The forgotten futuristic London skyscraper the public loved but was torn down just one year after it was built – My London

Londons skyline has changed drastically over the years. Buildings like The Shard, Gherkin and London Eye are all architectural masterpieces and are iconic to London. These buildings didnt exist 50 years ago but Londons skyline has continued to evolve to encompass the old and new. However, if you were to see a photo of the London skyline in 1951 you may be confused to see a gigantic rocket shaped sculpture and question where it is today.

The Skylon was built in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain under the post war Labour government. The futuristic sculpture which was suspended in mid-air stood at 300 feet and weighed 100 tonnes. Philip Powell, one of the architects, described what it was like: At night it was lit from inside by hundreds of lightbulbs, and by day, when it was windy, the air rushed through the aluminium louvres that ran up the length of its central section, and made a humming sound."

The festival was a huge success with the public with over half the population turning up to check it out. Robert Hewison, a cultural historian, said he remembers paying five shillings (25p) to get in aged eight. He said: Skylon was a very beautiful piece of architecture. It was the tallest structure in London at that time and it spoke of rockets and space travel.

READ MORE: The forgotten London landmarks where Londoners arranged to meet their friends in the 90s before mobile phones

But despite its popularity with the public, when Churchill came back into power he was worried that the futuristic sculpture represented socialist Britain and demanded that the sculpture be dismantled just one year after it had been built. He claimed the festival was three-dimensional socialist propaganda and that the spidery cables supporting it were Just like modern Britain no visible means of support.

Since the demolition, there have been various rumours about where the sculpture ended up with some claiming it was thrown into the River Thames, or that it was buried under South Banks Jubilee Gardens. BBC Radio 4 launched a campaign to find out exactly where it ended up but the result of their investigation led to no impressive breakthrough, instead the sculpture found its way to scrap metal dealerships where it was subsequently made into cutlery.

However, in 2011 an original part was found in the living room of one Londoner's bedroom. The grandson of Percy Levy, a director of the firm hired to demolish the Skylon in 1952, revealed that he owns a part of the vertical structure. Nick Baughan said: The company was given the responsibility of scrapping it, and he stole a bit.

Today, you would have no idea that an iconic British landmark used to stand at Southbank. Instead, a simple gold ring on the Queen Elizabeth Walk commemorates the place where the tower stood. It reads: I saw a blade which rises in the sky held by hardly nothing at all.

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The forgotten futuristic London skyscraper the public loved but was torn down just one year after it was built - My London