Unbuilt London: Britannia Triumphant upon Greenwich HillGreenwich could today be less famous for its observatory and meridian, than for a gigantic statue which would have dominated the area.
Unbuilt London: Replacing buses with a monorail networkIn 1967, the Conservative Party published a document calling for the scrapping of buses in central London – and replacing them with a huge Monorail network.
In 1832, Parliament passed the Great Reform Act, and London’s skyline was nearly as radically reformed, with a 1,000 feet tall gold plated column to commemorate the occasion.
When planes were small and buildings expected to be large, putting an airport right in the center of a city was seen as a very sensible idea. And thus it was that in 1931, an architect showed off one of…
Unbuilt London: The Iron BridgeJust over 200 years ago, plans were shown off to replace the venerable London Bridge with a massive single span iron bridge.
Unbuilt London: Stepney’s Massive Clock TowerNearly a hundred years ago, plans were shown of for a mighty civic new building for the east-end of London that would have dominated the skyline for miles around.
200 years ago, a plan was announced to plonk a giant pyramid in the centre of London, for no purpose other than to cock a snoot at the French.
Unbuilt London: The Isle of Dogs AirportIn the post-war period when London had a surplus of rubble and empty spaces, an airport was planned in the docklands area with SIX runways.
London has in recent years gained a loop railway that runs around the suburbs, but 100 years ago, a proposal was made for a much larger loop which would have dramatically changed how we see the city today.
Back when London was surrounded by more green and had just one airport, a radical scheme was cooked up for a high-speed monorail linking city to airport. And not just any monorail — these “trains” could also run on roads!
Imagine if you will, a giant flat surface larger than Trafalgar Square overhanging the River Thames — this was the proposed central London Helidrome.
A giant railway terminus was once planned for central London that would have swept away all the land between Holborn and Farringdon. Obviously never built, its failure indirectly lead to the creation of the London Underground.
Unbuilt London: The Victorian skyscraper taller than The ShardAround 160 years ago, plans were announced for a skyscraper in London that would have a summit even higher than The Shard stands today.
Imagine a tube tunnel running under Southwark and the City, but carrying full size mainline trains — and you would be imagining something that was actually proposed.
When London Bridge was being shipped off the to USA, one of the ideas mooted for its modern replacement was a high level, covered travolator to help speed pedestrians from the railway station to the City.
Back in the late 1980s, plans were seriously looked at which could have seen a new Northern Line spur constructed between Kennington, and either Streatham, or along the proposed Bakerloo Line extension, towards Peckham.
Fairly recently, a chap called Moffat wrote a story about an underground railway in Westminster — to considerable fury of tube geeks who spent an inordinate time chewing over holes in the plot.
A little over 100 years ago a radical new form of underground railway was proposed — a monorail of most unusual design, but one that would be designed like an underground roller coaster with sharp declines and ascents between stations.
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