The Tower of London is one of the UK’s most important historic sites with the earliest surviving buildings dating from the 11th century. Yet it sits on the edge of the City of London which brings with it intense development pressure.
There is considerable concern over the impact of major developments and tall buildings on world heritage sites. The spotlight fell on the Tower in 2006 when UNESCO visited the Tower of London World Heritage Site. UNESCO highlighted the UK’s obligation to provide for the careful protection and management of our World Heritage Sites. Without a strategy for the protection of the Tower, UNESCO threatened to place the Tower of London World Heritage Site on the ‘at danger’ list.
LUC's study provided a strategy for the protection of the setting of the Tower of London World Heritage Site. It informed the World Heritage Site Management Plan, fed into the Mayor’s London View Management Framework and informed the urban design strategy for the ‘Tower Gateway’.
The ‘Skyspace Model’ is a 3D model, created in CAD, which defines in three dimensions the visual setting of the Tower of London as perceived from pedestrian level. The approach builds upon the approach used by Colvin and Moggridge in their study of ‘Sky Space around London’s Inner Parks’ for the Royal Parks in 2001, which used hand drawn cross-sections to identify skyspace contours around a number of London Parks.
LUC’s Tower of London Skyspace Study was highly commended in the Local Landscape Planning category of the Landscape Institute Awards 2006. In judging the Awards the judges commented that this is ‘a remarkable and very impressive development of technology which should be of application to other historic urban settings’.
