Numbered like a catalogue entry and labeled “Design No. 36,” this slender proposal rises in stacked stages, its open lattice sides braced like a giant piece of ironwork. The drawing emphasizes vertical ambition: broad legs at the base narrowing upward, with repeated platforms and small pavilion-like caps marking each tier. Even on the page, it reads as a Victorian answer to the age’s fascination with engineering spectacle—part monument, part machine.
Set against the post’s theme of “50+ competitive designs” for a Great Tower for London in the 1890 inventions era, the illustration hints at how crowded and imaginative these submissions could be. The structure is shown front-on, almost diagrammatic, inviting the eye to measure proportions, levels, and the practical logic of its framework rather than decorative flourish. It’s a reminder that the late nineteenth century treated ambitious public architecture as a proving ground for new construction ideas, from modular framing to elevated viewing stages.
At the bottom, the submission is credited in print, anchoring this concept to a real designer and a London address while keeping the rest of the story in the realm of proposals and paper dreams. For readers exploring Victorian London history, tower design competitions, and the broader world of 1890s inventions, this image works like a window into the era’s optimistic confidence in steel, geometry, and height. Browse it as you would an exhibit plate: not just for what it depicts, but for what it reveals about the period’s hunger to build the future.