A new 35-storey skyscraper will loom over west London like a "weak rip-off of the Shard" claim neighbours who today vowed to fight the plan.
They point out that the 360ft tower, proposed for the site of the old BBC Worldwide offices next to Westway, will stand almost as tall as St Paul's Cathedral, overshadowing hundreds of homes by day in North Kensington - where Prime Minister David Cameron rents out his former family home - and causing light pollution at night.
The plans, submitted to Hammersmith & Fulham council by Imperial College, which paid £28 million for the site two years ago, include a new
campus, offices, flats and a hotel.
But locals say winter sunlight to surrounding houses will be halved and extra traffic will choke roads already hit by Westfield shopping centre jams.
The tower is the first of three of similar size proposed for the regeneration of White City and backed by Mayor Boris Johnson to generate 10,000 jobs, 4,500 homes and create a western "gateway" to the capital.
But Henry Peterson, chairman of the St Helen's residents' association, which wants the towers halved in height, said: "There's nothing anywhere near as high for miles around. It will have as big an impact on west London as the Shard has had in the south, except the architecture is a weak rip-off."
Imperial College said the tower locations were chosen to limit the impact of overshadowing, and new local homes and jobs are much needed.
