A medieval clock tower mixed with several modern odd shapes.
London’s postcard mixes a medieval clock tower with a handful of one-off modern shapes. Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) is a square Gothic shaft with a lantern crown. The Shard is a sharp glass pyramid that does not quite close at the top. The London Eye is a giant circle — in silhouette it often becomes a solid disc on the riverbank. The Gherkin is a plump, pickle-shaped tower with a rounded point. No other European capital stacks a clock tower, a pyramid spike, a wheel, and a fat bullet in one frame. If you see a round mass beside a needle pyramid, you are on the Thames, not in Paris or Berlin.