Tall buildings in London

London is a city with strict limits to building height and with protected views of certain buildings from particular locations (notably St Paul's). Permission to build skyscrapers in the centre of the city is granted on a case-by-case basis. For this reason, tall buildings in central London are notable landmarks.

Until the early 1960s buildings in London were restricted to 100 feet (30 metres) in height, although there were some exceptions to this rule. This restriction was put in place so as to keep every floor of a building in reach of the fire brigade's ladders. The lifting of the height restriction caused a sudden boom in the building of tall buildings during the 1960s.

Structures taller than 100m

High-rise buildings

Name		Height (m)	Floors	Built
1.	1 Canada Square (Canary Wharf Tower) [C]	235	50	1991
2.	8 Canada Square (HSBC Building) [C]	200	45	2002
3.	25 Canada Square (Citigroup Centre) [C]	200	45	2001
4.	BT Tower (formerly Post Office Tower)	183	43	1965
5.	Tower 42 (formerly NatWest Tower)	183	43	1980
6.	30 St Mary Axe (the Swiss Re Building)	180	40	2003
7.	One Churchill Place (Barclays Bank HQ) [U]	156	32	2004
8.	25 Bank Street [H]	153	33	2003
9.	40 Bank Street [H]	153	33	2003
10.	10 Upper Bank Street [H]	151	32	2003
11.	Guy's Tower	143	34	1974
12.	CityPoint	127	36	1967
13.	Euston Tower	124	36	1970
14.	Shakespeare Tower [B]	123	43	1976
15.	Lauderdale Tower [B]	123	43	1974
16.	Cromwell Tower [B]	123	42	1973
17.	Millbank Tower	118	32	1963
18.	St. Helen's	118	28	1969
19.	Centre Point	117	35	1967
20.	Empress State Building	117	31	1961
21.	King's Reach Tower	111	30	1978
22.	1 West India Quay	111	34	2004
23.	Shell Tower	107	26	1961
24.	33 Canada Square	105	18	1999
25.	99 Bishopsgate	104	26	1976
26.	Portland House	101	29	1963
27.	The London Hilton on Park Lane	101	29	1963
28.	Southwark Towers	100	25	1976
29.	Draper's Gardens	100	30	1967
30.	Stock Exchange Tower	100	26	1970

Other structures

Name		Height (m)	Built
1	Crystal Palace Transmitter	222	1950
2	The London Eye	135	1999
3	Wembley Stadium [U]	133	2005
4	St Paul's Cathedral	112	1710
5	Victoria Tower (at the Palace of Westminster)	102	1858

^[U] Under construction.

^[C] Part of the Canary Wharf Complex.

^[B] Part of the Barbican Estate.

^[H] Part of the Heron Quays Complex.

Top 10 comparison

Other famous tall buildings

Name		Height (m)	Built
	Trellick Tower	98	1972
	Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben)	96	1859
	Lloyd's building	95	1986
	Millennium Dome	95	1999
	St Pancras railway station	82	1868
	The London Ark	76	1992
	OXO Tower	67	1900
	The Old Bailey	67	1907

See also

• architecture - building construction
• list of tall buildings in London - 50 tallest buildings in the U.S. - World's tallest structures
• List of towers - List of buildings - List of skyscrapers