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Eyes Over London
FAQs
Why are
there so few accessible tall buildings in London?
That's partly
down to private landlords who don't want to share their views
with the rest of us (see Ones That Got Away), partly down to
public authorities which have consistently blocked applications
to build tall buildings and partly down to lazy Londoners who
can't be bothered to get worked up about the one obvious lack
in their city.
Go on then,
what would LondonNet do about it?
Make planning
applications for big towers dependant on  their making full provision for public
access, at least to their summits. If New York (World Trade Centre)
and Paris (La Grande Arche) can do it, there's no reason we can't
have office blocks which are also great viewing galleries.
What about
the threat of terrorism?
 Terrorism has often been trotted out
as a reason for blocking public access to tall buildings ever
since the IRA put a bomb under the Post Office Tower in the 1970s.
But what was always a paper thin excuse is now torn to shreds
following the moves towards peace in Ireland.
Is there
any light on the horizon, tall-building-wise?
 The
Millennium Wheel (British
Airways London Eye) now offers a vista similar to that of the Oxo
Tower (see below and London Lookouts Central) with the added
bonus of going round and round inside a cute glass bubble. There're
also a few applications in the pipeline for huge new office blocks
in the City but, if built, these are unlikely to admit the likes
of you and me.
In the meantime,
what do the great and the good of LondonNet reckon is the best
viewing platform of all?
For inner London,
we go for the Oxo Tower, with its views west across the river
to Waterloo Bridge and east to the City skyline. As far as outer
London goes, the view from south London suburb Crystal Palace
is hard to beat.
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