‘London’s Vatican’The Role of the City’s New Architectural Icons as Institutional Imaginaries

The chapter departs from the interpretation of the City of London’s recent ‘iconic’ buildings as signifiers of success, and exposes them instead as symptoms of an institutional crisis in the Corporation of London, the City’s powerful planning authority and business networking institution. Although the City’s historical buildings are identified with conservation and traditional elites, the City’s contemporary ‘icons’ are branding objects for transnational corporations, and speculative objects for international real estate developers.