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 Flying High : The City of London
Long known to the artist as "The Natwest Tower" since watching it being built between between 1971 and 1979, first because he frequented the area as an art student working on college :outdoor drawing projects" and
its completion in 1980 by which time he had relationships in the area
in the form of accountants lawyers and other professionals providing
services to his studio. This icon of the financial services industry
dominated all views of the City of London, from Waterloo Bridge to
Bankside and as far as The Tower of London. It signified "big bang" and
the expansion of the City of London financial services industry and
remains an icon of the economic might and architectural stridency of
"the square mile".
The
original name was the National Westminster Tower invented to house the International Division of National Westminster Bank and its design is based on the bank’s hexagonal logo.
It's actual name is "Tower 42".
It
was, then, the tallest building in the UK until loosing that claim to
"One Canada Square" in Docklands in 1990 and was also the tallest
building in the City of London for 30 years, until it the Heron Tower
was built in December 2009.
"It
seemed strange, to me, to see the skyline change so dramatically from
what I had known as a child and when they then developed Docklands,
which I had walked around many a time as I had a girlfriend who lived
in Rotherhithe even though I lived in Islington in North London (a long
No.1 bus ride on a Sunday!) and as it was built I remember thinking, as
I sat with a sketchpad on the opposite side of the river "one day this
building will collapse" and of course, in the sense that it was such an
icon of the sheer expansion that happened in the financial services
industry and its subsequent collapse, it did, in all but physical form."
It
was the first skyscraper in the "City ", standing some 600ft and the
artist still thinks of it as "The NatWest Tower" as perhaps, one day,
he might ascend it, and have lunch in one of its restaurants.
Unless.
that is, since it no longer houses any division of NatWest bank, it
does not go through yet another transition and become, well, who can
say as yet . . . . . ?
But it will forever be an "icon of the city".
Heady days.
Deborah Susan Jones
About "Artist"
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