CityShapes - Dolphins

Cityshapes - The Age of Steam

Cityshapes - Lines

More old and new. The Blitz left so little of the City standing that St.Helen's church - skyscraper of its day - is now lost in a steel and glass jungle.

Cityshapes - Pollards

Cityshapes - Carousels

Cityshapes - Patterns of Man; Patterns of Nature

Cityshapes - Curvaceous

Cityshapes - Guns And Gherkin

Many are the strange and wonderful shapes of modern London. I wonder what those two are saying as they gaze out from the deck of HMS Belfast toward the Gherkin, over the Vegas meets the Addams Family roofscape of Munster Court.
A caption, a story or a comment; what are your thoughts?

Cityshapes - Gherkincrane

Cityshapes - Leaves and Diamonds

Cityshapes - Birchwood

Hokay, so we're still in central London, within sight of the Thames, but where precisely are these birches (and there are rather a lot of them in neat, regimented rows)?
Do click and blow this one up to get its full yumminess.
It was a bastard to get the focusing just how I wanted it.

Cityshapes - Crosses

As seen here.

Cityshapes - Ribbed For Extra Sensitivity

Cityshapes - Cock

Well, another September 11th rolls around and let's see how we're doing …
Bin Laden's dead and we're still building ludicrous skyscrapers; I'd say that's a pretty fair start.

Meet The Shard, London's latest "fuck you" to al Qaeda.
Of course, it wasn't built for so noble a cause; it is merely - as I described it earlier this week: "a braying monument to crass commercialism with no æsthetic merit whatseover" but it does - willingly or no - flip the bird at those who think terrorism can help their cause.
After all, Hitler bombed London flat but look at it now.

Anyone fancy a job as a window cleaner?

Cityshapes - Angle Tangle

Especially for Vanda, our first - somewhat arty-farty - glimpse of London's latest thrusting phallus,

The Shard.

More overcompensation to follow.

Cityshapes - The Big Pickle

It's the Gherkin again …

Neetzy wants to know whether the building is curved or if it's an illusion.

I think I can safely say it's gherkin-shaped.

It's rather lovely in its own way, though it does make for an incongruous neighbour to the little house beside St.Helen's church.

Spiffy, huh?

Cityshapes - How The Gherkin Sees Itself

Following on from yesterday's post, this is how the Gherkin actually sees itself, reflected in the mirror of the Tokyo Marine building. It must think its diamond panes are all curvy like the reflection. I wonder if we see ourselves distorted the same way.

Cityshapes - Vanity Mirror

Cityshapes - Ghost Church

Cityshapes - Curvy