Foster's tower vision fades

Sir Norman Foster's vision of a 1,265ft Millennium Tower on the site of the bomb-damaged Baltic Exchange in the City of London all but evaporated yesterday when English Heritage joined opponents of the glass skyscraper. The tower, which would be Europe's tallest building, was such a "quantum leap" in scale, height and bulk, that it would overwhelm the character of the capital, said Sir Jocelyn Stevens, chairman of English Heritage.

"It would disfigure the skyline. London doesn't need a macho building to establish a place for itself as a world financial centre." The pounds 400m project could only now proceed if the Secretary of State for Environment, John Gummer, overruled his own adviser, English Heritage.