Luxury home boom to change face of London
Published:Thursday | January 30, 2014 | 12:00 AM
LONDON (AP):
The face of London is about to change.
Dozens of buildings of 20 storeys or more are under construction or planned along the south bank of the River Thames just upstream from Big Ben and the majestic dome of St Paul's Cathedral. The development surge, fuelled by wealthy foreigners looking for a safe place to invest, has spawned concern that the city is sacrificing its heritage for the sake of luxury homes.
"London is in danger of becoming a sort of Abu Dhabi, a sort of Hong Kong," warned Nigel Barker of English Heritage, a body devoted to protecting the nation's inheritance.
It's not that London lacks distinctive tall buildings: the 87-storey Shard stabs the sky south of London Bridge, the 41-storey Gherkin rises above the financial district, and soon there will be the 38-storey Walkie Talkie, all of which earned their nicknames because of their unique shapes.