Nelson's Column
Link To Us Bookmark
October
The Sky's the Limit 14th October 2007
London's first Supertall building on the rise
London will get its first Supertall in 2011. Even if you don’t have your architects’ dictionary to hand you can imagine what this means. One very tall building. The Shard, or ‘Shard of Glass’ to give it its official title, at London Bridge Tower will be the first building in the UK to break the 1000ft barrier, dwarfing the current tallest record holder, 1 Canada Square, standing at a measly 771ft. If you suffer from vertigo, look away now.

If, however, you enjoy a 180 degree panorama, you’ll have plenty of places to choose from in the next five years. With 40 towers rising over 300ft currently planned, or proposed, within London – and 20 of those within half a mile of the Thames – London’s skyline is set to get bigger but I can’t help wondering, is it for the better?

Currently, London is a wonderful higgledy-piggledy hotchpotch of houses. There’s a mish-mash of Medieval mixed with modern, Georgian squares and Victorian terraces with some truly awful 1960s blocks thrown in. But even they have their place – the Hayward Gallery and Royal Festival Hall blocks have become beloved, just another freckle on the face of London’s idiosyncratic cityscape. Perhaps not surprisingly though it’s some of those sixties eye sores which are being disposed of to make way for the new breed of big buildings.

Superstar architects like Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano have been drafting ever higher scrapers in the space race for the sky. Piano bills his Shard as “a small vertical town” built to house 7,000 people. It all sounds terribly futuristic, like something out of a sci-fi adventure where monorails carry people around vertically and horizontally. Shudder.

Idly scrolling through the forum on www.skyscrapercity.com the enthusiastic chorus of ‘couldn’t it be bigger?’ began to unsettle me. Alarm bells were beginning to ring. At the risk of sounding like a reactionary, isn’t pretty damn tall tall enough? Why does everything – from burgers to buildings – have to be super-sized?

These neck-craning buildings have already been given some imaginative titles. Sounding more like a hair-raising ride you’d find at Alton Towers than an office block, soon names like "Helter-skelter" and the "Pinnacle" will become part of the national language just as the "Gherkin" already has. These two great peaks sounding for all the world like a white knuckle experience will stretch upwards from Bishopsgate. Joining them are Richard Rogers’ "Cheesegrater" at 122 Leadenhall Street, and Raphael Vinoly's "Walkie-Talkie" nearby at 20 Fenchurch Street. The City’s current landmarks like Lloyds and the old NatWest Tower will be looked down on by their new lofty neighbours.

Sitting on the fifth floor of LondonTown towers, I enjoy a wonderfully elevated view over Leicester Square, looking towards Trafalgar Square I can see Nelson on top of his column. So comparing this view five floors up to the dizzying vista from the Shard’s proposed 72nd floor is enough to make my head spin. Vertiginous doesn’t seem a tall enough word. No wonder they added the ‘super’ in front. The plan to give public access to the 72nd floor is at least a commendable one – once it’s built we can all enjoy the view from the top. Though let’s not forget unless you’re inside them, these buildings will block out – not enhance – your views of the city.

The worry isn’t so much the touching-the-void nature of this club, it’s the sheer number of towering blocks that are proposed. Though construction has yet to begin on most, we are set for these towering buildings to rise up from the City to Waterloo and from Paddington to Islington. If just a handful were going up it might be quite fun – the silly, fairground names alone are entertaining enough. While the designs vary from spectacular to remarkably unremarkable the views will, no doubt, be breathtaking – equivalent to a rotation on the London Eye. No, the problem I have with the scrapers set to dominate our skyline is that there are so many of them. Get ready for the invasion of the sunlight catchers. Let’s just hope they don’t suffer the fate of the sixties signature blocks – and get turned to rubble a mere fifty years later.
You’ve got to be cracked!
You’d think if you were going to the Tate Modern to see the latest installation (Doris Salcedo’s crack in the floor) you might know to step delicately over it, whilst obviously muttering about what it’s saying about racial division. There are even leaflets warning against getting too close to ‘the art’ but three hapless visitors just walked on by and tripped into the crack, which runs the entire 167-metre length of the Turbine Hall!
Youth on her side?
This is no Harry Enfield-esque Tory Boy – she may be 18 but Emily Benn is (obviously) female, a Labour candidate and appears to be well-versed in the art of political manoeuvring (she is Tony Benn’s granddaughter after all). This young lady from Croydon does not see her age as a disadvantage, far from it, and is intent on running in the next general election. Watch out Gordon…
Budge over, you’re in my lane
Any Londoner will tell you that the M25 is the dullest motorway on the planet (after all, it does go round in a circle). Factor in Friday night rush hour traffic and you’ve got a motorist’s nightmare, so any proposal to alleviate the gridlock is welcomed with horns hooting and engines revving. The scheme being considered is to open up the hard shoulder as an extra lane when things get chock-a-block – should work like clockwork…

October 2009
26th October
Frieze Still Pleases
26th October
Posties Strike a Chord
September 2009
26th September
A River Runs Through It
23rd September
Blogging is Best
August 2009
26th August
When Saturday comes
22nd August
Bring on the Bikes
July 2009
27th July
Against the Clock
20th July
View for a thrill
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
18th February
New Photography Laws
12th February
Glitz and the Pitts
January 2009
27th January
Setting the Standard
21st January
Too Much for Posh Nosh?
December 2008
23rd December
January is on the Horizon
20th December
Merry Christmas
November 2008
26th November
All The World's A Stage
20th November
Surviving the Crunch
October 2008
24th October
Boris v Jingjing
17th October
Soaps in Pole Position
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
23rd April
By George
11th April
Back to the 80s
March 2008
February 2008
20th February
Dark, Satanic Turnmills
6th February
A Diamond in the Drink
January 2008
21st January
People Wanted for Plinth
14th January
Boo! Hiss!
December 2007
28th December
Tate That - A Hirst for Art
20th December
Christmas Shopping
November 2007
27th November
Mind the Gap
26th November
London On A Tray
October 2007
26th October
Leaving the Station
14th October
The Sky's the Limit
September 2007
August 2007
24th August
Heathrow under Siege
17th August
Gormless
10th August
Losing Face
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
23rd March
So, Another Magazine
16th March
Avoiding iContact
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
26th May
Curvaceous Border
12th May
Vegging Out
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
20th January
February Sales
20th January
Moby Sick
13th January
Glass Half Full
3rd January
Three Cheers for the Tube Station Workers
December 2005
22nd December
January Bites
16th December
A Remarkable Year
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
29th July
Moving On From 7/7
22nd July
Get loaded in the park
15th July
Victoire!!
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
30th December
Party Pooper
23rd December
The Second Battle of Trafalgar
16th December
Sadie's Year
November 2004
28th November
Ripper-Watch
21st November
Kinky Boots
14th November
Smoked out
October 2004
22nd October
Yuppie Meal
15th October
Fines of Fury
8th October
No Twist in the Turner
September 2004
17th September
Battleships, bloodsports and Batman
10th September
Clique Week
3rd September
Return of the Bard
August 2004
July 2004
 
Link to The Sky's the Limit
To link to this page from your website use this code.
 
 
The link will appear on your page as:
 
Home | Contact us | Terms & Conditions | Link to us | Marketing | Partners | Subscriptions
Sponsor
Our favourite London hotels
May Fair Hotel
Luxury Hotels
 
In Trafalgar Square
20% off
 
At Liverpool Street
50% off
 
At Green Park
35% off
 
Near Covent Garden
30% off
 
Cavendish Hotel
Mid-range Hotels
 
Near Parliament
35% off
 
Near National Gallery
47% off
 
Near Tower Bridge
35% off
 
In Little Venice
40% off
 
Discounted theatre tickets
Chicago
57% off
 
29% off
 
42% off
 
56% off
 
47% off
 
38% off
 
Diner & Theatre Deals
Oliver
from £24.50
 
from £29.00
 
from £32.50
 
from £42.50
 
from £45.00
 
from £27.50
 
London Sightseeing
London Eye
10% off
 
10% off
 
10% off
 
from £8.50
 
from £25.00
 
10% off
 
LondonTown.com has special discounts every week. The amount of discount will vary depending on the dates you are coming and how far in advance you book. All discounts are subject to availability.
Recently viewed Favourites
Recently viewed