Shard March update

click photo to enlarge

A couple of days in a cloudy, rain-swept London allowed me to have two walks into and through the city and the opportunity to gather a clutch of photographs including today's showing the current progress of The Shard. In December this building passed the height of 1 Canada Square in Canary Wharf, becoming the tallest in the UK and the European Union, and the second tallest free-standing structure in the UK (after the Emley Moor TV transmitter). It is currently near its projected maximum height of 1,012 feet (308.5 metres). Superlatives in the world of tall buildings are, of course, transitory, and The Shard will doubtless soon be removed from its current pinnacle.

Speaking of pinnacles, he said, segueing into the next topic like a radio DJ on autopilot, the next tall London tower to reach for the skies has made a strong appearance since I was last there in November. Bishopsgate Tower in Leadenhall, now to be called The Pinnacle, was to have been about the same height as the Shard, but after concerns from the Civil Aviation Authority it is losing just under twenty metres. This is another deliberately "different" shape for a city tower, resembling to my eye, a loosely coiled tube of paper. The very ugly concrete service core is already quite high, and when it gets its curved glass curtain walls that sweep up to its summit it will be another distinctive addition to the London skyline. At the moment I'm holding my judgement on whether the quality of being distinctive will be paired with being distinguished. It's certainly no Shard, but perhaps I'll warm to the real thing more than I do to the architect's illustration. Incidentally, it will be interesting to see if the more populist, "The Pinnacle", is adopted by Londoners or whether, as is their habit, they confer a more appropriate and less respectful soubriquet. Indeed, I wonder whether the new name was a calculated attempt to forestall such an eventuality!

Today's photograph, like a couple of others I've posted of The Shard, was taken by resting my camera on a balcony rail by the Thames in Rotherhithe, downstream from the City.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 168mm
F No: f5
Shutter Speed: 1/20 sec
ISO: 3200
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

The London Eye

click photos to enlarge

I've noted elsewhere that my initial reservations about the suitability of a giant Ferris wheel in the centre of London were misplaced. I had thought that bringing an element of the funfair to the middle of the nation's capital, and siting it next to the River Thames and historic buildings was insensitive; that the cityscape would be devalued by its presence. But, repeated viewings of "The London Eye" as it is called, and a ride in one of its slowly rotating high-tech, capsule-like gondolas changed my mind.

In fact, I'm quite in favour of tall structures, open to the public, that give a view over the city. The great churches of London, pre-eminently, St Paul's Cathedral, have done this for centuries. So too has The Monument to the Great Fire of London (known simply as The Monument), a 202 feet (61 metres) tall Roman Doric column, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1671 and 1677. At the time of its construction it was the tallest free standing column in the world, and provided a panorama of the rooftops of the City. More recently the 581 feet (177 metres) tall BT Tower (formerly the GPO Tower) that opened in 1966 was designed with a revolving restaurant that gave diners a great bird's eye view of the capital. Subsequent tall office blocks have surpassed these structures, but without adding much of distinction to the skyline, and without allowing the general public to enjoy the view.

The downturn in the economy is likely to put a brake on the next generation of tall London buildings. The proposed London Bridge Tower, know colloquially as "The Glass Shard", is likely to be one victim of the tightening of purse strings. Many will welcome this, seeing such structures as detrimental to the London skyline. My view is that height shouldn't necessarily be a bar to construction if the design is good and the site is suitable. Provided of course there is public access to the top so that those great vistas can be enjoyed!

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Top Image
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 15mm (30mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bottom Image
Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On