I have seen it "in the flesh" and it is fantastic. Was for brief time the tallest building in the world until they finished the much less interesting Empire State Building soon after.



As to more super-tall buildings in London I don't think the cityscape would benefit much from these at all. It's not New York or Hong Kong but has plenty of interesting buildings that are much more low-rise and for me this seems more in keeping.



The Shard was quite disappointing when I say it. It's right next to where I used to work and it seems an odd place to have it. Turn right out of the old office and you get the shard and turn left and you soon hit Borough Market. Good pub there by the way. Market Porter. Brews it's own ale and was where I proposed to my wife!



As to the Shard again - window cleaning.



Here is the original photo:



[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/79586797@N00/9204626786/[/url



And here is a crop showing the window cleaners at work.



[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/79586797@N00/9204571084/[/url

I worked in it for a short stint.

Well of course we can't let this comment pass without an honorary mention of Temple Mill in Leeds and a whole article dedicated to it [urlhttp://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/news/temple-mill-leeds/[/url, pure unadulterated Victorian entrepreneurship sticking two fingers up at his rivals in the city and building in a totally bizarre and unnecessary design , just because he had the money and time and will to do so - not forgetting that he then made a fortune out of the manufacturing process therein.



Temple Mill is in Holbeck, an area south of the city that housed huge swathes of the population in cramped back-to-back houses but also contained much of the heavy industry that the city grew to prominence in, the mills and the Hunslet Engine Works for instance so it was an intensively developed, probably filthy, industrialised area - why the hell would you build an Egyptian temple in the middle of it





Compare and contrast to any modern industrial estate you like and you'll see nothing of a modern equivalent either in design or simple "Balls to the rest of you" attitude amongst business leaders today.

It is remarkable looking at 19th century industrial architecture just how many flourishes were added – even to chimneys.

Well funny you should mention that





Just a short way along the river from the Temple Mill in Leeds [url=http://www.leodis.net/discovery/discovery.asp?page=200335_284221828&subsection=2003520_912014187&subsubsection=2003521_375591457&topic=200335_929714382we have a pair of rather splendid Italian Capaniles[/url although they were never bell towers but factory chimneys for "Joe Soaps", or Joseph Watson's soap works, they still stand although the main factory is long gone - but two factory chimneys built to resemble very intricate and highly decorative Italian bell towers which would hardly have been visible in the industrial landscape of the time anyway, indeed its only in recent decades that they have become as prominent as they are now.

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