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London's Skylines The London School of Economics and Political Science Unfinished and unfinishable: London’s skylines Gunter Gassner A thesis submitted to the Department of Sociology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy London, October 2013 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 93,500 words. 1 Abstract How is the city seen from a distance? With regard to ‘world cities’ and their battle for recognisable city-images, this is an aesthetic, political and historiographical question. How does a particular representation of the city’s past become useful for economic globalisation? This thesis analyses the relationships between history, power and profit as played out on a city’s skylines. It is conceived as a politicisation of the aesthetics of skylines, which speaks to the increasing power of aesthetic arguments in developer-driven urbanisation processes. My focus is on professional debates attending the development of the City of London’s ‘formal skyline’ prior to the economic recession; debates between architects, historians and townscape consultants, which revolved around the visibility of the emerging high-rise cluster that is located adjacent to listed buildings and conservation areas. I show how the conservatism that is encapsulated in concerns with the visual protection of historic landmarks is being transformed into ‘progressive’ arguments for constructing iconic towers. This transformation results from professionals’ pre-occupation with a single static viewpoint as providing a ‘definitive’ and easily marketable image of London, their fetishisation of St Paul’s as a building that needs to be visually enhanced, and their insistence to produce a unified skyline that is rooted in a linear historical narrative of continuity and change. In my critique of the intrinsic marriage of historical-aesthetic concerns with the prosaic pressing interests of finance capital I draw on two different traditions: the British Townscape movement and the idiosyncratic admixture of Marxism, Messianism and Modernism in the writings of Walter Benjamin. I challenge the prevalent understanding of ‘the new London skyline’ as a representative, aesthetically pleasing, compositional whole and argue for an understanding of skylines as unfinished and unfinishable, adversarial processes that is based on four conceptualisations: a cinematic skyline, which involves the notion of Surrealist montage, grounded in radical disjunction, unresolved tensions and contradictions; a non-auratic skyline, breaking with the conception of skylines as ‘enframed paintings’, foregrounding disruptive elements and providing for shock and distraction rather than contemplation; a multidirectional skyline, which attests manifold and marginalised histories that run counter the conventional historicist ideal conception of historical progress; an allegorical skyline in which meanings are multiplied and mortified and the unity and purity of the symbolic and the power of the iconic are fractured and fragmented, subject to political construction in the present. 2 Acknowledgements I want to thank Nigel Dodd for taking over as doctoral supervisor from the late David Frisby and in particular for the inspiring discussions and the critical feedback on my work. I also want to thank Bob Tavernor for his input in the early stages of my research and Richard Sennett and Fran Tonkiss for their insightful comments throughout. The PhD seminar groups NYLON and Writing Cities provided me with productive interdisciplinary frameworks and I want to thank all participants. I am grateful to the LSE for supporting my research with several studentships. Finally, a thank you to my friends and colleagues Hannah Abdullah, Jona Piehl, Gerli Orthacker, Sabine Rosenkranz, Katherine Robinson, Juliet Davis, Manuel Singer and to my family. 3 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 11 I. The politics of verticality ................................................................................................................. 11 II. The politics of spatial-temporal distance ..................................................................................... 16 III. The professional production of the new London skyline ........................................................... 22 IV. Analytical approach, aims and research questions ................................................................... 25 V. Chapter outline .............................................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 1: The formal and informal skylines ............................................................... 36 1.1 The newness of skylines ............................................................................................................. 36 1.2 Definitions .................................................................................................................................... 39 1.2.1 Skyline ................................................................................................................................. 39 1.2.2 Height ................................................................................................................................... 41 1.3 The formal skyline in current planning policies and guidelines ............................................... 42 1.4 Informal skylines in early Townscape debates ......................................................................... 49 1.4.1 Cityscape as democratic art ............................................................................................... 53 1.4.2 The monumental city, garden city and radiant city .......................................................... 57 1.4.3 Completing history .............................................................................................................. 61 1.5 The topicality of skylines ............................................................................................................. 65 Chapter 2: Methodological constellations ...................................................................... 68 2.1 Overall research design .............................................................................................................. 68 2.2 Visual methodology ..................................................................................................................... 70 2.3 The discursive production of the new London skyline .............................................................. 79 2.3.1 The Eastern high-rise cluster in the City ............................................................................ 80 2.3.2 The Heron Tower and the Pinnacle ................................................................................... 85 2.4 Intellectual methodology ............................................................................................................ 91 2.5 Particular instances .................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 3: The politics of representing time ................................................................. 97 3.1 Out of sight, out of mind ............................................................................................................. 97 3.2 London’s front façade .............................................................................................................. 101 3.2.1 Views from Waterloo Bridge ............................................................................................ 101 3.2.2 The tourist and media view ............................................................................................. 105 3.3 Historical legitimisation ........................................................................................................... 108 3.3.1 Enshrinement as heritage ............................................................................................... 112 4 3.4 Spatial closure and linear time ............................................................................................... 115 3.4.1 City tableaux ..................................................................................................................... 115 3.5 Cityscape as surrealist pictures .............................................................................................. 119 3.5.1 Hastings’ surrealist pictures ........................................................................................... 119 3.5.2 Benjamin’s literary montages ......................................................................................... 124 3.6 Out of sight, in mind ................................................................................................................
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