London's free views come at a cost

Although it contains some hidden jewels to attract curious tourists, by and large, London's financial district, the City of London, is not high on most visitors' list of things to see and do.

For historical reasons, the west of the capital, which is home to its theaters and landmarks such as Big Ben, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace, is more about pleasure, whereas life farther east is largely about business.

However, it is these very businesses that are the key to some of London's newest attractions, which are growing in number because the public viewing galleries at the top of some of the City's tallest buildings command some of the best views the capital has to offer and, crucially in such a pricey place, they are free of charge.

The encouragement of viewing galleries by the City of London Corporation, which runs the financial district as a politically separate entity from the rest of Greater London, is often a condition of planning permission.

The Shard, which rises to a height of 310 meters on the south bank of the Thames and outside the City's boundaries, is Britain's tallest building, and as a result, enjoying its view of London from a 243-meter-high position, comes at a cost.

But this bird's eye view is now rivaled by those provided by the ever-expanding forest of glass and steel on the other side of the river, where the views are free.

Across from the Shard is the 160-meter-high Sky Garden, also known as the "Walkie Talkie" for its distinctive wider-at-the-top design, which houses a large indoor garden.

Open since 2015, it is probably London's best-known viewing gallery, as evinced by how quickly tickets are snapped up. Although free, for security reasons, many of the viewing galleries require advance booking.

While the viewing gallery at 120 Fenchurch Street stands slightly apart from the other spires piercing the skyline, and at a mere 69 meters high is also much lower, it has the advantage of being an open-air garden.

Vying with each other for attention on Bishopsgate are the 50th floor Lookout, which stands at an elevation of 200 meters, and its taller neighbor, Horizon 22, which stands at 254 meters.

Between them, and dependent on the weather- although cloudy skies can be even more spectacular than sunny - both platforms offer views taking in everything from the Olympic Park in eastern London, to Wembley in the north, with the dome of St. Paul's in the foreground and the Thames behind it snaking westward to Westminster and beyond.

For the organized visitor, London's many other high points, including the Post Building, One New Change and the Tate Modern, offer wonderful free vistas that are worth the effort required to gain admission, if only to see familiar sites from unfamiliar angles.

Ian Mansfield, editor of the London exploration and information website Ian Visits, told China Daily that viewing platforms are nothing new in the city.

"The (62-meter-high) Monument, commemorating the Great Fire of London, opened in 1677 and was the original London viewing platform, but after that not much happened until the BT Tower's rotating restaurant opened in 1965, but that shut in 1980 over security fears," he said.

"I think the creation of the London Eye for the Millennium triggered people's expectations that they should have some sort of public access to views."

Both the Greater London Authority, which runs the wider London region, and the City of London Corporation have encouraged developers to include public provisions, but Mansfield said that it was "just a bit of coincidence that we've had so many so tall buildings go up in such a short time that we now have a cluster".

The new platforms offer visitors views that could only otherwise be seen from a low-flying aircraft, and Mansfield said that opening them has been part of a deliberate policy to give the City a life beyond working hours.

"A City official once said to me that they didn't want it to be like Manhattan, which is dead out of (office) hours, and I think it worked - the City certainly feels busier," he said.

But while busier streets may be welcome, there is concern over the increasingly busy skyline.

In 2014, architect Barbara Weiss was one of the founders of the Skyline campaign, which aims to protect London from domination by excessively tall, overbearing buildings.

"I was dismayed by the realization that too many beautiful historical buildings were being demolished in the name of regeneration, only to be replaced by ones consistently inferior in terms of design, materials and craftsmanship," she told Architects Journal.

"As I watched with great consternation, a gray army of lift cores started morphing into enormous incarnations, drastically and permanently altering the city's skyline."

Although the group has succeeded in scuppering plans for buildings such as the 72-story Paddington Pole in western London, Weiss told the bdonline website last year that it is "devastating to observe that we, the objectors, were actually spot-on in estimating the seriousness of the risk presented to London by the brazen and unconscionable experiments conducted on its skyline".

"If one looks around today at what London has become in 2023, it is clear that we are no longer talking about winners and losers. We are all losers," she said.

One of the ironies of the divisive topic of skyscrapers is that while their viewing galleries offer visitors such breathtaking vistas of London, these views are so good precisely because being in a tall building means that you cannot see its sometimes questionable impact on the skyline.

Absurd situation

Or at least that should be the case, but London is now in the rather absurd situation of having so many towers clustered together that they start to get in each other's way, obscuring the very panoramas on offer.

"I don't think skyscrapers spoil the view, they create a new view and they're clustered together so they don't ruin it," said Mansfield. "But we are now in a situation where, by accident or design, they're starting to be on top of one another. We have a surplus.

"If someone can't get tickets for Horizon 22, I recommend the Lookout, which is literally next door and has 50 floors, as opposed to Horizon's 58. It's much easier to get into and the view is 95 percent the same.

"Currently there are plans for another skyscraper called One Undershaft, which is scheduled to be 74 stories high, and even taller than the Shard - and that will be one street away from Horizon 22 and the Lookout. It shows the ludicrousness of the situation."