Stretching from Peterborough to Swindon? Swimming commutes? An island for Boris Johnson? You may not believe it, but these could really happen.
According to a study by New London Architecture, over 250 skyscrapers are planned for the coming years. Although none will beat the Shard in height - it's still the tallest building in Europe - it will soon have many neighbours in the air, and London’s skyline is set to rival New York’s and Dubai’s.
Many of these will be occupied by plush apartments, while house prices continue to escalate and there’s no rent cap in sight. As people are forced to move beyond zones 3 and 4, could this mean gentrification will self-combust if there’s nowhere left to gentrify? Perhaps Greater London will expand to the point where it will absorb Cambridgeshire and Wiltshire. Or maybe we’ll be living in Ikea flat-packed homes, as the giant furniture group have bought 26 acres of land in Stratford to build property on.
Plans for the night tube have been postponed till 2016 and there’s still no word on an official date, which has left us wondering if it will ever happen. And as sea levels rise, maybe swimming will overtake cycling as an eco-friendly way to commute. Canals are already used by cyclists, so why not swim in them? (Once there’s no risk of death by contamination of course).
And last but certainly not least, will Boris Island ever happen? Among many of the Donald Trump-lookalikes’ controversial ideas are his plans to close Heathrow and build a brand new airport by the Thames Estuary at a cost of £47 billion.
What do you think London will look like in 10, 20 or 50 years’ time? Leave us a comment on our forum – what will London look like in the future?
