One Blackfriars
The building that changed the shape of the South Bank skyline went up at the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge between 2013 and 2018. SimpsonHaugh designed it, and it rises 163 metres over 50 storeys, and its curved glass skin swells outward as it climbs before narrowing again at the top. Londoners settled on the Vase, though the Boomerang had a run, and from some angles the Tummy.
It is a residential tower, one of the tallest in the capital, with a hotel in the lower block beside it. The site had been earmarked for a tower since the early 2000s, and the building that finally arrived is a very different animal from the offices of the City opposite. Where they are all right angles, One Blackfriars is all curve, and the glass reflects the sky and the river rather than the buildings around it.
That curve is what makes it worth photographing. It catches the light differently on every side, so the tower can read as a bright bottle in the morning and a dark silhouette at dusk. It stands well apart from the City cluster, on the south side of the water beside Blackfriars Bridge, and it is a quick way to find your bearings along the river in a wide image. It arrived late enough that it marks a clear line between the older images on this site and the newer ones.
The thumbnails below open each image at full resolution.
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Roseate London
The view in this image encompasses so much of the London skyline and many of its iconic buildings. To the left, you have the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The London Eye with Buckingham Palace nestled behind it within St James’ Park. Move along the Thames to cross the city into the centre of…
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London Begins
A London Sunrise Panorama A new day over London, and the sunrise washes over the city. The square mile is drenched in light, the enormous buildings momentarily insubstantial. Usually, it’s the tall buildings that are the heroes of any cityscape. But here, the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum really proclaims its…
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City of London Dusk
This gigapixel cityscape captures the City of London at dusk, as the windows light up and the city gets ready to wind down. Any fears about London’s future look utterly unfounded when you look at this skyline. When I started shooting the city the major buildings in this view would have been Tower 42 and…
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Winter Sun London
London Skyline Gigapixel Captured from the roof of the Leadenhall Building, this London skyline gigapixel looks out over London in the low January sun. This is one of the times of day that light and the clouds can alter swiftly. Thus to capture a high resolution image in the few instants, before you lose that…
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London from The Leadenhall
Leadenhall Building Panorama This Leadenhall Building panorama offers a rare view over the City of London from more than 200 metres above the streets below. The image was captured from the roof of the Leadenhall Building, known to many as ‘The Cheesegrater’ due to its distinctive shape. It forms part of my series of high-resolution…