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SCMP Reporter

London

When is a tower no longer a tower? When it's the Tower of London. First built in 1078, the Norman castle dominated medieval London. However, over the centuries it has been usurped. Tower Bridge looms larger just downstream, Tower 42 (aka NatWest tower) and the Swiss Re Tower,  nicknamed the 'gherkin',  rise above it to the north.

Now William the Conqueror's castle may  be dwarfed by another tower, warn Unesco and  English Heritage, a preservation group.

They say the 40-storey development, which resembles a walkie-talkie,  a few hundred metres away at Fenchurch Street station, will reduce the Tower of London to  a 'toy building', and  Unesco is considering withdrawing its world heritage site status.

The new tower, the  work of architect Rafael Vinoly, has  reignited debate on London's  skyline, which critics claim is under worse  assault than in  the 1960s, when laws limiting buildings to the height of St Paul's Cathedral were diluted.

Many  newcomers  have odd nicknames.

'The shard of glass' - the London Bridge Tower in south London which will be the tallest in Europe - has the go-ahead. At 305 metres, it beats Canary Wharf by 70 metres. Work on the 224-metre- tall 'cheese grater' at 122 Leadenhall starts soon.  The 'helter skelter' (Bishopsgate Tower) has 40 floors and a green light.

Supporters, including London's mayor Ken Livingstone, say there are 18 to 20 planned, all clustered in 'appropriate sites' such as the City or around transport hubs.

'In a city growing as fast as London, with a strong consensus that we must not build over open spaces, we cannot keep building out. But we can make use of space above,' Mr Livingstone said.

The key is finding the right balance.  A spokeswoman for English Heritage, which is called in should a development impact on the historic environment, said: 'With regards to some developments, it is not the height which causes a problem, but rather the vicinity.'

Hence the 42-storey Heron Tower supposedly clashes with St Paul's, and the 'walkie-talkie' with the Tower. The 'shard' apparently ruins views south.

London's seemingly higgledy-piggledy skyline development is guided largely on lines of sight. The Evening Standard highlighted a building in central London which slopes off oddly at its edge because it lies on the end of a 'miles-long trajectory from a hole in a hedge in Richmond Park'.

But iconic buildings do get through.  A  Royal Institute of British Architects spokesman said:  'Lines of sight are partly protected in London, and iconic designs tend to be the only very tall building proposals allowed through planning, such as the 'gherkin', 'the shard' at London Bridge and possibly the 'walkie-talkie'.'

James Newman, of Skyscrapernews.com, a website devoted to tall buildings, said: 'We would say there are about 25 buildings over 150 metres at some stage of planning, though this is likely to be undercounting ... What we have is roughly equivalent to the entire main Houston skyline working it's way through the system. Not all  will be built, but those which  are  will be hugely transformative.'

Why the  boom? London's office supply is at a six-year low, and rents are rising - a 30 per cent rise is forecast in the next three years - prompting demand for higher, more central buildings as firms expand.  Financial jobs are forecast to increase from 220,000  in 1990 to  400,000 in  another decade.

Iconic buildings also attract higher rents. Although the 'gherkin' struggled to find tenants at first, it has been charging up to GBP65 (HK$1,000) per square foot, GBP15 above the average.

These same  market forces offer conservationists hope.  The  boom  will produce a glut, some forecasts show. By 2010,  4.6 million sqft of space will be available, of which 90 per cent has no signed-up tenants.

There is another reason for the boom - the 'gherkin'.   City chiefs are  in love with skyscrapers because it has become as much a modern icon as the Tower of London is  a traditional one. The 'gherkin' seems to have  planners in a pickle.



Blooming towers of London loom large