We must stop making London so ugly with all these hideous high-rises

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.

- Anna van Praagh

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, North Acton has become a kind of mini-Manhattan, where not a day goes by it seems without more random towers popping up like post-apocalyptic triffids. One particular outrageously skyline-wrecking eyesore, at 184 metres, is the tallest residential tower 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.

So I was interested to read a recent report from New London Architecture which identified 583 tall buildings of more than 20 stories high “queuing up in the pipeline” for London.

The report, London’s Growing Up: A Decade of Building Tall, says the rapid change to the capital’s once predominantly low-rise skyline “has been fuelled by burgeoning demand for office and residential space, overseas investment and a supportive planning environment”. Which I guess just means officials cheerfully signing off any hideous carbuncle put on their desks.