PHANTOM PROJECTS IN THE UK
This is
probably the most well known of Britain's many phantom skyscraper
projects; The London Millennium tower
conceived in 1996 by Foster and Partners was definitely an
ambitious proposal. (beside it in the second picture is a failed
proposal by the architect Calatrava to increase the height of and
add a spire to the top of the old BP HQ, which is now taking
shape as City Point)
At 1,265ft tall it would have become Europe's tallest, easilly overtaking both the Eiffel Tower and the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt at 985ft. It would also have been higher than the Empire State Building. It also would have put London's other puny towers to shame at over twice the height of it's little neighbour - Tower 42. However, it was partly due to this reason though that the towers progress was halted.
Despite meeting the many criteria put forward by the London Planning Advisory Council there was opposition. Even when a revised scheme of the same tower at around 1000ft was put forward to calm the many voices against such a tall building, the project was quietly shelved, with only shady and dubious reasons given for the decision - planes might crash into it...
The buildings
legacy however has been quite important. It emphasised the need
for more office space in the overcrowded and overpriced city
which has recently been officially noticed by the City of london
Commission (click for more info).
London is officially the worlds number 1 financial centre and demand for space is huge and companies are certainly willing to build skyscrapers there. However the vast number of regulations for the city make this very hard... However this project may be one of the last to have to contend with such strict constraints.
Canary Wharf.
These are the 'metropolis' style original concept pictures for
the site of London's abandoned docks. drawn up in the early 80s.
Later a revised scheme was drawn up with 1 single huge huge tower
and then 3 towers widely spaced. eventually the farmiliar design
of 3 towers in a cluster was settled on and is nearing completion.
The picture over there is aldgate tower, also planned for Canary
wharf that collapsed with the market in the early 90s. just as
well i personally feel.
(Enough
of default Microsoft 'sexy typeface' now I think) As far back as
1870 there were skyscrapers planned for London. Youd better
appreciate this picture because I shelled out an astronomical £7
to get this scanned!!!. in fact I would appreciate you staring at
it for at least 5 minutes or my efforts would have been wasted.
The plan was for a fantastic 550ft Gothic tower in a similar
style to Big Ben to be the Albert Memorial. It was designed in
meticulous detail and in perfect harmony with the Houses of
parliament and just on the north side of the road to the Victoria
Tower. The design also included another central tower to
Wesminster Abbey to 'lessen the shattering impact' and a similar
Gothic building further down the road.
"Living Bridge" London>
"MANCHESTER SKYSCRAPER PROPOSED
PLANS FOR A MANCHESTER SKYSCRAPER, an extension to Sunlight House,
Quay Street, are to be presented to the Draft Schemes Sub-Committee.
It will be twice the height of the present building, and will be
built between Sunlight House and the Opera House. It will be
surmounted with a large clock tower. The £1m, 35-storey, 360ft
building has been designed by Mr Joseph Sunlight" From The
Manchester Eyewitness 25th Aug 1948(below)
A huge tower was actually started in wembly park soon after the Eiffel tower was built. the attitude behind it was 'anything the French can do we can do better'. However it appears that we actually found that quite a tricky statement to follow through. The Wembly Park Tower was a taller version of the Eiffel tower to rise to around 1,200ft but at the fist stage (ie at around the top of the lower legs of the Eiffel Tower) the builders ran out of money and the whole thing was demolished...so that was impressive.
Here the paragraphs I think will have to shrink to little more than one or two words as my knowledge becomes tenuous. Liverpool, according to the 1978 Guinness Book of records was considering plans for a 1,800ft or higher building...I know nothing more of the subject other than...there is no sign of it there now.
A 500ft building called Winchester House was proposed for a site between the Nat-west Tower and Drapers gardens (see Architronic site) but was apparently 'inappropriate'.
Thats about all I can think of for now. Except it is highly likely that Green Bird Link ( a picture can be found to the left of its description here) and City gate Eco tower will also be added to the phantom list due to either their ...er...questinable aesthetic merits or the serious risk of them hitting aircraft.
The latter information I got from a really fascinating book from the Library called 'London as it might have been' by Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde. Its got loads of stuff from the above, to phantom bridges and piazzas, alternative St. Pauls Cathedral designs and loads of wierd, wierd buildings by clearly insane architects. For Example a 500ft pyramid mausoleum for millions of Londons dead?! A scary 500ft Russian Communist style Guildhall and loads of amazing breathtaking designs that would have made London the most dangerous city for driving...because of people staring.