Architecture
Final look of London’s iconic BT Tower before sale to hotel chain for £275,000,000
May 9, 2025To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Once the heart of the country’s most modern technology, the BT Tower is now being stripped out. But before it is converted into a hotel, Metro took a look inside the iconic 620ft structure in its current […]
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‘Tranquillising good taste’: can the National Gallery’s airy new entrance exorcise its demons?
May 6, 2025Few parts of any city have seen so many style wars waged over their future as the north-west corner of Trafalgar Square. Nelson may be safely ensconced on his column, but another Battle of Trafalgar has been rumbling for decades beneath his feet, seeing architectural grenades hurled to and fro at the western end of […]
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Trump’s mineral grab has all the elements of an earworm | Brief letters
February 19, 2025Your article, referring to rare earth elements including europium, dysprosium, gadolinium, praseodymium, holmium and ytterbium, was very enlightening (What are Ukraine’s critical minerals – and why does Trump want them?, 17 February). However, it was difficult for me to read, owing to the persistent intrusion of the earworm of a certain song by Tom Lehrer.John O’DwyerSteeple […]
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Court clears way for ‘the Slab’ office block to be built on London’s South Bank
December 21, 2024The building of a controversial 25-storey office block nicknamed the Slab on London’s South Bank is to go ahead after the high court upheld a decision by the former communities secretary Michael Gove to approve the development. Mr Justice Mould dismissed a legal challenge by the Save Our South Bank group, which has been fighting […]
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Shard to share title of tallest building in UK as new skyscraper gets green light
December 13, 2024The Shard is going to have to share its title of the UK’s tallest building after planning permission was granted for a new skyscraper in the City of London. When it is completed early next decade, 1 Undershaft will be 309.6 metres tall, matching the height of the Shard to the centimetre, the maximum allowed […]
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Urban planning and the long legacy of brutalism
November 1, 2024Simon Jenkins provides a timely account of how, from the 1960s onwards, plans for wholesale demolition of large parts of urban areas began to be challenged (The ransacking of Britain: why the people finally rose up against ‘sod you architecture’, 28 October). He cites the 1974 Covent Garden revolt, which saw citizens, enlightened planners such […]
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‘A triumph’: London’s £19bn Elizabeth line is named best new architecture in Britain
October 16, 2024With the longest platforms, the biggest tunnels and the fastest trains on the entire London underground, the Elizabeth line boasts a dizzying list of superlatives, carrying more people a day than any other train line in the country. It is now deemed to have the best design, too – being named as the winner of […]
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Antony Gormley joins fight against ‘destruction’ of historic King’s Cross site
August 31, 2024Sir Antony Gormley, the artist who created the Angel of the North, is among King’s Cross residents objecting to proposals that could see Coal Drops Yard, a grade II-listed industrial site, divided into streets of shops and “grab-and-go” food retailers. Gormley and his artist partner, Vicken Parsons, who live in the nearby Gasholders building, said […]
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Vaults of ambition: shock find under London Museum enchants its builders
August 19, 2024When a contractor working on the site of the new London Museum at Smithfield market knocked a tentative hole in a bricked-up basement wall, all he could see, peering in with a torch, was a muddy pile of rubble and some scurrying rats. That unpromising beginning, however, would lead to an “unparalleled” discovery. Behind the […]
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The City of London’s tallest skyscraper could look like a toilet seat in the sky – and that’s not even the worst thing about it| Oliver Wainwright
July 31, 2024From some angles, it looks like a giant toilet seat in the sky. From others, it looks like a big tongue, sticking out to lick crumbs off the neighbouring Cheesegrater. Or, in the words of William Upton KC, member of the City of London Corporation’s planning committee: “It looks like one of those plastic spoons […]
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