Why are we building all these ugly towers?

Our city boasts some of the finest architecture in world, but we’re allowing it to become a bootleg Dubai-on-Thames

- Anna van Praagh

LONDON is one of the most ancient and beautiful cities in all of the world, famous globally for its exquisite historical buildings and architecture.

So why are we building so many hideous tower blocks all over the capital, and who, if anyone, is in charge of it all?

On my journey from Liverpool Street to our offices in Finsbury Square I practically have to shield my eyes from the visual horror of all the new buildings.

Monstrous carbuncles each and every one of them. Endless glass, metal, coloured cladding, brutish reinforcements. Walking around it feels like you're in a dystopian hellscape where one of the giant Transformer buildings might come to life and crush you like a scene from Day of the Triffids.

We seem hell-bent on turning our city from one of the wonders of the western world into some kind of bootleg Dubaion-Thames. Why are we so determined to make every new building so ugly? I want a trigger warning before anyone says the words "luxury flats".