Lit up like a Christmas tree (not)
Not long ago in Canary Wharf you could see a deeply irrating poster advertising flats in the just-about-finished Pan Peninsula Tower, 'the place to live above all others'. The ad featured a model with plunging decollete posing in front of a lofty window while a smug git in a suit looked out of it, and the words said 'If you've reached the top...... enjoy the view'.
The building is finished and occupied now, but here's a little game to play if you have a good view of the Canary Wharf towers from anywhere in London. After dark, see if you can spot the Pan Peninsula Tower, which at 50 storeys high should be easily visible alongside the mere 44 storeys of HSBC. But you can't see it... and the reason is, as you will see if you come a little closer, that by night there are lights in not more than 20 of the 762 apartments. It must be deeply spooky actually living in a building that has never been inhabited, a bit like having a stateroom on the Titanic. The irritating posters have gone too, but a quick internet search will show plenty of people trying to sell apartments in the Pan Peninsula Tower at knockdown prices. Walking past the building on a freezing December night, you can hear the wind blowing and almost expect to see the tumbleweed rolling by....
Continuing the game, try to spot the Citigroup building. It's anonymous now since the illuminated logo was taken down (for rebranding to 'Citi'). What about the 10 metre halo, built by Ove Arup, which used to distinguish Normal Foster's elegant glass HSBC tower ? Can you see that ? (No, you can't).
Notice the thick bands of darkness striping the other towers, particularly One Canada Square (vacated long ago by the Telegraph and never re-occupied) or 25 Bank Street (newly dark since Lehman Brothers moved out lock, stock, barrel, and logo).
A kind interpretation would be that all these missing lights are saving energy on a massive scale, but a quick look at the Barclays building, still lit up like, yes, a Christmas tree at midnight any night, tells you that saving the planet was probably never high on anyone's list around here. These lights are out because things are really, really bad.
Comments [2]