London's Sci Fi Architecture

This photo really sums up London for me. To the left is the Tower Bridge. It was built in 1894 and crosses the Thames River right next to the Tower of London (circa 1078). It is, in short, the London you imagine from literature and high school history.

The kooky toppled over egg to the right is the London City Hall (circa 2002). It is like something out of Gattaca. These incongruous pairings are found all over the city. It feels a bit like Londoners are screaming out, "Look! We're modern, we're hip! It's not just Dickens and Jack the Ripper you know!"

Me thinks Londoners doth protest too much. Unlike Mexico City, where the different eras somehow work together, in London it is startling. In London's defense, I must point out that much of the city was destroyed during The Blitz and so it isn't as though they knocked down gorgeous old historic buildings to put up their (often egg shaped) futuristic experiments.

I was expecting to be transported back into a Dickens novel and ended up in a 1950s sci fi television show. Beam me up Scotty.