The East End skyline is set to climb higher. Pic: George Rex

Tower Hamlets will experience dramatic changes to its skyline, as the borough becomes home to more than fifty new tall buildings, a  survey says.

New London Architecture has released the results of an independent study, which suggests that 236 buildings of over 20 storeys are to be built in the capital’s skyline, 23 per cent of which will be found at the heart of Tower Hamlets. According to surveyor G.L. Hearn, the towers are either currently proposed, approved or under construction in London.

The executive director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Antony Wood, said: “Our continued survival on this planet, in the face of a million inhabitants urbanizing every week, relies on densifying our cities – reducing the horizontal expenditure of land, infrastructure and energy.”

Tower Hamlets already has 13 towers currently under construction and the highest number of approved applications in the capital, with 21 other buildings waiting to be raised.

Eighty per cent of the towers planned are new residential blocks, with a total of 189 tall buildings potentially contributing to tackling London’s housing crisis. Of the remaining towers, there will be 18 office developments, eight hotels, 13 mixed-use and one tower earmarked as an educational institute.

The majority of the developments will be built in the centre and east London. Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Greenwich, Newham and Southwark have a combined total of 140 new towers out of the proposed 236.

Expressing his optimism for the new developments, the planning and conservation director for London at English Heritage, the government group advising on the care of historic environment in Britain, Nigel Barker, said: “There has been a shift from the occasional tall building to tall buildings becoming a panacea for solving problems of density, housing and green space.”