When the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris in 1889, it sent a clear message to the rest of the world — height was the new symbol of ambition. London took notice. City authorities launched an open competition to design a grand tower for England’s capital, one that would stand as a landmark worthy of the British Empire. The response was enormous. A total of 68 entries poured in from architects and construction firms, ranging from bold and original concepts to designs that were little more than copies of the Eiffel Tower itself.
The winning entry, Design No. 37, was submitted by the firm of Stewart, McLaren, and Dunn. Their proposal beat out dozens of competitors and earned the designers a prize of 500 guineas. The selected site for the tower was Wembley Park, north of central London, chosen for its open space and accessibility by rail.
Construction was handed to the Metropolitan Tower Company, which broke ground in 1892. Problems appeared almost immediately. The ground beneath Wembley Park was marshy and unstable, making it far harder to lay solid foundations than planners had anticipated. Progress slowed to a crawl. On top of the engineering headaches, the company struggled to raise enough money to keep the project moving. The financial strain proved fatal to the effort — the Metropolitan Tower Company eventually went into liquidation.
By the time work stopped entirely, only 47 meters of the tower had been built. That unfinished iron skeleton, rising awkwardly from the Wembley Park grounds, became known as Watkins Folly — named after Sir Edward Watkin, the railway entrepreneur who had championed the project. Locals also called it the London Stump. For years it sat abandoned, drawing curious visitors who came to stare at the failed ambition frozen in iron.
The structure was eventually judged to be unsafe. In 1904, engineers demolished it with explosives, and the London Stump was gone. The competition designs, however, survived as a snapshot of Victorian-era architectural imagination at its most unrestrained. Browsing through all 68 submissions reveals just how wide the range of ideas was — some practical, some fantastical, and some clearly inspired by Paris.
