Developers started the building boom several years ago as banks, law firms and other companies expanded quickly. In many cases, property firms knocked down buildings from the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s to make way for towering structures of glass and steel. The City's mix of centuries-old architecture and cheap post-World War II construction didn't appeal to big banks, in particular, which wanted large, open trading floors and modern facades.
But as the new buildings rise next to London's most historic sites, from St. Paul's Cathedral to the medieval Guildhall, some critics are balking. In a speech last month, Prince Charles, an outspoken architecture critic, called many of the new buildings "carbuncles" that will leave London with a "pockmarked" skyline. "For some unaccountable reason we seem to be determined to vandalize these few remaining sites which retain the kind of human scale and timeless character that so attract people to them and which increase in value as time goes by," he said.
