My Love-Hate Relationship with London’s Changing Skyline
London's contemporary architecture boom produced buildings with nicknames like the Gherkin and the Shard. They changed the face of London. I used to hate them.
No city is frozen in time, but few have seen their skylines change as dramatically as London’s has over the last 35 years. One by one, a series of modern, often odd-looking buildings, have transformed London’s skyline. One Canada Square (1991), 8 Canada Square (2002), and the rest of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers; 30 St. Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin (2003); the Shard (2012); the Leadenhall Building, also known as the Cheesegrater (2014); and 20 Fenchurch Street, nicknamed the Walkie-Talkie (2015), are just some of the buildings added to the skyline during that time.
In 1984, Prince Charles famously attacked a proposed addition to the National Gallery as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend.” I can understand how he felt. I first visited England in 1978, and with each successive visit, it seemed like more blots had been added to the landscape.
It was hard not to mourn these alien additions with nicknames like the Gherkin and the Cheesegrater. They didn’t blend into the cityscape. Instead, they drew the eye as if they were jumping up and down shouting “look at me, pay attention to me!”
No addition provoked my ire as much as the London Eye. The mammoth Ferris wheel was erected in 1999 to celebrate the new Millennium, and for years I harbored a secret hope that Londoners would grow tired of this particular blot on the landscape and tear it down. Of course, today it’s one of the best-known attractions in the city.
I'm not sure why I was so disgruntled by London’s contemporary architecture. I’m a native Chicagoan, and I don’t remember feeling any resentment when the John Hancock Center, the rusty red Continental Center, and the Sears Tower appeared on the Chicago skyline. Nor did I feel resentment toward the distinctive slanted roofline of 150 North Michigan Avenue when it joined the skyline in1984 or the rippling facade of the Aqua Tower when it appeared in 2009, yet I couldn’t make peace with London’s modern additions.
Then something happened to finally change my feelings. In 2015, I spent three months living in southwest London, across the Thames from Canary Wharf. I became accustomed to seeing the Shard standing sentry over our neighborhood and at night I enjoyed seeing the shimmering skyscrapers of Canary Wharf from my bedroom window. I grudgingly admitted that the London Eye looked rather festive lighting up the south bank of the Thames as I made my way to Westminster Station in the gathering darkness. After the brutal November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the Eye was illuminated in red, white, and blue, proudly proclaiming London’s solidarity with the citizens of France, and it was a truly moving sight.
I knew my acceptance of London’s changing skyline was complete as my time in London was coming to an end. My husband and son joined me for the last ten days of my stay, and I planned a “best of London” itinerary for their visit. We started with a cruise on the Thames and as we sailed downriver, I realized I'd grown accustomed to seeing the city’s modern architecture juxtaposed against old favorites like the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London.
Then we visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, where I finally achieved my ambition of climbing the 528 steps to the cathedral’s dome. As I stood looking down at the city below, picking out neighborhoods, streets, and buildings I’d come to know so well during my three-month stay, I realized I was looking at the historic sights and the new additions with almost equal affection.
The truth is, London has been in a constant state of flux since the Romans built Londinium in 47 AD. Devastating fires, the relentless bombing of the Blitz, the regeneration of the decaying Docklands, and many other events have changed its face over the years. And as much as I love the historic face of London, I also love the city’s ability to rise from the ashes of adversity. Millennium Bridge, bookended by St. Paul’s Cathedral at one end and the reconstructed Globe Theatre at the other, is just as much a part of today’s London as Tower Bridge. The Gherkin and the London Eye are just as much symbols of the city as the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben chiming from Elizabeth Tower. While I may still lament some of the future additions to London’s skyline, without those additions, London would be more of a historical theme park than the dynamic city I know and love today.