Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

How London almost got its own Eiffel Tower

How London almost got its own Eiffel Tower

Somewhere beneath the pitch of England's national stadium in Wembley, London, lie the foundations of what could have been the city's tallest building. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Tower of London was poised to surpass it in height and reach almost 1,200 feet.

Instead, it never went past the first construction stage, which came to be known as the "London Stump." It was demolished almost 120 years ago, leaving behind an unfulfilled dream and large concrete foundations that were rediscovered in 2002, when the current stadium was built to replace an older one.

So what went wrong?

The tower was the brainchild of Edward Watkin, a British politician and railway tycoon whose previous endeavors included a failed attempt to build a tunnel under the English Channel, more than 100 years before the current Eurotunnel began construction.

'Bigger the better'
One of the tower designs that didn't get picked.


"Watkin was a born entrepreneur and he loved big ideas -- the bigger the better," says Christopher Costelloe, an expert on Victorian architecture and an inspector of historic buildings at public heritage organization Historic England. "I think he had a tendency to get so excited with his ideas that he often plowed ahead before thinking about how practical or financially viable they were."

The Eiffel Tower, which opened in 1889, quickly became a popular tourist attraction and its construction costs were recouped in a matter of months.

At the same time, Watkin was looking for ways to attract more passengers onto his Metropolitan Railway -- which would later become the Metropolitan line on the London Underground.

The railway passed through Wembley, then a rural hamlet northwest of central London, where Watkin had purchased land to create an amusement park: "It was meant to be the Disneyland of its day, or the successor to the early 19th-century leisure parks like Battersea Park in London or Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen," says Costelloe.


What better than a tower taller than the Eiffel to convince Londoners to board a train to get there?

Watkin had the audacity to ask Gustave Eiffel himself to design it, but the French engineer refused on patriotic grounds. His plan B was an international design competition, with a first prize of 500 guineas, about $80,000 in today's money.

He received 68 submissions, not all of them realistic.

One was 2,000 feet tall and was meant to have a train running halfway to the top, on a spiraling railway. Another was designed as an "aerial colony" with sky gardens, museums and galleries, as well as a reproduction of the Great Pyramid at the top.

Most, however, matched the aesthetics of the Eiffel, and it was one of these that Watkin selected as the winner, submitted by London architects Stewart, McLaren and Dunn.

"The winning proposal was a more slender version of the Eiffel Tower. Very similar in its overall profile, but the structure was sort of skinnier," says Costelloe.

At 1,200 feet, it was also about 175 feet taller than its Parisian counterpart, which was the world's tallest building at the time.

A not-so-popular attraction
The first, and only, completed stage of the tower.


All entries were collected in a catalog, published in 1890, which described the project in detail and revealed that the London tower would be "much more spacious" than the Eiffel and include "restaurants, theaters, shops, Turkish baths, promenades, winter gardens and a variety of other amusements," all reachable via a recent invention, the electric elevator. An observation deck would offer panoramic views and astronomical observations, facilitated by the "purity of air" found at such an "immense height."

After the initial fanfare, however, the proposed design was scaled down to make it cheaper to build, and the legs were reduced from the original eight to four, the same number as the Eiffel.

Construction began in 1892, and the first stage -- approximately 150 feet tall -- was finished three years later.

Wembley Park had opened the year before and was enjoying moderate success, but the tower still had a long way to go -- and there was something wrong with it.

"When they reached the first stage, it soon became clear that the building was subsiding. Not so badly that they couldn't use it, but they certainly realized they'd have big problems if they carried on building it higher, increasing the strain on the legs," says Costelloe.

Although it was opened to the public and elevators were installed, the tower was doomed.

"One of the main problems was that Watkin died in 1901," Costelloe adds. "He had been the driving force behind the project and with his death all that was left was a rational calculation of costs and benefits. People could go up to the first stage, but that wasn't quite high enough to get the sort of panoramic views you'd get from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and the surrounding area wasn't particularly developed or spectacular.

"There just weren't enough visitors to pay for finishing it."

Tallest in town
Once Watkin died, the impetus for building the tower was lost.


A year after Watkin's death, the tower was declared unsafe and closed down. Shortly after, it was demolished with dynamite. The surrounding Wembley area, however, continued to flourish as an industrial and residential London suburb.

In 1923, a stadium, which would later be known as the original Wembley Stadium, was erected on the former site of the tower. Its demolition to make way for the current Wembley Stadium eventually unearthed the tower's foundations, when work to lower the level of the new pitch was undertaken. It was a late reminder of the failed tower, also referenced by a pub in the area called "Watkin's Folly" (it closed permanently in 2019).

Remarkably, Watkin's Tower would still be London's tallest building today, surpassing The Shard skyscraper by almost 160 feet. But would it be an iconic landmark like the Eiffel Tower? Probably not, says Costelloe: "It would still have been a very big structure on the skyline, but seen only in certain views," he says.

"Not being in the center of London, it would never have had the sort of dominating focus that the Eiffel Tower has in Paris."

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
EU Proposes Phasing Out Russian Oil and Gas by End of 2027 to End Energy Dependence
More Than 150,000 Followers for a Fictional Character: The New Influencers Are AI Creations
EU Prepares for War
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Druzhba Pipeline Incident Sparks Geopolitical Tensions
Cost of Opposition Leader Péter Magyar's Economic Plan Revealed
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
×