OPINION - Why are we building these hideous high-rises all over London?

Acton, where I live, can stake no claim to being the most beautiful part of London, though over the 12 years I’ve lived here I’ve grown incredibly fond of its quirks and idiosyncrasies. Architecturally, it’s pretty mixed between predominantly Victorian and Edwardian housing, the odd Georgian gem, a mix of social housing and more recently some of the tallest high-rises in London.

Highly improbably, has become a kind of mini-Manhattan, where not a day goes by it seems without more random towers-wrecking eyesore, at 184 metres, is the tallest residential in London outside the Canary Wharf cluster. When I say you can see it from 100 miles away I don’t mean that as a compliment.