's skyscrapers including, from left, 20 Fenchurch Street, also known as the "Walkie-Talkie", the Leadenhall building, also known as the "Cheesegrater", and 30 St Mary Axe, also known as "the Gherkin", loom in the background. Then there are the more recent additions to the British capital's skyline: Norman Foster's "Gherkin", Rafael Viñoly's "Walkie-Talkie", Richard Rogers' "Cheesegrater" and the London Eye. Many metres below, each of the city's legendary landmarks is visible: the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, the Monument to the Great Fire, Nelson's Column, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben. ![]() ![]() On a clear day, the vistas stretch from Windsor Castle in the west to Kent's green fields in the east. From the open air observation desk on the 82nd floor of the tallest building in western Europe – Renzo Piano's The Shard – the visitor is treated to a peerless view of 21st Century London.
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