London's skyline in 2010

This is what London's skyline will look like by 2010 after a £1.7 billion skyscraper building programme.

The image has been created on computer to illustrate how historic views over the Tower of London and towards the City will change if four huge new towers are built as planned.

Each tower will dwarf St Paul's Cathedral, which stands at 366 feet. One, the Minerva Building, will be 726 feet high - taller than Tower 42, formerly the NatWest Tower, which has been the City's tallest for 20 years.

The buildings were designed by some of the world's leading architects, including Lord Foster and Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, designer of the Eurostar Terminal at Waterloo.

They follow the completion of the Swiss Re Tower, known as The Gherkin, and mark an unprecedented period of tower building around the Square Mile. Mayor Ken Livingstone has argued London will decline as a world financial centre unless 15 to 20 skyscrapers are built in the next 10 years. But many Londoners disagree.

In a poll this month 46 per cent said they opposed the target. And Prince Charles recently branded skyscrapers "overblown phallic sculptures" that "say more about an architectural ego than any kind of craftsmanship".

The image of London in 2010 was created for the New City Architecture exhibition at Broadgate, which runs until 2 July.