London Skyline to be wrecked by 22 Bishopsgate skyscraper?

Peter Hitchins wrote this week (at the foot of a blog post) that ‘Approval has now been given for the building of a vast new concrete slab in the heart of London, 22 Bishopsgate. You may like this sort of thing or not. But once it is built, it will be hard to tell London’s skyline from that of Chicago. This doesn’t seem to me to be a gain. In a generation, Christopher Wren’s lovely forest of spires and domes, which belonged to Britain and the world, has been shouldered aside by temples of greed. I am astonished that this has happened with so little protest’.  London’s 18th century skyline has indeed been destroyed and PLP’s design for 22 Bishopsgate does look as though it belongs in Chicago. The design is anodyne and has attracted little praise or opprobrium from critics. It is more glass than concrete and its profile does not make the City skyline worse, as the Walkie Talkie did.   The most important point to make is that the City of London is in desperate need of roofscape and landscape design strategy to make its skyline BETTER. The previous City Planning Officer, Peter Rees, let it become ridiculous.