This feature first appeared in 2023 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.
Everyone knows that the Shard is London’s tallest building. Most people would guess that the pyramid-topped tower at Canary Wharf (1 Canada Square) was our loftiest building before that. But what if we go further back in time? Was St Paul’s always the champ of the skyline? Turns out, London has had at least 14 different tallest buildings over the centuries, and most of them still stand.
We build tall for many reasons.
Our ancestors constructed towering fortresses to project power and deter attack. They crowned their churches with mighty steeples to magnify the glory of God. More recent towers might serve as telecom umbrellas; or, most often, to accommodate as many office floorplates or pricey apartments as possible.
In a race to the top, there must always be a topmost. Today, we look to the Shard as the loftiest of all London’s towers. But this great glass spike is just the latest in a long line of structures, whose nature reflected the needs of the age. Here, I’ve attempted to untangle the history, to work out which building was London’s tallest at any particular time.
Heights given are from local ground level, not sea level.
Londinium’s basilica
London begins in 47 AD. Before that, the banks of the Thames were untroubled by buildings, save perhaps the occasional shack, jetty or temporary encampment. It all started with the Romans, who founded Londinium and quickly built it into an important trading port. Boudicca burned it all down after little more than a decade, but Londinium soon phoenixed itself to greater heights. And the highest point of all was almost certainly the basilica, a vast administrative centre covering what is now Cornhill and Leadenhall.
London’s first basilica was completed around the year 70, but a much larger one was constructed 20 years later. It’s reckoned to have been the largest building of its type north of the Alps and, coupled with the adjacent forum, occupied an area larger than modern-day St Paul’s Cathedral. The exact height is unknown, but reconstruction images suggest something like 20-30 metres. It seems to have been destroyed at the beginning of the fourth century. The tallest structure thereafter is impossible to finger, but it may have been the stands of the amphitheatre, now buried beneath Guildhall.
Unknown structures (300-1065)
The Roman city was gradually depopulated from 410, when Rome pulled its forces back to the homeland. The remaining population abandoned the city and migrated a mile or so upriver to a low-rise settlement known as Lundenwic (Covent Garden and Aldwych). During the long centuries between the withdrawal of the Romans and the coming of the Normans, we simply don’t have the records to be sure what building was London’s tallest.
An early version of St Paul’s is thought to have been built in the city ruins as early as the 7th century, but evidence is scant. Alfred the Great reclaimed the land within the Roman walls in the 870s and began a rebuild. From this point, London’s tallest building was probably a church, and possibly St Paul’s.
Westminster Abbey? (1065-1098)
Unknown height
Late in the Anglo-Saxon twilight, another building emerged that might have ruled London’s skyline. There’d long been a small monastery at “Thorney Island”, the point in Westminster where the now-buried River Tyburn met the Thames. In the 1060s, King Edward the Confessor decided to enlarge it. The building became Westminster Abbey, in contrast to the ‘east Minster’ of St Paul’s. The sole surviving image of the first Abbey comes from the Bayeux Tapestry.
It’s depicted as a soaring Romanesque structure, rising several storeys into the sky. We cannot know its accurate dimensions, or even if this image is a fair representation, but it’s likely that the Abbey was briefly London’s tallest building (though, again, we can’t rule out St Paul’s).
Westminster Abbey was consecrated on 28 December 1065 just days before Edward died, plunging the Kingdom into its most famous succession crisis.
The White Tower (1098-1310)
27m / 89ft
The Abbey survived in its original form for 200 years, and quickly became the go-to place if you wanted to be crowned King of England. Edward’s successor Harold was probably the first to undergo the ceremony at the Abbey, and the conquering William certainly did. It was William who was responsible for London’s next tallest building. This was the White Tower, the square fortress that remains the nucleus of the Tower of London to this day. At 27 metres, it was almost certainly taller than the two religious buildings previously mentioned. It would dominate London’s skyline for many lifetimes, serving as a garrison, prison, royal palace and a physical reminder of Norman rule. Incidentally, London’s tallest building from 925 years ago still beats London’s current tallest (Horizon 22 and the View From the Shard) in terms of visitor numbers.
Old St Paul’s Cathedral (1310-1666)
150m / 492ft
This is the moment London’s ceiling goes off the scale. When fully completed around 1310, New St Paul’s (as it was then) reputedly reached 150 metres. That, I think, would have made it the second tallest building in the world in the 14th century, just behind Lincoln Cathedral. Even if we discount the spire as 'non-habitable' (part of the technical definition of what distinguishes a building from a structure), it would still have dwarfed anything else in the city. Londoners of the day must have felt genuine awe for the structure. Sadly, it suffered an amputation in 1561 when a lightning strike did for the spire. At a stroke, it lost over a third of its height, but the cathedral would have remained the city’s tallest building until a further disaster struck…
Southwark Cathedral (1666-1677)
50m / 163ft
…And that disaster was, of course, the Great Fire of London in 1666. It reduced almost every significant building in the City to rubble. It did not, however, touch Southwark, where the church of St Mary Overie stood proud. What we know today as Southwark Cathedral probably became London’s tallest functioning building – although, of course, numerous other churches and St Paul’s itself still stood in a ruinous condition across the water.
The Monument to the Great Fire (1677-1683)
62m / 202ft
The period after the Great Fire does, I’ll admit, get a little confusing. In the rush to rebuild, it’s hard to be sure that some random church spire didn’t briefly bag the accolade of London’s tallest. That said, we can be fairly certain about the first new build to take the crown, and that’s the Monument to the Great Fire, commonly known as The Monument. This is the only time in London’s recorded history that the city’s tallest building was a memorial.
Designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, the Monument’s height is not accidental. If it were to tumble to the east, its fiery crown would land exactly where the Great Fire started in Thomas Fariner’s bakery on Pudding Lane. Wren and Hooke, both noted mathematicians, enjoyed playing games like that.
The Monument still stands, of course, but is now largely hidden by surrounding buildings. I got special access into the golden orb a few years back (which my great-great grandfather re-gilded), and you can see the vertiginous photographs here.
St Mary-le-Bow (1683-1703)
68.3m / 224ft
Wren smashed his own height record when reconstructing this famous church on Cheapside. Its distinctive, dragon-topped spire soars several metres higher than the Monument. St Mary-le-Bow rose from the ashes while the new St Paul’s was still getting started, so it would have briefly been the highlight of the re-emerging skyline.
St Bride’s (1703-1708)
69m / 226ft
The rebuilt Fleet Street church of St Bride’s was up and running again just nine years after the fire, but its distinctive wedding-cake spire was not completed until 1703. By that time, nearby St Paul’s would have already been taller, but as the cathedral had not yet reached completion, we’re giving St B. a moment of glory. After all, it’s Wren’s tallest church spire.
St Paul’s Cathedral (1708-1963)
111m / 365ft
St Paul’s officially ‘topped out’ (i.e. reached its maximum height) in 1708, and so that’s the date I’m using for this chronology. In truth, Christopher Wren’s masterpiece overtook all of his churches a few years earlier than this. The structure must have reached 65 metres by January 1696, when work began on the dome at this height. Within a few months, it would be the tallest structure in town… if still rather incomplete. Its final height was 365ft, a match for the days of the year — perhaps another case of Wren coding numbers into his buildings.
Millbank Tower (1963-1964)
118m / 387ft
St Paul’s would reign on high for more than two centuries, until the age of skyscrapers changed everything. The signs were there pre-war, when buildings like Senate House and 55 Broadway began their encroachment of the London skyline. The cathedral was overtaken as early as 1932 by a pair of monumental electricity pylons between Dagenham and Crossness (148m/486ft) – now in Greater London, but then in Essex and Kent.
Then came Battersea Power Station which pipped Paul by a couple of metres, but only thanks to its mighty chimneys. Tallest of all was the Crystal Palace transmitter, a 219m (719ft) mast on Sydenham Hill — easily the tallest structure ever built in the city up to that point. The first true ‘building’ (i.e. one with habitable floors all the way up to the top... which, arguably, St Paul's is not, but we're including it because it does have accessible galleries at the top) to break the Paulian ceiling was the Millbank Tower. Because of its height, this office tower was hugely famous at the time, but has since slipped into the B-list of London skyscrapers.
BT Tower (1964-1980)
177m / 581ft
Millbank Tower didn’t have long to enjoy its title. Hot on its heels came the GPO Tower or Post Office Tower or Telecom Tower, or whatever you want to call it (it’s since settled as the BT Tower). Built as a relay for microwave communications, the tower still utterly dominates the relatively flat Fitzrovia area. Unlike the Crystal Palace mast, the BT Tower does have habitable floors almost all the way to the top (including the famous but closed revolving restaurant), so it can be counted in a list of tallest buildings. The height given above is to the roof. You can stick on another 12m with antennae.
Tower 42 (1980-1990)
183m / 600ft
Looking at the City of London today, it’s hard to believe that Tower 42 was once Britain’s tallest building, and in recent memory. The skyscraper was originally known as the NatWest Tower, thanks to its banking occupier, whose familiar logo determined the shape of the floorplates. It was still the tallest as late as 1990 but a third-of-a-century on, it’s way down in 18th place. You only have to look at the skyline photo at the top of this article to see how tiny it now looks.
1 Canada Square (1990-2012)
235m / 770ft
The crown was then stolen by the emerging Docklands development. And it was a decidedly pyramidal crown. 1 Canada Square remains a distinctive landmark to this day, even though it too is now crowded out by neighborouing giants.
The Shard (2012-present)
310m / 1016ft
You know about this one, I would wager. Renzo Piano’s tower now dominates the London skyline, and will do for some time to come (a planned 'scraper called One Undershaft may trump it). Piano says that the Shard's form was inspired both by the sailing ships of the Thames and the church spires of old, bringing us full circle.
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