1,008ft tower planned for City

The City of London's ever-changing skyline is set to be transformed again. Plans for the tallest building yet have been submitted to the Corporation of London for approval.

At 1,008ft, the Bishopsgate Tower would dwarf the former NatWest skyscraper, the 600ft Tower 42 - currently the City's tallest - and would be only eight feet smaller than the London Bridge Tower, or "Shard of Glass", which has received planning permission from Southwark council.

The skyscraper would rise above the neighbouring Leadenhall Building, a 737ft, wedgeshaped structure designed by international architect Richard Rogers, which has also been approved.

With 960,000 sq ft of office space, the tower would also have substantially more floor area than other City blocks but a similar size to the Canary Wharf towers.

The glass-clad, spiral tower was designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), who also designed the proposed Heron Tower on another part of Bishopsgate for the German developers DIFA.

KPF says the building would be "shaped to nestle more appropriately on the site".

The tower's lowest three storeys would house an arcade running through the building that would be open to the public. There would also be publicly accessible sky lobbies on higher levels.

The building's chances of approval are good. Both the Mayor and the corporation support tall buildings, while planning inquiries into the Heron and London Bridge towers set precedents for buildings of this size. It would also be at the centre of an area identified by the corporation as suitable for a "cluster" of skyscrapers, set away from the famous view of St Paul's Cathedral from Waterloo Bridge.

KPF's proposal replaces one by DIFA for a tower that would have affected views of the cathedral down Fleet Street. The new plan places the block further to the north, where it would have less impact.

English Heritage, which has opposed tower proposals in the past, has yet to comment.