As modern architecture goes, the Shard, albeit the tallest, is just the latest in a long line of perspex-like perpendiculars to launch itself on the London skyline. In terms of aesthetic appeal, its riverside locale is the public face we have come to know and love through the media but viewed from the back streets of south London it looks like what it is – a foreign body that is out of synch with its surroundings.
Inaugurating the sexing up of the London Bridge quarter, it is neither a piece of street art nor a tourist attraction but an overseas investment showcase of unabashed wealth for the mega-rich. Local residents have rallied against it but ultimately they will disappear as the surrounding properties are bought and raised in an upwardly mobile direction.
Like a mote in London’s eye, the glass shard gets my vote for the WordPress weekly photo challenge of ‘foreign‘.
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Expensive, off-limits and owned by foreign investors – the Shard is the perfect metaphor for London
London Bridge Quarter – The Shard
A mote in the eye, nice analogy. We see McMansions here on our island and feel the same way.
spoiling the view everywhere then
It looks really odd this high and thin tour in front of the tiny little house
Definitly a foreign architecture up there !!!
alas I fear the tiny houses will eventually go
It is very dramatic.
and ‘in your face’
World is changing – London also.