As May has been smothered in a gloomy shroud (both literally and economically), I’ve seen The Shard grow and grow from my vantage point here in East London. As it’s grown to resemble more and more Barad-dûr (nicely illustrated by the anonymous Photoshop job above which someone posted on the Internet), and surrounding London Mordor, the Occupy London protestors in St Paul’s and Finsbury Square have, conversely, slowly been forced to disappear from view, as if they’re a blemish which visitors to the Olympics must not be allowed to see. Yet there’s a kind of seductive beauty to The Shard too. I feel torn between dislike of its encapsulation of capitalism and wealth on the one hand, and a bizarre feeling of pride that London finally has its own Blade Runner-esque tower to rival those in New York, Chicago, or Tokyo. I wonder if I'm the only one.