TEN years ago, the inaugural publication of the Tall Buildings Survey at the ‘London’s Growing Up!’ exhibition staged by New London Architecture, EC2, predicted the imminent arrival of 236 tower blocks (20 storeys or more). That figure has mushroomed to more than 500. Architect Barbara Weiss, who launched the Skyline Campaign in 2014 to combat the capital’s ‘surge in poor-quality skyscrapers’, accuses the construction industry’s PR machine of ‘milking the anniversary’ and has restated her call for planners and politicians ‘to come up with a sensitive city-wide skyline vision’.
She continues: ‘What is disappointing is that none of these Tall Buildings aficionados is brave or honest enough to look up at this new London skyline. It’s impossible to describe any of the chaotic clusters as an architectural improvement on what was there previously.’
The Skyline Campaign has mounted successful opposition to Renzo Piano’s 72-storey Paddington Pole and the 32-storey Chiswick Curve, as well as giving advice on how to object as the Tall Buildings mania has spread into outer London (campaigners seeking help can make contact via www.barbaraweissarchitects.com). Ms Weiss adds: ‘The average person in the street has not been consulted or listened to, despite brave opposition campaigns. Although it’s important to keep campaigning, we must now wait for the pendulum to swing in the opposite direction and for the aficionados to wake up to the monster they have created.’
Historic England chief executive Duncan Wilson believes ‘tall buildings, if in the wrong places and poorly designed, can harm our urban centres, many of
