Fears for London’s soul as high-rises grow
Print Edition
SKYSCRAPERS are shooting up all over London, transforming a skyline once dominated by the Houses of Parliament and St Paul’s Cathedral.
Some Londoners are delighted at their city’s “Manhattanization” but others warn it risks losing its soul.
“The City of London was a place of intricate streets,” a “precious” urban pattern inherited from Georgian times, said Kieran Long, curator in contemporary architecture at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
“You must be very careful what you put there,” he said.
A new study has revealed that no fewer than 237 skyscrapers are being built or have permission to begin construction over the coming year across the UK capital.
“It’s going to change the face of London probably greater than at anytime in its history, really, apart from maybe when St Paul’s Cathedral was built,” said Peter Murray, head of New London Architecture, a design and planning think tank.
Finished in 1710, St Paul’s stands 111.3 meters tall — around a third of The Shard, Europe’s highest skyscraper, which towers over the once-gritty Southwark neighborhood.
London’s high-rise boom has come as a surprise to city authorities, since there is no central urban planning office for the capital and decisions are taken district by district.
Murray said the wave of construction was approved in response to major population growth in London with around 100,000 people coming in every year, which could bring the city’s population to nearly 10 million by 2030 and around 13 million by 2050.
But while some affordable housing is provided in the new buildings, he said the skyscrapers “are really designed for wealthier people.” Murray added: “This is a total reversal to what we had in the 1960s and in the 1970s, where we built ugly concrete towers which were designed for poor people.”
In the new towers of glass, high-living apartments can go for tens of millions of pounds.
Billed as London’s most luxurious apartment block, the 36-story “Heron,” for example, boasts a penthouse which went on the market for 18 million pounds (US$30 million).
London’s more original-looking skyscrapers have earned affectionate local nicknames like the “Walkie-Talkie.” by Uruguay’s Rafael Vinoly, or the curvaceous “Gherkin” by British architect Norman Foster.
One of the newest additions has been dubbed the “Cheesegrater” for its sloped profile, specifically designed to protect citywide views of St Paul’s.
A frequent criticism of high-rises is of their thick bases which Long said “completely changes the character of the streets.”
By making streets less hospitable, they contribute to killing off independent shops, already few and far between in much of central London, he said.
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