SKYSCRAPERS IN LONDON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7943, 18 January 1906, Page 3

SKYSCRAPERS IN LONDON.

There are signs that an era of "skyscrapers" will, before long, commeuce in London. Under the present regulations no building may be erected in the metropolitan area of a greater height than 80ft, with two extra storeys on' the roof, making a limit of about I,ooft. The advocates of a steel-frame building hold that this is a restriction 5 which was all very well in the days of masonry, but is absurd in the days of steel. There is a growing body of professional opinion in favour of the introduction of huge steel frame buildings similar to those which are so distinctive a feature of American cities. The buildit'gs>ould'do a great deal to relieve the pressure on space,which is growing more severe every year in the centre of London. Instead of structures of seven or eight storeys, there would be skypcraperg of sixteen or twenty storeys, and f two or three times as many business, people could be accommodated in a given area with as much light and air as at present. The London County Council, which is the controlling authority, has, so far, turned?!? a deaf ear to all suggestions that the present arbitrary limitation of the height of buildincr should be abandoned, but the Builders' Journal suggests that the by-law might be evaded by building a skyscraper in the guise of a tower. An ideal tower building, it is suggested, would consist of four lofty square towers, standing apart, but connected with narrow necks with a central tower, which would contain staircases and lifts. This plan would secure light and air to every part of the building, and would thus be superior to the American plan nf skyscraper, in which the lower rooms in the interior of a large building nave to depend on artificial light. The huge steelframe buildings are highly popular in America, and thera is no doubt that if erected under proper restrictions they are qujte as safe and healthy as ordinary masonry buildings of moderate height.