View from the NatWest Tower, London 1987

This 1987 view from the NatWest Tower looks east across the City of London towards the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the broad curve of the River Thames. The Tower complex is clearly visible below the bridge, with the pale dome of St Katharine Cree in the foreground and a dense spread of offices, warehouses and commercial blocks filling the City between. Across the river, the south bank still has a rougher, more industrial character than today, with cleared land, dockside buildings and working riverside plots around the bridge approaches rather than the later glass-and-steel redevelopment that would follow. In the immediate foreground are the rooftops and plant structures of the City, including the services and upper works of nearby modern office buildings, making this a particularly strong record of the Square Mile before the skyline changes of the 1990s and 2000s. The photograph also preserves the view before landmarks such as City Hall, the Shard and the later wave of riverside rebuilding transformed this stretch of east London.