The City of London is getting taller, and new images released today show what it will look like in 2026.

With 13 office blocks consented, under construction or due to start construction in its eastern cluster, the pipeline means that the City skyline will look a lot different in around a decade’s time.

According to the City of London, around 60% of the new growth is expected to be delivered in the eastern cluster, and there is currently over 1.37 million square metres of office space under construction in the City with the potential to accommodate 85,000 workers.

One of the more noticeable trends to have emerged around new tall developments approved by the City of London is that they should have public viewing galleries. Six of the 13 upcoming developments will have free public viewing galleries.

These are 22 Bishopsgate (TwentyTwo), 120 Fenchurch Street, 6-8 Bishopsgate, 1 Leadenhall Street and 1 Undershaft, which will also host a dedicated Museum of London gallery at the top of the building, alongside learning spaces and London’s highest restaurant. These six include 2-3 Finsbury Avenue, located north of the eastern cluster.

In 2026, there could be enough viewing galleries to play a “viewing gallery pub crawl”.

The City also granted TwentyTwo planning permission on the condition that its deliveries are sent to an offsite consolidation centre. This is the first time an office tower has been subject to such a planning requirement. The City Corporation required the use of off-site consolidation to reduce the impact of freight deliveries through the City’s streets.

Three tall buildings completed construction in 2016/17 including 1 Creechurch Place in the eastern cluster. Approaching completion are 120 Fenchurch Street, The Scalpel, 22 Bishopsgate, 100 Bishopsgate and 70 St Mary Axe.

The CGIs display how the City skyline is expected to look in 2026 based on currently consented schemes.

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11 comments
  1. ChrisMitch says:

    Nothing to hide the walkie-talkie then – that sure is an ugly building.

  2. Frank says:

    It has all the charm of a small midwestern city in the US.

  3. Andy P says:

    An extra 85,000 workers? How are all these thousands of extra workers going to travel into the centre when the current public transport can’t cope with it as it is?! Crossrail and Crossrail Two won’t be enough as not everyone will come in from the areas of London served by them. Whatever happened to computers meaning we can all work from home lol

  4. Melvyn says:

    Crossrail 1/ Elizabeth Line adds 10% to train capacity and will remove large numbers of existing passengers off other lines like the Central and Circle lines releasing capacity for more passengers.

    While major Station upgrades linked to the above making a number of underground stations accessible will allow greater throughput of passengers at these stations . While major upgrades to Bank Station will increase capacity at this station and finally we also have the full Thameslink project coming on stream adding new north south capacity with interchange at Farringdon Station with Elizabeth Line

  5. M@ says:

    As Iโ€™ve written elsewhere before, I find it amazing that the Gherkin – until recently the second tallest building in the City – is already becoming invisible from many angles. You canโ€™t see it at all in the first two pictures above.

  6. M@ says:

    Also, 1 Undershaft totally needs a spire, both to complete its soar, and to make the name more apt. To hell with aviation height regulations ๐Ÿ˜‰

    • Marion says:

      Never mind the gherkin and all the modern buildings, what about poor old style Paul’s cathedral? Totally surrounded by blocks.

  7. Charles53 says:

    Ugh. What a mess. It doesn’t look like a mini-Manhattan, as some people might like to think. Manhattan’s skyline developed incrementally, and was largely the result of a 1916 planning code. This looks like a giant hotch-potch, totally unplanned. What’s worse is that this collection of glassy monsters is in the oldest, most historic part of London. The Gherkin was the most creative of the skyscrapers. It had wit & character. It’s no longer visible.

  8. Andrew says:

    I hope they will take care of adding more exciting shapes again as they’ve done when they started. The Pinnacle, for example, had a gorgeous design and has been turned into the soulless 22 Bishopsgate. ๐Ÿ™

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