The Shard has taken most of the headlines by claiming the title of tallest building in the EU (and, briefly, Europe, until overtaken by Moscow's Mercury City Tower). But it's not alone: London has an ever-going range of skyscrapers, some designed by renowned architects; some designs great, some... debatable.
In this piece I do a round-up of some of the best publically accessible high points in London for a panaromic view of London's skyline.
A long-time resident of Wandsworth borough, I have long been aware that the borough takes its name from the River Wandle. This is a river I cross almost every time I go to central London, and yet in Wandsworth town centre is scarcely visible.
This is, hopefully, to change, as I will touch upon later. However, at present the nicer stretches of the Wandle are further from the Thames, as I discovered when I impulsively decided to vary my diet of Thames riverbank strolling with an exploration of my local tributary.
I thought it would be fitting to open this blog with Richmond Park. I have been lucky enough to live between "fairly close" and "very close" for most of my seven years in London, and as such it has been my default place to go when I fancy a ramble in non-urban surroundings.
In a strange way, this made it a kind of 'inspiration' for this "Exploratory" blog. I was motivated to seek out new places to explore due to a kind of boredom about coming here so often. I feel wary of using the word boredom, because while it is the only word that seems to convey the urge for new strolling grounds, it is also very unfair.
See, the thing is, I sometimes feel sort of bored of Richmond Park when considering where to go, but whenever I get there I love it nonetheless.
What do I like about it? Here are the top three things...
