A special series led by the Observer's architecture critic Rowan Moore, assessing the unprecedented growth in London's skyline - and how it should be managed. With almost 250 tall towers proposed, approved or already under construction, this is a critical time to join in the debate about the capital's future.
Boris Johnson's failed vanity projects as London mayor – video
Boris Johnson’s design legacy in London left the taxpayer with a bill of more than £940m after his eight years as mayor. The Guardian's design and architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, takes a tour of the worst monuments to Johnson's ego etched across the capital. He finds out what they really cost us then and how much we are still paying for them now
Are Shoreditch skyscrapers a London tower too far, even for Boris Johnson?
The mega Bishopsgate Goodsyard development is opposed by two councils and the mayor’s own advisers – its fate now depends on his one-man imperial court
What a difference 400 years makes: the London skyline 1616 v 2016 – interactive
Inspired by Claes Jansz Visscher’s classic engraving of London half a century before the Great Fire, Robin Reynolds has updated the view to the present day
From the Shard to the Kingdom Tower, are 'vertical villages' bad for cities?
The modern skyscraper is being designed with an ever-increasing range of features – from shops and offices to gyms and cinemas – that could discourage users from engaging with the city around them
The 1926 painting that foresaw how London would look today
Most artistic visions of London’s future have been darkly pessimistic. But this Underground poster painted by Montague B Black in 1926 offered an uncanny – and much more optimistic – view of the modern city
London's Sky Garden: the more you pay, the worse the view
It was meant to be a free public space with the most spectacular views of London. But it feels like you’re trapped in an airport, you can barely see the city because of a steel cage – and the more money you shell out, the worse it gets
The truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning authorities and ruining our cities
Oliver Wainwright
Affordable housing quotas get waived and the interests of residents trampled as toothless authorities bow to the dazzling wealth of investors from Russia, China and the Middle East
The capital is in the grip of skyscraper fever, but its centre is an undifferentiated mass of semi-solidified financial liquidity. Welcome to 'jelly London', writes Will Self
