{"id":10102,"date":"2013-10-20T05:04:29","date_gmt":"2013-10-20T05:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/?p=10102"},"modified":"2013-10-20T05:04:29","modified_gmt":"2013-10-20T05:04:29","slug":"the-skyline-architecture-and-landscape-of-the-river-thames-in-central-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/the-skyline-architecture-and-landscape-of-the-river-thames-in-central-london\/","title":{"rendered":"The skyline, architecture and landscape of the River Thames in Central London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o56RT31Fnic\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"775\" height=\"564\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n I see the Banks of the Thames as a place where, during the twentieth century, unimaginative planning and selfishly mediocre architecture often conspired to produce designs better suited to a rundown provincial town than to the heart of a great city. Skylines, landscape and architecture should be considered together, looking to the past and looking to the future. &#8216;Protecting&#8217; views is important but insufficient. Proposals for &#8216;high buildings&#8217; &#8216;tall buildings&#8217; and &#8216;towers&#8217; should be viewed in context, never in isolation. Studies of their visual and environmental impact require scenic quality assessments, a policy context and full testing on a digital model of the city. As the below quotations reveal, London&#8217;s river is both a Place of Darkness and a Place of Light.<br \/>\n <strong>William Blake, in 1794<\/strong>, found &#8216;in every face I meet \/ Marks of weakness, marks of woe&#8217; where &#8216;the Thames does flow&#8217;.<br \/>\n <strong>William Wordsworth, 8 years later<\/strong> found the Thames a river of beauty and romance. He declared that &#8216;Earth has not anything to show more fair&#8217; (1802).<br \/>\n <strong>Joseph Conrad, in 1899,<\/strong> knew the Thames as a place of history, romance, toil, darkness and light. He saw London as &#8216;the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth&#8217;, a place which had known &#8216;the dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires&#8217; and was yet &#8216;one of the dark places of the earth.&#8217;<br \/>\n <strong>Since 1945<\/strong> property developers have seen the Thames as a place to make a quick buck<br \/>\n <strong>Since 2000<\/strong>, some wealthy immigrants have viewed riverside apartments as great places to launder the ill-gotten gains of financial scams and miscellaneous corruption.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Recent blog posts about London&#8217;s River Thames skyline landscape<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/13\/the-122-leadenhall-cheesegrater-and-protecting-londons-skyline-landscape-view-of-st-pauls-cathedral-from-fleet-street\/\"> The 122 Leadenhall Cheesegrater and protecting London\u2019s skyline landscape view of St Paul\u2019s Cathedral from Fleet Street<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/11\/the-shard-architecture-and-skyline-landscape-symbolic-reviews\/\"> The Shard architecture and skyline landscape symbolic reviews<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/09\/sunlight-tall-buildings-and-the-city-of-londons-new-urban-landscape-architecture\/\">Sunlight, tall buildings and the City of London\u2019s new urban landscape architecture<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/26\/the-visual-impact-of-renzo-pianos-shard-on-the-landscape-and-skyline-of-the-river-thames\/\"> The visual impact of Renzo Piano\u2019s Shard on the landscape and skyline of the River Thames<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/25\/londons-skyline-landscape-and-high-buildings-policy-and-my-apology-for-postmodern-urban-design\/\">London\u2019s skyline: landscape and high buildings policy \u2013 and my apology for postmodern urban design<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/22\/london-sightseeing-a-cruise-on-a-river-thames-boat\/\">London Sightseeing &#8211; a cruise on a River Thames boat<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>See also:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=M5fPhdOCJrU\">Rem Koolhaas on London&#8217;s skyline<\/a>. Koolhaas remarks that &#8216;London has always changed dramatically and it&#8217;s still is not a very dramatic city. So it can go on. I think that in London whatever you do you do not disturb an earlier coherence. You do not disturb an earlier utopia like in Paris. It can stand a lot of development without suffering&#8217;.\u00a0 I read this comment as a polite way of saying that most of London&#8217;s riverside is pretty dull, as the above video shows, it has its moments &#8211; but not enough of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I see the Banks of the Thames as a place where, during the twentieth century, unimaginative planning and selfishly mediocre architecture often conspired to produce designs better suited to a rundown provincial town than to the heart of a great city. Skylines, landscape and architecture should be considered together, looking to the past and looking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,16,18,19,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}