London is on course to become a “Manhattan-on-Thames” with almost 600 more planned skyscrapers set to fill gaps in its already crowded skyline, according to a new report.
The 10th annual tall buildings report from think-tank New London Architecture (NLA) finds that there are 583 tall buildings of more than 20 storeys “queuing up in the pipeline”.
That is more than twice as many as the 270 built over the past decade, according to the NLA. There have been 71 skyscrapers completed in Tower Hamlets alone over that time, more than in any other borough.
The report, London’s Growing Up: A Decade of Building Tall, says the rapid change to the capital’s once predominantly low-rise skyline “has been fuelled by burgeoning demand for office and residential space, overseas investment and a supportive planning environment”.
The NLA’s co-founder Peter Murray, said: “Tall buildings have changed the face of London substantially over the past 20 years and will continue to do so — the pipeline that NLA has tracked means there is at least 10 years’ supply that has already been defined.
“London’s population continues to grow, passing the 10 million mark at the end of this decade. We still need tall buildings and NLA will continue to keep a close watch on what’s going on.”
The report, published on Thursday, comes a week after Southwark council approved three towers in Blackfriars Road that will help create a new skyscraper “cluster” near Bankside.
Other areas where tall buildings have mushroomed in recent years include Nine Elms, Wembley, White City, Acton, and Croydon.
Construction is likely to be driven by demand for “greener” grade-A office space, particularly in the City where the number of planning applications submitted and approved has risen by a quarter year on year.
There is also a growing trend towards high-rise student accommodation, while demand for residential towers has slowed as the property market has lost steam in an era of higher interest rates and construction costs.
The report also finds that The Shard is London’s favourite tall building, supplanting the Gherkin, which was the most liked at the time of the first report in 2014.
However, half of all Londoners believe there are too many tall buildings in the capital, up from 32 per cent in 2014.
The report says the tall building boom was initially unleashed by the first Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, but has continued unabated under both his successors, Boris Johnson — despite his pledge not to create a “Dubai-on-Thames” — and Sadiq Khan.
Nia Fraser, from the planning and development team at consultants Gerald Eve, said: “We’re going to continue to see tall buildings. It’s more difficult, but that’s more to do with the challenging economic climate and we might not see those with planning consent brought forward until the market is more buoyant.”
