Contemporary London Tour

Contemporary

LONDON

Contemporary architects have been commissioned by some of the most powerful financial institutions to create skyscrapers, changing the skyline of London (for better or for worst) into the Manhattan-On-Thames — and you can pretend to be a finance bro and be the judge of it.

Time period: 2000s-now

Movie/book: The Spider's Web: Britain's Second Empire (2019)/

Soundtrack: Coldplay/Calvin Harris’ music

Fashion: neutral colors, trench coat plus a silk tie

Budget:

Satellite image of London from Google Maps

This walking tour would take you through the medieval streets of the financial district of London also known as “The City”, the neighborhood of the nepo babies and where people from all over the world come to clean their mess before spending it in Mayfair or Kensington. The area is characterized by winding small streets, a mix of new skyscrapers by renowned architects and historical buildings going back to the medieval times. Then, after the “Big Bang” of 1986 (the sudden deregulation of financial markets thanks to Margaret Thatcher) banks, insurance companies and trade brokers from all over the world started opening their headquarters in “the city” — starting a construction boom fueled by financial speculation. London became the financial center of world that operates a large net of financial institutions The first steel frame building in London was the Holland House by Hendrik Petrus Berlage built in 1916, setting the way to futuristic architects and their innovations like: Richard Roger’s machine like Lloyd’s Building built in 1985 or Norman Foster’s curved structure, The Gherkin, built in 2003. Other contemporary architects that have master pieces but in the other side of the Thames it Renzo Piano’s Shard and Herzog de Meuron’s Tate Modern museum. In the 2010s the financial industry in London boomed thanks to: Russian Oligarchs, the Saudi Royal Family and the CCP so the demand for more office space increased, and it hasn’t stopped giving to London a new nickname, the Manhattan-on-Thames. The tour suggest doing a contemporary architecture and sculpture walking tour in the morning; lunch, window shopping and a modern/contemporary art museum in the afternoon; and a dinner plus a new concert venue at night.