Shield is erected after shops in City of London complain of burning carpets and melted furniture
Vast concrete blocks weigh down a six-metre-high scaffolding structure on Eastcheap in the City of London, swathed with lengths of green and black netting.
It could be a road-block for an invading army, but the assailant in question has come in the form of an office block across the street – one that wields a supercharged solar "death ray".
"It's burned a hole in our carpet, blistered the paintwork around our door and ruined whole shelves of hair products," says Ali Akay, 22, manager of the Re-Style gentleman's grooming salon, as he rapidly dabs a flaming stick into a customer's ear. "But thankfully they've now built a shield to protect us from the Walkie Scorchie."
Rising to 37 storeys above the City in a looming bulge, the controversial Walkie Talkie skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street has taken on an even more menacing bent this week. Acting like a £200m magnifying glass, its concave south-facing facade has been focusing the sun's rays down on to the street in a concentrated beam, setting doormats alight, cracking tiles and even melting parts of cars and bicycles. It has become London's new fryscraper.
"I could smell burning, so I thought some of our equipment had malfunctioned and set on fire," says Diana Pham, who works at the Viet Cafe next door. "But then a customer pointed out that our carpet was smoking and a chair was beginning to wrinkle in the heat, caused by the concentrated sun coming through the window."
With temperatures reaching more than 70C, Pham says, they have even managed to toast a baguette on the street. "We thought we might move our kitchen outside," she grins. "We've even managed to fry an egg on the window sill."
For Akay too, it hasn't all been bad news. "It's nice to have some sun for a change," he says. "It's brought loads of sexy girls out to sunbathe in front of the shop."
But those thinking of flocking to enjoy the scorching streets of the Eastcheap microclimate will be disappointed, now that the Walkie Talkie's developers, Land Securities and Canary Wharf group, have erected a defensive screen, designed to absorb the sun's rays.
"This solution should minimise the impact on the local area over the next two to three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared," they said in a statement, blaming the problem on "the current elevation of the sun in the sky"– rather than the design of their building.
It is a "phenomenon" they might have expected all too well, after hiring the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who has a record of making buildings that bite back. His Vdara hotel in Las Vegas, which also sports a concave glass facade, was similarly found to focus the Nevada sun down on to a pool terrace to such an extent that plastic loungers began to melt and newspapers were singed.
Staff battled the rays with an assortment of big umbrellas and pot plants, before covering the entire 57-storey glass wall with non-reflective film – the likely solution in London.
"The developers have offered to pay for the damage and they are trying to help us," says Pham. "But this big scaffolding structure covers up the view of our shop, so we're worried it might affect trade."
Many architects and heritage campaigners have opposed the building from the beginning, seeing it as a bullying monument to developers' greed. But few predicted this side effect.
"When I once described Rafael Viñoly as a menace to London," tweeted the Bristol mayor and ex-Riba president George Ferguson, "I didn't think he was going to burn it." Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.
Vast concrete blocks weigh down a six-metre-high scaffolding structure on Eastcheap in the City of London, swathed with lengths of green and black netting.
It could be a road-block for an invading army, but the assailant in question has come in the form of an office block across the street – one that wields a supercharged solar "death ray".
"It's burned a hole in our carpet, blistered the paintwork around our door and ruined whole shelves of hair products," says Ali Akay, 22, manager of the Re-Style gentleman's grooming salon, as he rapidly dabs a flaming stick into a customer's ear. "But thankfully they've now built a shield to protect us from the Walkie Scorchie."
Rising to 37 storeys above the City in a looming bulge, the controversial Walkie Talkie skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street has taken on an even more menacing bent this week. Acting like a £200m magnifying glass, its concave south-facing facade has been focusing the sun's rays down on to the street in a concentrated beam, setting doormats alight, cracking tiles and even melting parts of cars and bicycles. It has become London's new fryscraper.
"I could smell burning, so I thought some of our equipment had malfunctioned and set on fire," says Diana Pham, who works at the Viet Cafe next door. "But then a customer pointed out that our carpet was smoking and a chair was beginning to wrinkle in the heat, caused by the concentrated sun coming through the window."
With temperatures reaching more than 70C, Pham says, they have even managed to toast a baguette on the street. "We thought we might move our kitchen outside," she grins. "We've even managed to fry an egg on the window sill."
For Akay too, it hasn't all been bad news. "It's nice to have some sun for a change," he says. "It's brought loads of sexy girls out to sunbathe in front of the shop."
But those thinking of flocking to enjoy the scorching streets of the Eastcheap microclimate will be disappointed, now that the Walkie Talkie's developers, Land Securities and Canary Wharf group, have erected a defensive screen, designed to absorb the sun's rays.
"This solution should minimise the impact on the local area over the next two to three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared," they said in a statement, blaming the problem on "the current elevation of the sun in the sky"– rather than the design of their building.
It is a "phenomenon" they might have expected all too well, after hiring the Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who has a record of making buildings that bite back. His Vdara hotel in Las Vegas, which also sports a concave glass facade, was similarly found to focus the Nevada sun down on to a pool terrace to such an extent that plastic loungers began to melt and newspapers were singed.
Staff battled the rays with an assortment of big umbrellas and pot plants, before covering the entire 57-storey glass wall with non-reflective film – the likely solution in London.
"The developers have offered to pay for the damage and they are trying to help us," says Pham. "But this big scaffolding structure covers up the view of our shop, so we're worried it might affect trade."
Many architects and heritage campaigners have opposed the building from the beginning, seeing it as a bullying monument to developers' greed. But few predicted this side effect.
"When I once described Rafael Viñoly as a menace to London," tweeted the Bristol mayor and ex-Riba president George Ferguson, "I didn't think he was going to burn it." Reported by guardian.co.uk 8 hours ago.