London’s skyline is changing more rapidly and more radically than it has at any time in the city’s history. It is dominated by the starchitects, Lords Foster and Rogers, Renzo Piano, Rafael Viñoly and others with their oddly-shaped, easily-nicknamed protrusions, the Gherkin and the Cheese Grater, the Shard and the Walkie Talkie.
At the same time the more anonymous background between these towers is being filled in by lesser-known designers. These are often huge buildings which seem to get planning permission on often spurious, ill-defined grounds, with less of the public debate that surrounds the most prominent towers yet which arguably have an even greater impact on the city’s landscape.
Most prominent is St George Wharf, Lambeth’s massive riverside development, now adorned with a tower which recently hit the headlines when a helicopter crashed into a crane on its roof. The designers are Broadway Malyan, one of Britain’s biggest practices who fully deserve anonymity. To my mind, this huge development has comprehensively spoilt the wonderful riverside site: with its clumsy blocks and unnecessary tower, it adds nothing to the city at street or river level and its glassy, dull-eyed gaze freezes every trace of urbanity around it.