London's Greatest Buildings

42119 Views 234 Replies 65 Participants Last post by randolph, Mar 31, 2016

randolph

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2007

There is a lot of bigging up London Town on this forum - and I for one don't dispute she is a great city. However how many truely world class buildings does she have? I would sadly contend the answer is all too few. Can London punch her wieght on a world stage? Or is she all mouth and no trousers? (innit!) Here are the buildings I feel are truely world class either because they are iconic or because they are examples of great architecture - perhaps you agree or have other examples.

Tower of London
St Pauls
The Palace of Westminster
The British Museum
Tower Bridge
Lloyds
The Dome
The Barbican
The London Eye

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mulattokid

· #2 · May 4, 2007 (Edited)

The Palm House, Kew
About 30 wren churches
Westminster Abbey
Selfridges
The Prudential Building
Horseguard
Royal Crescent
Carlton House Terrace
Park Crescent
Telecom Tower
Numerous world class theatres (Globe, Paladium, The Royals etc)
Royal Albert Hall
St PAncras Hotel
Old British museum reading rooms (new British Museum?)
Paddington Station
Lambeth Palace
Kings Cross Station
Charing Cross Station
New Heathrow Control Tower
National GAllery
Battersea Power Station
Tate Gallery
Terminal 5
NAtural History Museum
V & A
Royal Hospital
Syon House
Chiswick House
Ham House (Greater London)
Hampton Court (greater London)

Must have a leek....

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Monkey

· #3 · May 4, 2007 (Edited)

My top 100 London buildings (edited):

01) Big Ben/Parliament
02) St Paul's Cathedral
03) St Pancras Station
04) Tower Bridge
05) London Eye
06) Millennium Dome
07) Westminster Abbey
08) Wembley Stadium
09) Swiss Re
10) Greenwich Naval College

11) Palm House at Kew Gardens
12) Royal Courts of Justice
13) Harrods
14) Natural History Museum
15) Westminster Cathedral
16) British Museum
17) Canary Wharf Tube
18) HSBC skyscraper
19) 1 Canada Square
20) Royal Albert Hall

21) Tate Modern
22) Tower of London
23) Middle Temple Hall
24) Lloyds of London
25) Former Express Building (Fleet St)
26) Regent's Park Crescent
27) Carlton House Terrace (The Mall)
28) London Business School
29) Hampton Court Palace
30) The Treasury

31) The Quadrant Regent Street
32) Sri Swaminarayan Mandir
33) Embankment Place
34) Somerset House
35) Royal Academy of Arts
36) St Mary le Strand
37) All Soul's Church
38) Christ Church Spitalfields
39) Paddington Station and Hilton
40) Albert Bridge

41) Millennium Bridge
42) Greenwich Royal Observatory
43) Victoria & Albert Museum
44) Burlington Arcade
45) Russell Hotel
46) Hoover Building
47) 88 Wood Street
48) Lloyds Registry of Shipping
49) St Thomas's Hospital (old part)
50) Whitehall Court

51) Albert Memorial
52) Waterloo Eurostar Terminal
53) Hays Galleria
54) Lendenhall Market
55) Liberty
56) Kew Pagoda
57) Brompton Oratory
58) Shell Mex House
59) Covent Garden
60) Landmark Hotel

61) St James's Palace
62) Royal Opera House and Vilar Hall
63) Lyceum Theatre
64) Theatre Royal Haymarket
65) Palace Theatre
66) Ingeni Building
67) Channel 4 Building
68) Royal Holloway College
69) St Sophia's Greek church
70) Mandarin Oriental Hotel

71) Shree Sanatan Mandir
72) Buddhapadipa Temple
73) Wimbledon Court no 1
74) Westminster Tube
75) Stansted Airport
76) St Martin in the Fields
77) Russian Orthodox Church (Chiswick)
78) Lambeth Palace
79) Butler's Wharf
80) Claridges Hotel

81) Montevetro Building
82) Pan Peninsula
83) Albion Riverside
84) St Mary le Bow
85) West London Synagogue
86) 10 Fleet Place
87) Waterloo IMAX cinema
89) Admiralty Arch
90) Lincoln's Inn

91) Broadgate Tower
92) Exchange House (Broadgate)
93) York House (BL)
94) Liverpool Street Station
95) Victoria Station
96) Citypoint Tower
97) Finsbury Circus
98) Moorhouse
99) The Royal Exchange
100) Laban Dance Centre

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wjfox

· #4 · May 4, 2007

^ I think you overrate the Millenium Dome.

It's just a massive tent really. And it's a symbol of government failure.

I agree with most of your other choices though.

Monkey

· #5 · May 4, 2007 (Edited)

randolph said:
There is a lot of bigging up London Town on this forum - and I for one don't dispute she is a great city. However how many truely world class buildings does she have? I would sadly contend the answer is all too few. Can London punch her wieght on a world stage? Or is she all mouth and no trousers? (innit!) Here are the buildings I feel are truely world class either because they are iconic or because they are examples of great architecture - perhaps you agree or have other examples.

I think London has more individually impressive buildings than any other city in the world. Paris, Rome, New York and Shanghai have a lot too but London can beat any and all of them. New York's are almost all skyscrapers - much less varied than London's. Rome has an incredible collection of pre C19th architecture but they are mainly churches (but what churches!) and almost all are pre C19th buildings. There are hardly any C21st, C20th, or even C19th buildings of note in Rome. Paris comes closest but Paris's modern buildings are less impressive than London's. Shanghai has a great collection too and is already rivalling London, Paris, and New York with the best collection combining old and new.

Cat man do

· #6 · May 4, 2007

Probably room for the new British Library in there somewhere too

Monkey

· #7 · May 4, 2007

wjfox2002 said:
^ I think you overrate the Millenium Dome.

It's just a massive tent really. And it's a symbol of government failure.

I agree with most of your other choices though.

Well I think most of you guys are going to overrate Swiss Re and other skyscrapers. Im my opinion none of them deserve to be on London's top ten list. However 122 Leadenhall Street will deserve to be on the top 10 list and of course the Shard if it ever gets built. How can anyone say this is overrated?

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Englishman

· #8 · May 4, 2007

I really don't like the new British library or the barbican

Monkey

· #9 · May 4, 2007

Cat man do said:
Probably room for the new British Library in there somewhere too

"New British Library"? The British Museum, which includes the old British Library reading room surrounded by Norman Foster's glass roof canopy, has already been mentioned. Surely you're not referring to that embarrassingly bad brick pile next to St Pancras? :dunno:

Monkey

· #10 · May 4, 2007

If I extend my list to a top 40 I will include that massive neo-gothic pile on Victoria Embankment next to Hungerford Bridge (I forget its name), the Albert Bridge, and Terry Farrell's Embankment Place above Charing Cross Station.

Cat man do

· #11 · May 4, 2007

Monkey said:
"New British Library"? The British Museum, which includes the old British Library reading room surrounded by Norman Foster's glass roof canopy, has already been mentioned. Surely you're not referring to that embarrassingly bad brick pile next to St Pancras? :dunno:

Indeed, what hey if Harrods is in there, its just a big Victorian shop.

BTW - It seems Microsoft Live has the dome as one of the seven wonders of Britain. http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=250F429081C5ABBB!889

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El_Greco

· #12 · May 4, 2007

Monkey said:
Paris comes closest but Paris's modern buildings are less impressive than London's.

Paris' skyscrapers are boring but its modern low-rise buildings are more impressive than Londons IMO.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=470540

Heres my list :

1.Parliament
2.Natural History Museum
3.Victoria And Albert Museum
4.St Pancras Station
5.Royal Courts of Justice
6.Tower Bridge
7.Lloyds
8.St Pauls Cathedral
9.St Brides Church
10.Prudential Assurance Building
11.Royal College Of Organists
12.Swiss Re
13.Harrods
14.Selfridges
15.Old Bailey
16.Palm House
17.Battersea Power Station
18.Tate Modern
19.St Mary Le Bow
20.Royal Albert Hall
21.British Museum
22.St Johns Smith Square
23.Westminster Abbey
24.Hampton Court
25.City Of London School For Boys Blackfriars
26.Bishopsgate Institute
27.Whitechapel Gallery
28.Millennium Dome
29.London Eye
30.1 Canada Square
31.Bryant & Mays Match Factory
32.Newham Town Hall
33.Westminster Cathedral
34.The Adelphi
35.10 Trinity Square

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Monkey

· #13 · May 4, 2007

14

I prepared this little collection of photos a while back as a rebuff to some idiot at SSP who was claiming that London "wasn't a visual city". :|

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Monkey

· #14 · May 4, 2007

4

There are some new treasures in the suburbs that never get covered here:

The golden stone temple is the under-construction Shri Sanatan temple in Alperton:

The larger white temple is the Shri Swaminarayan temple in Neasdon (near Wembley).

You can see more of Jonas's and my photos of Indian London here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=129889

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Newcastle Guy

· #15 · May 4, 2007

Those temples look great Monkey

Good

· #16 · May 4, 2007

For Paris:

Roman Empire:
1) Lutèce arena
2) Cluny therms

Middle Ages
3) Notre-Dame
4) Sainte-Chapelle
5) Saint-Eustache
6) Cluny Hostel
7) Saint-Germain-des-Prés
8) Saint-Denis Basilique
9) Conciergerie

Renaissance
10) The Louvre
11) Saint-Etienne du Mont

XVIIth century
12) The Invalides
13) Val-de-Grâce
14) Institut
15) Place des Vosges
16) Place Vendôme

XVIIIth century
17) Panthéon
18) Palais Royal
19) Place de la Concorde

XIXth century
20) Madeleine
21) Sacré-Coeur
22) Opéra Garnier
23) Eiffel Tower
24) Grand Palais
25) Arc de Triomphe
26) Gare de Lyon
27) Bridge Alexandre III
28) Galeries Lafayette

XXth century
29) Art nouveau metro entrances
30) Palais de Chaillot
31) Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
32) Le Corbusier villas
33) Mallet-Stevens villas
34) Arabic World Institute
35) Pei's pyramid
36) Grande Arche
37) Simone de Beauvoir footbridge
38) Pompidou Center
39) Stade de France
40) Portzamparc's Cité de la Musique

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potto

· #17 · May 4, 2007

uh oh

Monkey

· #18 · May 4, 2007

El_Greco said:
Paris' skyscrapers are boring but its modern low-rise buildings are more impressive than Londons IMO.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=470540

There are some nice buildings there but I disagree with your comment that all of London's contemporary low-rise buildings are boring boxes. What of low rise modern buildings such as Wembley Stadium, Millennium Dome, Heathrow Terminal 5, Millennium Bridge, Canary Wharf Tube, Laban Dance Academy, Libeskind's Metropolitan University Graduate Centre, Foster's LSE Library, his Tanaka Business School, his Albion Riverside in Battersea, City Hall, Moorhouse, the hindu temples (above), Tate Modern, British Museum Great Court, Waterloo Eurostar Terminal etc?

potto

· #19 · May 4, 2007

I would say that building architecture in the UK has never really led but rather followed. This has slooowly changed over the past couple of decades and we are now beginning to see evidence of some World leading architecture appearing. Just a shame all those fuckwits trying to stop it all because they think it ruins something that only exists in their mind.

Dan1987

· #20 · May 4, 2007

Good said:
For Paris:

Whats the point on even posting that here? Its not a 'Your City's Greatest Buildings' Thread! :bash:

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