Construction in the City of London 1971

A fascinating view of the Thames in 1971, taken from the river and looking toward the north bank during a period of intense commercial redevelopment in the City of London. The skyline is a mixture of post-war office blocks, rising cranes, and the early stirrings of what would become the modern financial district.

Front and centre is the long, low riverside complex used as temporary offices and site accommodation — a familiar sight along the Thames during the building boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Towering above it are two Cubitts construction cranes, part of major rebuilding projects taking place along Upper Thames Street and the Queen Victoria Street corridor.

To the right is the distinctive stepped form of Ergon House (completed 1969), with its wraparound horizontal bands, typical of the era’s slab-block architecture. Behind it you can see several prominent City buildings of the period, including the Unilever House dome peeking through, and further back the modernist office blocks that were beginning to replace Victorian and Edwardian structures lost in wartime bombing.

The river itself still has a working, industrial feel — barge traffic, timber piles, and patched-up wharfage reflect a time just before the Thames was largely reshaped for leisure, offices and residential towers.

A wonderfully atmospheric document of a transforming London, captured at the point where the old riverside warehouses were giving way to the glass-and-concrete City of the late 20th century.