Six of London's biggest building blunders

You heard about bolts falling off the Cheesegrater? It gets worse

Walkie Talkie melting cars

On sunny days in summer for around two hours a day the skyscraper sent a beam of hot light on to the street below, enough to cook an egg in minutes, it was discovered.

The “Walkie Scorchie”, as it became known, claimed its first victim when it melted a Jaguar beyond repair back in 2013.

However, it’s been fitted with sun shades to stop the problem in future.

 

Wobbly Millennium Bridge

It wasn’t supposed to move when it opened in 2000, but under the feet of thousands of people it shook and wobbled. The 320m-long structure, which was designed by the architect Sir Norman Foster, was forced to close for a year and a half to be fitted with lateral dampers and reopened in 2002.

 

Peeping Toms in the Shard

A design fault in the Shard’s hotel made some glass panels act as mirrors once lights were on, making it easy to peep into nearby rooms. To avoid peeping Toms, guests were being advised to close the blinds.

 

Parliament could collapse

The Houses of Parliament needs £3bn worth of work, with speaker John Bercow warning the building could become unstable if works were not carried out.

 

Tower Bridge walkway shatters

Not only is it bad enough that you can see up people’s skirts if you’re underneath the Tower Bridge glass walkway, but one of the £1m glass panes was smashed just two weeks after it opened by a tourist who dropped a glass bottle. The walkway remained completely safe however, with only one layer of glass needing to be replaced.

 

Albert Hall echo

The completion of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871 was almost a disaster after it was discovered the shape of the high domed roof generated a particularly strong and musically unfortunate echo.

For a premier concert venue, this was a serious issue, and led to remarks that the Royal Albert Hall was “the only place a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice”.

 

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