Nearly 600 New Tall Buildings Planned for London

15/5/24

Nearly 600 new tall buildings are planned for London, according to a new report.

London's Growing Up: A Decade of Building Tall by New London Architecture is a 10-year report of the emerging trends of tall building construction across London.

The report says that Between 2013 and 2023, 270 tall buildings were completed, with a further 583 tall buildings queuing up in the pipeline.

The report also states that the average height of tall buildings across London is 29 stories, with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets featuring the highest number of tall buildings, at 71. Additionally, 58,000 homes have been created over the last 10 years.

The first NLA London Tall Buildings Survey was born of a discussion between NLA chair Peter Murray and Shaun Andrews, then Head of Strategic Development at GL Hearn and now a director of Prior + Partners.

Speaking in the report's foreword, Peter said: "This document marks not only the 10th Anniversary of the NLA London Tall Buildings Survey but also the 20th anniversary of the London Plan. One of the most instructive lessons on the impact of the tall building clusters resulting from the 2004 London Plan can be seen in our model in The London Centre.

"This clearly sets out the physical reality of Ken Livingstone's plan and its genesis in the ideas of the compact city developed by the late Richard Rogers. The model shows how the tall clusters emerge from the largely low-rise city, creating areas of energy, growth and change, mostly on brownfield sites, leaving the majority of the existing city untouched.

"Tall buildings have changed the face of London substantially over the last 20 years and will continue to do so — the pipeline that NLA has tracked means there is at least ten years' supply that has already been defined. London's population continues to grow, passing the 10 million mark at the end of this decade. We'll still need tall buildings; and NLA will continue to keep a close watch on what's going on."

To read the full report, visit London's Growing Up: A Decade of Building Tall - New London Architecture (nla.london)

Image credit: Hayes Davidson/NLA