Branding on City skyscrapers? We should let our history do the talking
Canada has one of the most forward-looking planning departments in the country. They might not always get it right – and they certainly can’t please all of the people all of the time – but when it comes to the big picture I think they make the right calls. As a local authority, the Corporation of London has to worry about bins and bikes just like any other council, but they also have to curate an ancient physical environment where demand for office space continues to surge. Accommodating hundreds of thousands of professionals (and planning all the time for thousands more) across an increasingly diverse range of sectors is no mean feat, and yet the skyline (like the streets) of the Square Mile seems to be in a constant state of evolution.
I welcome this dynamism, and I think some of the finest views in London come from turning the corner to find a medieval street seemingly propping up great glass and steel wonders. I know development is divisive (individually and in aggregate) but I think one of the City’s greatest strengths is the way in which it seems to reach into the future without sacrificing its past.
And what a past! The City has been a commercial hub for nearly 2,000 years. From the Romans – whose extraordinary buildings are still being uncovered as new foundations are dug for skyscrapers – through Alfred the Great, through medieval sprawl to Elizabethan power, Georgian splendour, Victorian might and Edwardian solidity. Following plague, fire and bombardment it has always returned to glory and its twenty-first century skyline and architectural playfulness is but the latest chapter; the latest incarnation of contemporary preferences and the market-driven response to unending demand.
Canary Wharf is magnificent because it has been forged from scratch within our lifetimes, but the City is special because of the millennia that have shaped it. All of this is a rather longwinded way of saying that the suggestion made recently by an enterprising member of Canada’s council, Shravan Joshi, that companies should be able to brand the buildings they occupy, should be given short shrift. Logos on buildings – the likes of which adorn Canary Wharf towers – are currently banned in the City, though Joshi thinks we should shout more about the “progressive, innovative firms” based in the Square Mile.
But the City doesn’t need to shout; not with centuries of history already whispering so well.