All rise! London planners to rule on 10 new towers for City skyline

Controversial: the 55 Bishopsgate plan

- Ross Lydall City Hall Editor

TEN new skyscrapers are being planned for London’s financial centre in a major sign of long-term economic confidence in the capital, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Developers behind eight of the tower blocks are in confidential “pre-application” discussions with the City of London Corporation while two others have recently submitted formal applications.

Shravan Joshi, chairman of the City’s planning and transportation committee, told the Standard: “They are all substantial buildings that will change the skyline of the City once more — or add to it.”

The applications that have been made public are for a 63-storey development at 55 Bishopsgate — which at 285 metres (935ft) above sea level would be one of the tallest in the Square Mile — and a 32-storey tower at 85 Gracechurch Street, beside Leadenhall Market.