Architecture of London

The White Tower (1080) the Romanesque central keep of the tower of London complex

Many of medieval London's most significant structures were initially constructed by the Normans, who recognised the importance of architecture as a means of demonstrating their power and of subordinating the native Saxon population after their conquest of England. The Norman conquest was a major turning point in the history of English architecture as they brought with them a new European Romanesque style and a greater architectural ambition than their Saxon predecessors. Almost immediately after their conquest of England the Normans built several fortresses along the River Thames in the centre of London to consolidate their power within the city, especially the Tower of London which survives today.[16] The White Tower; the central keep of the Tower of London complex, was completed in the 1080s in the Romanesque style and would have been the tallest building in the city; it served as a royal residence for William the Conqueror. A key element of The White Tower is the chapel of St John's, one of the oldest and least altered Romanesque churches in England, built inside the fortification.[17] The only other surviving Romanesque church in central London is St Bartholomew-the-Great in Smithfield, the remains of a much larger priory church. The Tower of London complex was greatly extended over the centuries with the addition of two outer defensive walls, with the complex reaching its current format by the end of the 13th century.

Another significant London structure initially constructed by the Normans was Westminster Hall. Completed in 1097 in the reign of William II as a royal residence, the hall become the foundation of the Palace of Westminster, a complex which gradually expanded throughout the Middle Ages and eventually served as the home of England's parliament. The hall was radically altered in the reign of Richard II in the 14th century becoming the largest such hall in medieval Europe. In Richard II's expansion an exceptionally wide span hammerbeam roof was added, now considered a marvel of medieval engineering, while the Norman outer walls were retained with the addition of gothic windows.[18] Westminster Hall survives, having escaped the fire of 1834 which destroyed the majority of the medieval Palace of Westminster. It was incorporated into Barry and Pugin's neo-gothic Palace of Westminster; they admired its authentic gothic style. Other surviving examples of medieval halls in London can be found in Guildhall (1440) which once served as London's city hall (greatly altered after the great fire) and the Old Hall of Lincoln's Inn (1492) which retains its hammerbeam roof.

North portal of Westminster Abbey, c. 14th century

The Normans began the construction of Old St Paul's Cathedral on Ludgate Hill, replacing a primitive Saxon timber-framed building.[19] By the time of its completion in the 14th century the cathedral included elements of Gothic architecture, such as an ornate rose window at the east end, alongside the Romanesque nave constructed by the Normans. The cathedral was one of the largest and tallest churches in medieval Europe; at one point it was crowned by an exceptionally tall spire similar to that of Salisbury Cathedral which was about 158 m (518 ft) high, although this was destroyed after being hit by lightning in the 16th century.[20] The cathedral was latterly completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666 and replaced by Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral which retained the medieval cathedral's Latin cross layout.

London's other major church, Westminster Abbey, was first constructed in the reign of Edward the Confessor in the Romanesque style. It was rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 13th century in the reign of Henry III, producing the building which largely survives today. The architecture of the abbey is reminiscent of French Cathedrals like Reims rather than the English Gothic of the period, leading to speculation that the master mason was French.[21] The most significant later addition to the abbey was the Henry VII Chapel. Built in the late 15th to early 16th century in late English Gothic style, it has an ornate fan vaulted ceiling. The twin-towered west front of the abbey was added in the 18th century to the designs of Nicholas Hawksmoor, utilising a faithful Neo-Gothic style intended to be in keeping with the rest of the building. Other significant Gothic churches surviving from the Middle Ages include Southwark Cathedral: a former priory that was the first gothic church in London, Temple Church (13th century) a rare round Knights Templar church, as well as a few city churches that survived The Great Fire like St Andrew Undershaft, St Helen's Bishopsgate, St Olave's Hart Street and St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.

Staple Inn (late 16th century), London's last surviving Inn of Chancery

The Tudor period was a period of rapid expansion for London, both economically through growing overseas trade and in terms of population which grew dramatically from roughly 50,000 in 1500 to 250,000 in 1600. As a result, the city grew considerably, and by the end of the 16th century, the majority of London's population lived outside the city walls for the first time.[22] Henry VII and Henry VIII commissioned a substantial number of royal works in this period, notably the extension and construction of several palaces including the massive Palace of Whitehall that stretched all the way from Westminster Hall to Charing Cross, the extravagant Nonsuch Palace in Greenwich and St James's Palace which still partially survives today. By far the most substantial remaining Tudor palace in Greater London is Hampton Court Palace, originally built for Cardinal Wolsey and then later becoming a residence of Henry VIII. Greatly extended by Christopher Wren in the late 17th century, the palace still retains most of its original Tudor architecture with its original 16th-century great hall, chapel, astronomical clock and gatehouses; it is often regarded as one of the finest example of Tudor Architecture in England.[22] Henry VIII influenced the current form of central London by establishing the hunting grounds of Hyde Park, Green Park and St James's Park, which give London its exceptionally green city centre.

Tudor red brick gateway to Lambeth Palace (1495)

A significant development of Tudor architecture was the increased use of red brick, which became more readily available due to technical innovations in the late 15th century.[23] Examples of this can be seen in the form of Bruce Castle (c.early 16th century): believed to be one of the oldest brick houses in England, the gatehouse of Lambeth Palace (1495) and St James's Palace (1536). Tudor architecture is most closely associated with its distinctive vernacular buildings which were typically timber framed and filled with wattle and daub giving the building a black and white 'checkerboard' appearance. Most commercial and residential buildings in London before the Great Fire had this form. Only a tiny handful of such buildings survive, including Staple Inn: an Inn of Chancery of the Tudor period, 41 Cloth Fair: central London's oldest house started in 1597 and Prince Henry's Room: a timber-framed jettied townhouse built in 1610. Although the vast majority of such structures were destroyed in the Great Fire, many timber-framed houses did, in fact, survive until as late as the late 19th and early 20th centuries but were demolished to make way for new development.[24] An example is the demolition of Wych Street in the Edwardian period to make way for Kingsway, a new road between the Strand and High Holborn.

St Paul's Cathedral and The City Churches by Canaletto (1747)

The most striking architectural achievement of the new city was the reconstruction of St Paul's Cathedral and the City Churches by Christopher Wren, the preeminent architect of the English Baroque movement. Much like his masterplan for the reconstruction of the city, Wren's original design for the new St Paul's Cathedral was rejected and a compromise design had to be reached. Inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Wren originally wanted to build a domed baroque style cathedral built in a Greek cross layout, but this design was rejected by the church as a result of the papist connotations of the Southern European design.[29] In an act of compromise, the design that was eventually built is a hybrid design which utilises baroque ornamentation and a great dome but built on the Latin cross layout of the former gothic cathedral. Largely as a result of the awkward incorporation of a Latin cross layout in a baroque design, the overall composition of the cathedral is considered to be inferior to most comparable baroque cathedrals of the same period, but the 111-metre-high dome completed in 1710 is one of the greatest ever built, and has become one of London's most enduring landmarks; it was London's tallest building from 1710 until 1962.[29] The main west facade with its double corinthian order and fine baroque towers is another successful feature of the exterior, with an imposing scale when viewed up Ludgate Hill.

The 51 city churches (25 of which survive) designed by Wren and his team are of great architectural significance. Stylistically they are eclectic and inventive designs, often built on small and limiting sites. Their towers are the most architecturally inventive feature of their exteriors. Among the best are the unusual tiered spire of St Bride's Fleet Street the tallest of the city churches and the tower of St Mary-le-Bow, an inventive mixture of classicism and gothic. Stylistically most of the churches are not purely baroque in style, an exception being St Stephen's Walbrook with its fine domed interior.[30] Many of the churches such as St Peter Upon Cornhill showcase influence from Dutch classicism and Palladianism, whereas others like St Mary Aldermary are purely neo-gothic recreations of the former medieval churches, complete with a fan vaulted ceiling recalling perpendicular gothic of the late Middle Ages. Despite the architectural merit of these buildings, perhaps the most significant achievement of Wren's reconstruction of St Paul's and the city churches was their overall interaction as an ensemble. Canaletto's 1750 views of the City of London show how St Paul's and the City Churches soar above the city. The result was a picturesque skyline whose beauty astounded visitors.[28] And so the Great Fire gave a new lease of life to the city. In the words of the architectural historian Dr Simon Thurley:

"This apparent catastrophe [...] was in reality one of the best things that ever happened to London. [...] The Great Fire of London enabled a new start - mass housing, handsome paved streets with modern churches and public buildings. There was a new Royal Exchange, a new Cathedral, a rebuilt Guildhall. London now was cleaner, more modern and more uniform than any other city in Europe [...] and it remained so until the mid 19th century."[28]

The Old Royal Naval College by Christopher Wren (1712) and Queens House (1635) by Inigo Jones, from the River Thames

Christopher Wren, the preeminent architect of this period, was tasked with the design of two new military hospitals; the Royal Hospital Chelsea for army veterans completed in 1692, and the Greenwich Hospital (latterly known as the Old Royal Naval College) completed in 1712. Royal Hospital Chelsea is one of Wren's more restrained works, with its red brick facades resembling long residential terraces. It nonetheless has a fine chapel and great hall with decorative interiors. In contrast, Old Royal Naval College with its ornate Painted Hall, St Paul's Chapel and symmetrical east and west wings that frame Queens House by Inigo Jones is widely considered the crowning glory of the English Baroque movement. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the site is described as "the finest and most dramatically sited architectural ensemble and landscape ensemble in the British Isles."[31]

Other fine examples of English Baroque are the Commissioner's Churches, 12 highly original churches built in response to a 1710 act of Parliament requesting 50 new churches in London (the further 38 were not completed). The majority of these were designed by Wren's former assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. Hawksmoor is well known for his eccentric and idiosyncratic style that draws upon influences in Greek, Roman, Egyptian and even medieval architecture. Perhaps the most lauded and best known of these churches is Christ Church, Spitalfields (1729) which showcases his trademark blend of baroque and gothic, as well his tendency to create buildings with an imposing sense of monumentality. Other Commissioner's Churches such as St Mary-le-Strand by James Gibbs and St John's Smith Square by Thomas Archer are superlative examples of late English Baroque Architecture showing a much stronger European influence than the designs of Wren or Hawksmoor but with a distinctly English sensibility.

The front door of 10 Downing Street (1734), a classic Georgian porch

Residential houses of this era in London are distinctive for their sunken basement built on brick arch foundations, rusticated base storey, taller piano nobile reception floor and attic storey. They are generally built from buff (pale yellow) London Stock Brick to golden section proportions, often spanning triple bay frontages with 'implied' columns or pilasters and carefully proportioned and very large off-white sash windows, slate mansard roofs above an Attic pediment. They were grouped in formal garden squares, crescents and terraces with wide pavements supported on brick vaults on wide, straight public streets, often with private access to romantically landscaped gardens. Later encroachment of commercial properties has significantly reduced the width of historic streets in many parts of London, where the original plans were comparable to those found in Continental urban planning.[35] The area of Spitalfields in East London has many extant early Georgian properties with some unusual continental features;[36] Soho – particularly Meard Street[37] and Westminster preserve many buildings in early Georgian style.

A typical Georgian house was designed to accommodate a single family, with front and back rooms on each floor and a partial-width rear 'closet' wing projection. The ground floor was reserved for business, the tall piano nobile for formal entertaining, and upper storeys with family bedrooms all accessed from a side stair. Servants were accommodated in the below-ground kitchen and in attic rooms in the roof. Each of the distinctions in function was subtly indicated in the decorative scheme of the façade by the sequential height of openings, projecting cornices and restrained decorative mouldings such as round-headed arches and rustication at the base and diminishing columns, sculptural capitals, balustrades and friezes expressing the top.

Spencer House (1756) John Vardy, London's grandest surviving aristocratic Georgian townhouse

Georgian houses in London did not just come in the form of simple terraces. Many much more sumptuous homes known as townhouses were built as city residences for the nobility and gentry as opposed to their country house or stately home.[38] The grandest of the London townhouses were stand-alone buildings like Spencer House but some were terraced buildings such as Chandos House. In the Georgian period many of these grand houses once lined Piccadilly and Park Lane but the majority of these were demolished as they went out of fashion in the late 19th and early 20th century, including Devonshire House on Piccadilly.[39] The few that do survive to this day include Spencer House, Burlington House, Apsley House, Chandos House, Cambridge House, Melbourne House, Marlborough House and Lancaster House. As well as this in the Greater London area a number of fine stately homes from the Georgian period can be found. These include the Palladian villa Chiswick House with landscape gardens by William Kent and Syon House with its lavish interiors by Robert Adam.

St Martin-in-the-Fields (1726) by James Gibbs

Many civic, commercial and religious structures were built in the Georgian period. Churches of the Georgian period were still very heavily influenced by the work of Christopher Wren who had pioneered the use of classical architecture in church design in England with his City Churches. But with the declining popularity of the Baroque style, Georgian church design took a more restrained Palladian approach than Wren. St Martin-in-the-Fields (1722) by James Gibbs is an archetypal church of the period, a simple neoclassical 'temple church' with restrained Palladian ornament on its exterior and a tall spire that evokes Wren's City Churches.[40] Its format was much copied across England and abroad. Gibbs' St Peter, Vere Street (1722) is a further indicator of the increasing simplicity of church design in the 18th century.

Palladian architecture dominated civic architecture in Georgian London. This is exemplified by William Kent's Horse Guards on Whitehall (1750), an essay in austere Palladianism.[41] Arguably the most significant secular architectural commission of Georgian London was Somerset House, a collection of government offices on the Strand that was to replace a 16th-century house of the same name on the site. The resulting building was designed by William Chambers and completed in 1776. The building is in a quadrangle around a grand courtyard. On the south side of the exterior a grand terrace overlooks the River Thames, and at ground level a watergate that would have once faced directly onto the River Thames before the construction of the Victoria Embankment.

New bridges across the River Thames were built in the Georgian period; the first bridges built in London since the early Middle Ages. These bridges included Westminster Bridge in 1750, Blackfriars Bridge in 1769 and Richmond Bridge in 1777; all were built in a neoclassical style. With the exception of Richmond Bridge, all of these bridges have now been replaced. These were highly significant as London Bridge had been the only bridge across the river for over 500 years. Their construction greatly encouraged development south of the river.

The Midland Grand Hotel's Gothic Revival architecture at St Pancras railway station (1868)

The single most pervasive style of architecture was Neo-Gothic, also called Gothic Revival, embodied by the new Palace of Westminster built to designs by Charles Barry between 1840 and 1876.[62] Gothic architecture embodied "the influence of London's past" and coincided with Romanticism, a cultural movement which glorified all things medieval.[63] The evangelism prevalent in mid-century Britain was also a factor in favouring Gothic Revival, which referenced great English cathedrals like Ely and Salisbury.[64] New churches were constructed to exuberant and ornate Gothic Revival designs to imitate the great cathedrals of the past. The finest of these include All Saints church in Fitzrovia, the French-Gothic St Augustine's, Kilburn designed by John Loughborough Pearson (founded 1870), St Mary Magdalene, Paddington, and St Cuthbert's, Earls Court, designed by Hugh Roumieu Gough and built between 1884 and 1887.[65] St. Cuthbert's, according to English Heritage, has "one of the most lavish and consistent [interior] schemes in any Victorian church" and is "one of the richest ecclesiastical interiors in London."[66] Modelled in its proportions after Tintern Abbey, and packed with decoration in marble, stone, wrought iron, and oak, the masterpiece of St. Cuthbert's is the 50-foot high wooden reredos carved in an elaborate late-Gothic Spanish style.[66][65] The leading proponents of Gothic Revival were Augustus Pugin, entrusted with the interior design of the Palace of Westminster, and John Ruskin, an influential art critic.[64]

Hallmarks of Gothic architecture are tracery, a form of delicate, web-like ornamentation for windows, parapets, and all external ornamentation. Symmetry of lines, pointed arches, spires, and steep roofs are other characteristics.[67] Cast iron, and from the mid-19th century mild steel, were used in Gothic revival iron structures like Blackfriars Bridge (1869) and St Pancras railway station (1868).[68] Other significant buildings built in Gothic Revival are the Royal Courts of Justice (1882), the Midland Grand Hotel (1876) adjoining St Pancras station, Liverpool Street railway station (1875), and the Albert Memorial (1872) in Kensington Gardens.[67] Even the suburbs were built in derivative Gothic Revival styles, called "Wimbledon Gothic".[62]

London Paddington station (1854) by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a marvel of Victorian railway architecture

The Industrial Revolution which began in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th century created a great deal of new building types and infrastructure that were a product of the new industries and technologies that it produced. The most obvious example of this was the arrival of the railways which greatly transformed the cityscape and structure of London. The first railway to be built in London was the London and Greenwich Railway, a short line from London Bridge to Greenwich, which opened in 1836. This was soon followed by great rail termini which linked London to every corner of Britain. These included Euston station (1837), Paddington station (1838), Fenchurch Street station (1841), Waterloo station (1848), King's Cross station (1852), and St Pancras station (1868). London also became the first city in the world to have an underground railway system. With traffic congestion on London's roads becoming more and more serious, proposals for underground railways to ease the pressure on street traffic were first mooted in the 1840s, after the opening of the Thames Tunnel in 1843 proved such engineering work could be done successfully. Begun in 1860 and completed in 1863, the Metropolitan Railway inaugurated the world's oldest mass transit system, the London Underground; it was created by the cut-and-cover method of excavating a trench from above, then building reinforced brick walls and vaults to form the tunnel, and filling in the trench with earth. Some of the original underground station architecture from the Metropolitan Railway still survives at Baker Street tube station complete with a brick arched roof with vents to ventilate the steam from the original Victorian locomotives.

Advancements in engineering during the industrial revolution made available the use of new building materials such as iron, enabling its use to build the first iron-framed structures in history. Iron beams afforded unprecedented span and height in new buildings, with the added advantage of being fireproof. The greatest embodiment of iron's possibilities was found in Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, a 990,000-square-foot (9.2-hectare) exhibition hall made of cast iron and plate glass, which opened in 1851.[69] Before that, iron was already being used to gird the roofs of the King's Library in the British Museum, built between 1823 and 1827, the Reform Club (1837–1841), Travellers Club (1832), and the new Palace of Westminster.[70] The technological advancements pioneered with the Crystal Palace would be applied to the building of London's great railway termini in the latter half of the century: St. Pancras, Liverpool Street, Paddington, King's Cross, and Victoria.[71] King's Cross was a relative latecomer; built in 1851 to support incoming traffic for the Crystal Palace exhibition, its arched glass terminal sheds (each 71 ft (22 m) wide) were reinforced with laminated wooden ribs which were replaced in the 1870s with cast iron.[60] London Paddington had already set the model for train stations built with iron support piers and framework, when it was completed in 1854 to the designs of the greatest of Victorian engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.[72]

Rockmount, Crystal Palace (1873) a grand Victorian villa built in Gothic-revival style

London's great expansion in the 19th Century was driven by housing growth to accommodate the rapidly expanding population of the city. The growth of road building and the railways in this period fueled the outward expansion of suburbs, as did a cultural impetus to escape the inner city, allowing the world's of 'work' and 'life' to be separate.[73] Suburbs varied enormously in character and in the relative wealth of their inhabitants, with some being for the very wealthy, and others being for the lower-middle classes. They frequently imitated the success of earlier periods of speculative housing development from the Georgian era, although the Victorian Era saw a much wider array of suburban housing built in London.[74] Terraced, semi-detached and detached housing all developed in a multitude of styles and typologies, with an almost endless variation in the layout of streets, gardens, homes, and decorative elements.

Early in the Victorian era, up to the 1840s houses were influenced by the classicism of Regency architecture. However, the simplicity of Regency classicism fell out of favour as affluence increased and by the 1850s the Italianate style influenced domestic architecture which now incorporated varying quantities of stucco. From the 1850s domestic buildings became increasingly influenced by the Gothic Revival, incorporating features such as pointed, projecting porches, bay windows, and grey slate.[75] This progressive change in style resulted from several factors. In the 1850s, the abolition of tax on glass and bricks made these items cheaper, while suitable materials and the coming of the railways allowed them to be manufactured elsewhere, at low cost and to standard sizes and methods, and brought to site. From the 1850s, building regulations were progressively introduced.[76]

Natural History Museum (1881): an example of the Romanesque Revival style and the decorative use of terracotta.

Although Victorian architecture is most closely associated with the Gothic Revival, many other historicist styles were also popular during the Victorian Era, particularly towards the end of the 19th century as Gothic Revival began to wane in popularity. These included Renaissance Revival, British Queen Anne Revival, Moorish Revival, Byzantine Revival, Romanesque Revival, Italianate and Neoclassicism, as well as buildings that often mixed a variety of these different historical influences in a manner that transcended stylistic category. New styles not based on revivals of historic architecture were also avidly adopted, like that of the Second Empire copied from France in the 1870s.[64]

Perhaps the most unique new style to emerge in the late 19th century was the Arts and Crafts Movement. Somewhat mirroring and taking influence from The Art Nouveau style then prominent in Europe, the Arts and Crafts movement articulated itself as a reaction against the changes brought about by the industrial revolution, embracing traditional craftsmanship and decorative motifs inspired by romanticism, medievalism and nature. The most prolific architect of the style in London was Charles Harrison Townsend who designed the Horniman Museum (1900) and the Whitechapel Gallery (1900): two highly unique and unorthodox buildings described by Nicholaus Pevsner as "without question the most remarkable example of a reckless repudiation of tradition among English architects of the time"[77] This experimentalism of the Arts and Crafts Movement made it an important formative influence on Modernist Architecture in Britain during the early 20th century.

Perhaps the most significant development in the use of building materials in the late 19th century was the use of terracotta as a decorative appliqué on the outer facade of buildings.[78] Entire buildings were covered in elaborately moulded terracotta tiles, like the Natural History Museum (1880), the rebuilt Harrods department store (1895–1905), and the Prudential Assurance Building at Holborn Bars (1885–1901).[78] Terracotta was advantageous in that it was colourful and did not absorb the heavy air pollution of Victorian London, unlike brick and stone. As Ben Weinreb described terracotta's usage: "it found the greatest favour on the brasher, self-advertising types of building such as shops, theatres, pubs and the larger City offices."[78]

Despite the explosive growth of Victorian London and the scale of much of the building that had taken place, by the 1880s and 1890s there was an increasing belief that London's urban fabric was inferior to other European cities and unsuitable for the capital of the world's largest empire. There was little coherent urban planning in London during the Victorian era, apart from major infrastructure projects like the construction of the railways, Thames Embankment and Tower Bridge. Critics compared London to cities like Paris and Vienna, where state intervention and large scale demolition had created a more regular arrangement, with broad boulevards, panoramas and architectural uniformity. London was "visibly the bastion of private property rights", which accounted for the eclecticism of its buildings.[1] This motivated developments such as The Mall and Admiralty Arch in the Edwardian period, in an attempt to create an image of imperial splendour and pageantry.

The extravagant steel-framed Selfridges, Oxford Street (1909) a rare example of the French Beaux-Arts movement in London

In the first decade of the 20th century, the use of steel to reinforce new buildings advanced tremendously.[93] Steel piers had been used in isolation to support the National Liberal Club (1886) and the rebuilt Harrods department store (1905). The extension of 1904–05 to the Savoy Hotel used steel framing for the whole construction, followed closely by the Ritz Hotel (1906); the latter gained popular reputation as the first building in London to be steel-framed.[94] The abundance of domes in the Edwardian period is partly attributable to steel girders, which made large domes lighter, cheaper to build, and easier to engineer.[80]

Selfridges on Oxford Street, modelled after American-style department stores, was the true watershed, because its size was unprecedented by British standards and far exceeded existing building regulations. To gain planning approval, Selfridge's architect Sven Bylander (the engineer responsible for the Ritz) worked closely with the London County Council (LCC) to update the LCC's woefully outdated regulations on the use of steel, dating back to 1844.[95][94] In 1907 he gained approval for his plans, and by 1909, when Selfridges opened, the LCC passed the LCC (General Powers) Act (the Steel Act), which provided comprehensive guidelines for steel-framed buildings and a more streamlined process for gaining planning permission.[96][93] By this point, steel reinforcement was de rigueur in any sizable public or commercial building, as seen in the new buildings proliferating along Aldwych and Kingsway.

Carreras Cigarette Factory, Egyptian-influenced Art Deco

Existing alongside the more prevalent Neo-Georgian and Neoclassical forms of architecture used in the capital in the 1920s and 1930s, Art Deco was nonetheless an extremely popular style from about 1925 to the later 1930s.[105] The true stimulus was the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, where Art Deco had been developed roughly 20 years earlier. London, alongside New York City and Paris, became an innovative and experimental ground for Art Deco architecture. This is defined by clean lines, curves, geometric patterns, bold colour, and elaborate, stylised sculptural accents.[106] Art Deco was adopted most enthusiastically by "modern" businesses and those seeking to advertise their modernity and forward-thinking attitude. These included cinemas, media headquarters, airports, swimming pools, factories, and power stations (such as Battersea Power Station). It was a flashy, luxurious style, so it was well adapted for department stores (e.g. Simpsons of Piccadilly), theatres, hotels, and blocks of flats.[106]

Two of London's finest examples of Art Deco architecture stand on Fleet Street: The Daily Telegraph building (1928) and the Daily Express building.[105] The façade of the latter is, unusually for the time, composed entirely of glass, vitrolite and chromium, which stood out boldly amongst the stone and brick architecture of Fleet Street. The use of industrial, sleek materials like these was more common in Deco buildings in New York City than it was in London: Portland stone remained overwhelmingly the material of choice. For example, another media headquarters, the BBC's Broadcasting House on Portland Place, was built in the traditional Portland stone with outstanding figural sculptures by Eric Gill.[107] Ideal House (1929), is highly unusual in combining Art Deco with Egyptian motifs, on a façade clad in shiny black granite.[108] Another Art Deco/Egyptian synthesis is the Carreras Cigarette Factory in Mornington Crescent.[109]

The erection of ultra-modern Deco buildings often came at the expense of older architectural gems, some irreplaceable. Along the Embankment two large Deco buildings were constructed which continue to dominate London's riverfront profile. The elegant Neoclassical Adelphi Buildings, designed by Robert and John Adam and built between 1768 and 1771, were demolished to build the New Adelphi office building in the 1930s.[110] Adjacent to the Adelphi, the grand Hotel Cecil (1896) was demolished to make way for Shell Mex House (1931), a 190 ft (58 m) high Art Deco office building which features London's largest clock.[111]

Arguably the most prolific Art Deco architect in London was Charles Holden, who received a large number of commissions by London Transport, including arguably London's first skyscraper 55 Broadway (1929) and several tube stations built in a distinctive modernist/art deco style like Southgate tube station (1933). His other high rise commission the 19-storey Senate House, headquarters of the University of London, is the tallest Art Deco structure in London and was one of the tallest buildings in London when finished in 1937.[109] It elicited, and continues to elicit, much criticism because it stands so tall and obtrusive amongst the modest Georgian squares of Bloomsbury. Evelyn Waugh described it as a "vast bulk...insulting the autumnal sky", while more recent critics have called it Stalinesque or reminiscent of the Third Reich.[112][113] This association with totalitarian architecture was reinforced by the wartime rumour that Hitler wanted the Senate House for his London headquarters upon conquering Britain, and therefore ordered Luftwaffe bombers to avoid it during The Blitz.[112]

Postmodern architecture of the SIS or MI6 Building by Terry Farrell (1996)

The late 1970s is considered to be a stylistic turning point in the history of architecture. Formed in reaction against the austere modernism which had dominated architectural design since the end of world war II, the postmodern school - which first expressed itself in the controversial book Learning from Las Vegas (1973) by Robert Venturi - was a movement that rejected minimalism by embracing irony, playfulness, pop culture and quoting historical styles in their buildings.[120] The result was an eccentric new style that couldn't be in starker contrast to the rigid post war consensus of the international style. London has some postmodern architecture, mostly from the 1990s. Robert Venturi's Salisbury Wing of the National Gallery (1991) is a postmodern historical pastiche, built of Portland stone and ironically imitating the neoclassical style to blend in with the older building. Two of the postmodern movement's most influential architects, Terry Farrell and James Stirling, were British and many of their works are in London. Farrell's SIS Building or MI6 Building (1996) in Vauxhall is a distinctive pyramidal design influenced by Maya and Aztec architecture. James Stirling's No.1 Poultry (1997) has been commended as a masterpiece of the postmodernist style; it was grade II* listed in 2016.[121] Its design incorporates a pink terracotta façade with equestrian sculptures and a clock tower resembling a submarine's conning tower. It replaced a neo-gothic building of the 19th century.

The Great Court of The British Museum (2000), high-tech architecture by Fosters and Partners

A splinter of the postmodern movement that became prominent in the 1990s is the high-tech style and the similar neo-futurist style. These two styles embrace much of the eccentricity of postmodern style with unusual forms, whilst taking cues from the modernist movement with functionality and utopianism.[122] In terms of construction there is an emphasis on the usage of glass, steel and high-tech production processes, as well as exposing the structural and utilitarian elements of the building as a means of decoration.[123] A revolutionary example is the Lloyd's building (1986) by Richard Rogers, an 'inside-out' design in which all the building's utilities – its lifts, ducts and vents – are on the outside, acting as a façade. The building is Grade I listed.[124] The high-tech became associated with Norman Foster. Significant high-tech works by Foster include The Great Court of the British Museum; a distinctive glass dome structure built over the central courtyard of the original 19th century building, City Hall (2002) on the South Bank with its distinctive ovular shape and the iconic skyscraper 30 St Mary Axe (2003), dubbed 'The Gherkin', and winning the Stirling Prize[125] and a 2006 poll as the most admired building by the world's leading architects. Many buildings followed suit, such as The Shard (2012), 122 Leadenhall Street (2014) 20 Fenchurch Street (2015) and 1 Blackfriars (2018).

30 St Mary Axe (2003) by Foster and Partners ('The Gherkin'), an iconic high rise building

The NatWest Tower (now called Tower 42) was completed in 1980; at 183 metres (600 feet) and 42 storeys, it was considered the first "skyscraper" in the City of London. Its height was controversial, being contrary to the previous height restrictions; it was the tallest building in the United Kingdom at the time and the tallest cantilever building in the world. One Canada Square was completed in 1991 at 235 metres (771 feet) and formed the centrepiece of the Canary Wharf development. The development's main tower One Canada Square became the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

With the encouragement of Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London from 2000 to 2008, a renewed trend for building tall was established. 8 Canada Square and 25 Canada Square, both standing at 200 metres (660 feet), were completed at Canary Wharf in 2002. In the City of London, Heron Tower was completed in 2007 at 230 metres (750 feet), and the Broadgate Tower in 2008 at 165 metres (541 feet).

(left) City Hall (2002) Fosters and Partners and (right) The Shard (2012) Renzo Piano, high-tech and neo-futurist architecture

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, approved more skyscrapers in London. The Shard, topped out in 2012 at 309.6 metres (1,016 feet),) remains London's tallest building. In 2014, the 225 metres (738 feet) 122 Leadenhall Street, nicknamed "the Cheesegrater", was completed in the City of London. In September 2016 a refit was completed of the 1970s 111m King's Reach Tower, with an 11-storey height increase to bring it up to 150 metres (490 feet); it was renamed the South Bank Tower. One Blackfriars, also on the South Bank, topped out in 2017 at 163 metres (535 feet). The Scalpel, at 190 metres (620 feet) was completed in the City of London in 2018; it was designed to protect views of St Paul's Cathedral. Newfoundland Quay, at 220 metres (720 feet) and Landmark Pinnacle at 233 metres (764 feet) topped out in Canary Wharf in 2018 and 2019 respectively. One Park Drive at 205 metres (673 feet) and South Quay Plaza at 215 metres (705 feet) both topped out at Canary Wharf in 2019. 22 Bishopsgate, at 278 metres (912 feet) topped out in the City of London in 2019, after being approved by the current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in 2016.

1 Undershaft, at 290 metres (950 feet), approved by Sadiq Khan in 2016, is planned to form the centrepiece of the City of London's skyscraper cluster. It is the tallest skyscraper currently proposed for London and will only be exceeded in height by The Shard. It will be built on the site of the aforementioned 1969 St Helen's building which will be demolished. 100 Leadenhall, at 249 metres (817 feet), and already nicknamed the "Cheesegrater 2", is planned for the City of London. Spire London, at 235 metres (771 feet) is planned for Canary Wharf. However, construction was halted after concerns that the building only had one escape stairwell for residents on the upper floors. The tallest of the two Riverside South towers that have been planned for construction at Canary Wharf since 2008 would have exceeded that cluster's tallest building, One Canada Square, by 1 metre in height, but construction has been stalled since 2011. Construction has started on the 216 metres (709 feet) tall Consort Place (previously called Alpha Square) at Canary Wharf.

Another major skyscraper cluster has emerged in the Vauxhall and Nine Elms districts south of the river Thames. The first to appear here was the 2014 St George Wharf Tower at 181 metres (594 feet). The tallest tower planned for this cluster is the 200 metres (660 feet) One Nine Elms City Tower.

In 2019, Sadiq Khan blocked the construction of the 290 metre tall Tulip that would have been built in the City of London. However, the developers of the tower have appealed the decision.

• Marianne Butler, London Architecture, metropublications, 2006
• Billings, Henrietta, Brutalist London Map, Blue Crow Media, 2015