Architecture of London

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London is the second largest urban area - and largest city - in the European Union area; as the ancient city of Londinium founded in the first century CE and nearly continuously inhabited, it is not characterised by any single predominant architectural style but areas of the city exhibit very strong and influential urban qualities which have deeply influenced urban planning globally. Considered with the administrative capital of the City of Westminster, relatively few structures predate the Great Fire of 1666, with notable exceptions including the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Banqueting House, Queens House, portions of St James Palace, London Charterhouse, Lambeth Palace and scattered Tudor survivals.

The ancient City of London initially laid out as a planned Roman city in the 60s CE alongside the River Thames contains a wide variety of styles, from Roman and Romanesque archaeological remains to remnants of the medieval Gothic walled city, English Renaissance buildings by Inigo Jones to English Baroque by Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor, Neoclassical and Imperial Gothic financial institutions of the 18th and 19th century such as the Royal Exchange, the urban set-piece of Regent Street and Regents Park by John Nash and the Bank of England bu John Soane, to the early 20th century Old Bailey (England and Wales' central criminal court) and the Modernist 1960s Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Estate and Royal National Theatre by Denys Lasdun.

Notable recent tall buildings are the 1980s skyscraper Tower 42, the Lloyd's building with services running along the outside of the structure, and the 2004 Swiss Re building, nicknamed the "Gherkin" which set a new precedent for recent high-rise developments including Richard Rogers Leadenhall Building.

London's historic 'low-rise' - actually mid-rise - character has been, somewhat controversially, altered over the last generation with new high-rise 'skyscrapers' erected reflecting London's predominance as a global financial centre - Renzo Piano's 310m The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union, the fourth-tallest building in Europe and the 96th-tallest building in the world

Other notable modern buildings include City Hall in Southwark with its distinctive ovular shape, the Postmodernist British Library in Somers Town and No 1 Poultry by James Stirling, the Great Court of the British Museum, and the striking Millennium Dome next to the Thames east of Canary Wharf. The 1933 Battersea Power Station and the Tate Modern by George Gilbert Scott and Herzog de Meuron are striking examples of adaptive re-use, whilst the railway termini are globally significant examples of Victorian railway architecture, most notably St Pancras and Paddington.

The city of Westminster is the ancient political centre of power and contains the globally recognised Palace of Westminster and the iconic clocktower of Big Ben. The city contains numerous monuments, from the ancient heart of London at London Stone to the seventeenth century The Monument to the Great Fire of London to Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column is an internationally recognised monument in Trafalgar Square often now regarded as the centre of London.

Since 2004, the London Festival of Architecture is held in June, and focuses on the importance of architecture and design in London today. In September Open House weekend offers an annual oppotunity to visit architecture normally closed to the public free of charge from grand public buildings such as the Bank of England to contemporary private housing.

Video Architecture of London

Prehistoric

Although no pre-Roman settlement is known, there was a prehistoric crossing point at Deptford and also at Vauxhall Bridge and some prehistoric remains are known from archaeology of the River Thames. It is likely that the course of Watling Street follows a more ancient pathway. Ancient Welsh legend claims the city of the Trinovantes - dedicated to the god Lud (Caer Llud) was founded by the followers of Bran the Blessed whose severed head is said to be buried under the White Tower facing the continent.

Maps Architecture of London

Roman Architecture (60-500CE)

Londinium was initially founded as a military trading port while the first capital of the province was at Camulodunum. However following the Boudican Revolt of 61, during which both cities were razed to the ground, the capital was removed to London which rapidly grew to preeminence with the establishment of a Forum and provincial Praetorium. Although not strictly following the classical plan as many other cities in Britannia, the city was laid out in a roughly rectangular form with the south side formed by the River Thames and dividide into blocks of insulae. Two east-west streets (now Cheapside and Lower Thames Street led from Newgate and Ludgate to form the cardo presumably leading to a lost gate (or gates) at the present location of the Tower of London which exited to Canterbury and Dover. Bishopsgate, as an extension of Watling Street formed the decumanus maximus crossing the river from Billingsgate over the ancient London Bridge to Southwark and the south coast road beyond. The Forum was located at Leadenhall Market - said to be the largest building north of the Alps in ancient times - remains can still be visited in the basement of some of the market shops. A significant portion of the amphitheatre remains beneath the London Guildhall square and a Roman bathing complex is accessible in the basement of 100 Lower Thames Street. The square Castrum was located at the northeast of the city at the Barbican close to the Museum of London where significant sections of the Roman London Wall remain. For centuries afterward, the centre of London was reckoned from the London Stone claimed in the past to be a fragment of ancient masonry from the ancient Thameside Governor's Palace, though this cannot now be verified . Late Roman private houses of leading Christians are thought to have been the foundation of the earliest churches- mosaic remains in the crypt at All Hallows by the Tower and may also have been the case for St Pauls Cathedral - its growing significance over centuries has distorted the once-straight strada on which the site once stood.

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Georgian Neoclassical Architecture in London

During the Georgian era (1714-1830), London increased in size greatly to take in previously separate village such as Islington and Clapham, hence much of inner London is dominated by Georgian buildings. The 'Georgian' style is the British form of Neoclassical architecture heavily influenced by the liberal whig political ideology of Palladianism; it is especially influenced by neo Renaissance proportions which ultimately originate in Italian architecture, with strong influence from French Architecture and especially the Dutch Baroque architecture under William & Mary with strict emphasis on plain, unadorned brickwork, geometrical harmony and restrained classically inspired ornament as at Kensington Palace begun by Christopher Wren after 1689. Key architects in the development of the London architecture through the period begin with Inigo Jones Queens House (predating the Georgian period entirely), through Wren at the west wing of Hampton Court Palace, Colen Campbell, John Nash (architect), Robert Adams (architect) and John Soane. Areas such as, for example, Mayfair, Bloomsbury, Regents Park, Islington and Kensington have very high proportions of properties surviving from the period which have become the archetypical 'London Townhouses' and being, highly desirable, fetch some of the highest private property prices in the world.

Domestic houses in London are distinctive for their sunken basements built on brick arch foundations, rusticated base storey, taller piano nobile reception floor and attic storey. They are generally built from buff (pale yellow) London Stock Brick to golden section proportions, often generously spanning triple bay frontages with 'implied' columns or pilasters and carefully proportioned and very large off-white sash windows , slate mansard roofs above an attic pediment. They were grouped in formal Garden squarea, crescents and terraces with wide pavements supported on brick vaults on wide, straight public streets often with private access to romantically landscaped gardens. Later encroachment of commercial properties has significantly reduced the apparent width of historic streets in many parts of London where the original plans was comparable or in excess of those found in Continental urban planning.

A typical house was designed to accommodate a single family with front and back room on each floor and a partial-width rear 'closet' wing projection. The ground floor was reserved for business, the tall piano nobile for formal entertaining and upper storeys with family bedrooms all accessed from a stair positioned on the side party. Servants accommodated in the below ground kitchen and in attic rooms in the roof Each of the distinctions in function was subtly indicated in the decorative scheme of the facade by the sequential height of openings, projecting cornices and restrained decorative mouldings such as round headed arches and rustication at the base and diminishing columns, sculptural capitals, balustrades and friezes expressing the top.

Diagnostic features include:

A tall panelled front door with an arched fanlight often flanked by columns and covered by a pedimented canopy is reached up a short walkway which extend from the street, arching over the basement cavity and protected from burglary by a run of wrought iron security railings.
Sash windows which allow the window to be held open on corded lead weights to ventilate the room - developed in Holland and first seen in the Royal Palaces, they became common in Georgian times - previously casement windows had been the norm. The sash box joinery and ovolo or astragal moulded window frames were designed to be as slim and unobtrusive as achieveable using the largest available sheets of glass in either a '6 over 6' or '6 over 9' pattern. Since the 1980s, these are often now painted in brilliant white , however this modern colour did not exist in the period, originally these were painted ivory off-white, pale yellow or other darker colours of the period.
Window openings in the proportion of 1:2 or the golden section - the windows were headed by the Dutch style flat arch often made from gauged brickwork in the finest properties.
The roof is often hidden by a parapet above an attic frieze. This was initially to reduce the spread of fire, however in much of London parapets were added to Georgian houses for aesthetic reasons alone. From the street the building appears as if it has a flat roof, but from the rear one can see that there is a double piched 'butterfly'roof.
Elevational classical adornments such as rustication, pilasters, columns, medallions, friezes, cornices and false pediments often formed in timber, stucco or natural stone are obvious indicators of wealth and status - however much care and restraint was exercised to avoid the excessive flamboyance of continental architecture, with a marked preference for severe simplicity, honesty of means and sparseness of ornament in line with Protestant and neo-Palladian thinking, best exemplified by the work of Scottish Enlightenment architect Robert Adams - a philosophy extended to interior furnishing by the Thomas Chippendale furniture.
Suburban buildings are usually constructed from London stock brick, which have a yellowish buff colour (which often appears grey - see 10 Downing Street). More prestigious houses are rendered with stucco or built from imported natural stone.
Chimney breast were located in shared party walls with gable parapets projecting above the roof line. The great number of chimneypots on London properties indicate the relative wealth of the inhabitants serving fireplaces in every room.

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Brutalist architecture in London

The majority of Brutalist buildings in London are civic buildings and housing projects, often commissioned by local councils. Most were built from concrete which was functional and affordable - particularly important during post-war building. Trellick Tower and the Southbank Centre are celebrated examples of Brutalism in London, along with the Barbican.

Modern Architecture London: Cycling to London's Most Iconic Buildings

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Skyscrapers and structures

London has a growing number of Skyscrapers with twelve buildings under construction to rise above 100 metres (328 ft) with a further 44 approved. The Shard London Bridge (topped out in Spring 2012) is the tallest building in the European Union being 310 metres (1,016 ft) high.