London from 32 floors up

By James Hobbs in London

I was lucky to be part of a group who were invited to draw from the 32nd floor of an office block in the City of London last month.
Compared with many cities around the world, London does not have very high buildings, although a few parts of town, such as Docklands and the financial district, have clusters of towers. (And there are more on the way.) So although the 32nd storey isn’t
really so high, in London it gives you a quite phenomenal view.

London is good at giving nicknames to its distinctive new buildings: the
Walkie-Talkie, the Cheesegrater, the Gherkin, the Shard. The one we drew
from was rather more prosaic: CityPoint.

From above, the city becomes a rather more confusing place: places
aren’t in the direction you expect, the Thames seems to be even more
meandering, buildings recognisable from the ground become a mystery from
above. And perspective, too, seems turned on its head.