Before I stop writing about London I have to talk about the new architecture that's blighting its skyline.
To me London has always been one of the most beautiful cities in the world, now it's beginning to look like some futuristic nightmare. Below I show some of the worst, not my pictures, I refused to waste my time on them, but rather taken from the web (Oliver Wainwright for The Guardian) where others agree with me about their hideousness.
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| The Shard, if you like it for only £40 you can go up to the observation deck |
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| The Strata, one blogger said it reminded him Mordor of complete with 3 eyes of Sauron on top |
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| The Cheese Grater, need I say more? |
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| The Walkie Talkie |
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| This is the view of St.Pauls from across the Thames (the side we stayed on), the view is ruined! |
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The Odalisk
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| I guess if you have to have a giant Ferris Wheel this isn't a bad one, but I won't even go on small ones and at £29.50 or $48.00 that wasn't going to happen anyway. |
The London skyline certainly has been changing a lot in recent years hasn't it. Apparently some of the odd shapes of the buildings built around St Pauls are because the sight lines of St Pauls must be maintained, so the cheese grater slopes backwards to allow that sight line for example. Of course some of them are just plain odd, well, just because!! xx
ReplyDeleteOh.my.goodness.
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless.
I'm not an uncritical lover of new buildings but it lifts my heart every time I see the Shard, one of the best buildings I know!
ReplyDeleteSince I am a firm lover of London, I take the good with the bad and I have to say that the good completely out weighs the bad in London. The buildings have their odd shape because of what Amy said, and that's the view lines of St. Paul's Cathedral... and Tower Bridge and the Tower of London, are unscathed and just as gorgeous as ever! As for the "Ferris Wheel", it's not something you sit in, but huge pods that you walk around in, and the views are phenomenal...
ReplyDeleteBeauty is in the eye of the beholder, so the new buildings appeal to many people, but not me.
ReplyDeleteWe live near Savannah, GA and each time we go into town I'm eternally grateful that the local planning commission makes sure that every new building and all the old refurbished ones add to the look of a historic southern city, not detract from it.