THE Tower of London’s status as one of the world’s most important buildings is under threat from plans for a series of skyscrapers in the capital.

The Times has learnt that inspectors will visit London next week to decide if the 900-year-old Tower should retain its status as a World Heritage Site.

They are responding to concern from the Government and heritage groups about the proposals for building in the vicinity of the Tower.

Their ruling will have a crucial impact on future developments in Central London, pitting the city’s heritage against its role as one of the world’s most important financial and cultural centres.

Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has already ruled that developments around the Tower appear not to respect its status.

The committee has also raised concerns about developments around the World Heritage Site that comprises the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

London’s planning policies to protect the Tower “do not seem to be applied effectively”, and there is a danger that statutory protection for views to and from the castle built by William the Conqueror could be diminished, the committee said.

It has expressed concern about the development of Lord Foster of Thames Bank’s Gherkin block, in the heart of the City, and plans for four other developments.

The new developments include the 306m (1,000ft) Shard of Glass Tower, at London Bridge, and the 324m Bishopsgate Tower.

The committee also criticised the failure to implement the London Plan — Ken Livingstone’s planning strategy — with respect to the site. The minutes of the meeting state: “[The committee] regrets that the London Plan policies to protect the World Heritage property and its environment do not seem to be applied effectively.”

The Unesco monitoring team will decide whether the Tower of London should be put on the “in-danger” list by February. If it is listed, Unesco will make recommendations for corrective action.

Unesco has called on Britain to provide a report on its efforts to protect the Tower by the end of February, and gave a warning that it could be placed on the Heritage in Danger list. Neville Shulman, of Unesco’s UK Culture Committee, has said: “Once you lose the views, you start to lose the intrinsic value of the buildings and suddenly people start to think about demolishing, altering, changing in many different ways. I think we have got to protect it in all ways.”

Yesterday it was announced that Liverpool’s renowned waterfront is unlikely to lose its World Heritage Site status after a visit by Unesco inspectors last week.

However, they called for caution over plans for futuristic developments around the waterfront setting of the historic buildings known as “the Three Graces”.

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