Do You Wanna Get High?

- 1 Canada Square: Size isn't everything

Today's entry was inspired by a notice I saw at my work encouraging our elderly residents to wander about getting in people's way in a variety of exciting locations; the Tate Modern (odds of hearing the phrase 'what a load of rubbish' during that day trip - pretty decent), Brighton Beach and The London Eye, which is promoted to sceptical seniors by claiming to offer the chance to 'get high' on the Eye, by viewing London from it's highest point. Hang on, I thought. The London Eye's the tallest structure in London? I was torn between Canary Wharf and that gangly bloke that works in the call centre, but thought it entirely possible, given the revelations of these first few weeks, that a giant ferris wheel may indeed be the biggest thing in this fair city. But it's not - it is indeed One Canada Square, otherwise known as the Canary Wharf building (the one with the triangle bit on top), which stands at 235m tall. The London Eye is pretty big (135m), and is the third biggest structure in the capital, but is in fact only #18 on the list of the biggest buildings and structures. Matey from Customer Services sadly didn't feature; technically he's an organism, but still only managed second in that list behind Peter Crouch.


I then started thinking about how few skyscrapers London actually has (a good thing, in my view) - good old Wikipedia claims that skyscraper building in London has been restricted for many years, in an attempt to protect the city-wide views of landmarks like the Tower of London, which is a fantastic-looking building, and St. Paul's Cathedral, which quite frankly always gives me the creeps as I once had a dream about looking up at it before being surrounded by zombies (or was that 28 Days Later? Whatever, knock it down, it makes me feel weird). So, when compared to other major cities, how does One Canada Square measure up as a tallest building? Well:


One Canada Square, the tallest building in London and indeed in the UK, is only the 190th tallest building in the world.



The list is largely dominated by Far East countries (the tallest of all is in Taiwan) and the U.S., although Dubai has a few (possibly fuelling it's giddy top-2 placement in the League of Wasteroos), and I'm strangely proud of the stout nature of our tallest building; this is a nation that repeatedly goes on pointless wars, has invaded numerous other countries and seems to constantly desire to be seen as the daddy of the entire world, yet we've never bothered trying to build enormous buildings, perhaps the architectural equivalent of popping a pair of socks down your pants. This will change in the near future as several new, shiny buildings will dwarf the Wharf (five taller buildings have already been approved), so it makes this fact even more valid that it's not constant. It's one worth revisiting to see if we can avoid the temptation within us all to cover up that creepy cathedral.

One more thing: the tallest accessible structure outside of London is the gleaming white pile of taxpayers' money that is Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth. I've seen it up close. It looks good. Just not £35 million good. Second, and technically the highest you can get outside London (Spinnaker, rather smartly for an observation tower, does not allow access to it's very summit) is Beetham Tower, a hotel/apartment complex in Manchester, with Blackpool Tower coming in 4th, and at 158 metres, trumping the London Eye even for the title of biggest fairground attraction in this glorious nation.