Here is a quick look back at the north bank of London, around St Paul’s Cathedral and the city, over the last 15 years.
Millennium Bridge and skyline, London, 2004
This retrospective takes us back to the days before I had a decent camera, and before I even knew that some cameras have manual buttons. Shock, horror!
St Paul’s Cathedral, London, 2007
2007 
2013 
2013 
2013 
2013 
2017 
2017 
2019 
September 2019
The gallery above shows the ever-constant theme of cranes, and shows some significant changes on the skyline. (Click to view larger versions). The Walkie Talkie (160 m) and Cheesegrater (225 m) completed in 2014 (you can see them both under construction in the 2013 images); the Scalpel (190 m) completed in 2018; and 22 Bishopsgate (228 m), seen close to completion in the image above, completed in December 2019.
By coincidence, Bushboy Brian has asked us to share the last shot from our SD card. As it happens I was in London yesterday, to take photos of Tower Bridge, and here is my last shot of the day (night view from a bar near the Tower of London).
London skyline, January 2020
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 4 January 2020
Posted as part of Tuesday Photo Challenge
Travel with Intent 
That’s a really interesting look down the years. I feel quite mixed. I loved the original skyscraper free skyline of course, but find the modern one exciting too, rather to my surprise.
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Mans ever challenge in creating the next shape to tower about the city. Great pictures.
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Fascinating set of images, Debbie!
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Thanks Sue. Took ages to dig them out as most of them preceded my use of Lightroom and keywords!
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Yikes, that’s dedication!
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I wish we’d kept the skyscrapers out of the city itself. Whilst I enjoy the sculpture effect of modetn buildings, I think we lose something by not cherishing historical cityscapes.
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PS absolutely loving your photos and retrospective though 🙂
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I know what you mean. I liked the original ones such as Gherkin and Lloyds but now everything is getting lost in a mass of modern architecture. I have a soft spot for the Gherkin and it is now not visible from many spots (though I was pleased to see it from the bar I was enjoying on Friday!) The good thing is that St Paul’s has been protected and cannot be hidden.
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Thank goodness they had foresight for it!
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Yes, most of them have acquired their nicknames even before they were completed. 22 Bishopsgate hasn’t had that problem (or accolade) – probably because it is too boring! Before the 2008 crash this was going to be a curly wurly building, but construction work stopped and this new one has been built on its foundations.
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What a great series of the changes of London 🙂 The buildings names, I guess, are the peoples names not the actual one an architect or builder gave them?
Thanks for joining in an impromptu photo challenge Debbie 🙂
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