The elevated walkway (with this Japanese installation that was removed sometime between February and September 2020, according to the Google Maps) is a part of the City of London Pedway Scheme, a pedway network that was meant to transform the pedestrian traffic flows in the City of London in a modernist way (a.i. get the pedestians out of the way of moving cars). A blueprint from 1947 envisaged a network of first-floor walkways that would connect buildings across the City. It was put into effect mainly from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, and had been largely mothballed by the 1980s. This is one of the parts of the system, the one that was kept around the old Stock Exchange Tower. As first-floor access to the Pedway network was put as a requirement into the planning regulations, some building from that era incorporate unused "dead space" at first-floor level and partial walkways that led to dead ends. Buildings that were required to incorporate links to the Pedway included the National Westminster Tower, which incorporated a pedestrian bridge across Bishopsgate that was never used and is now demolished; the Commercial Union building, the Barbican, and Draper's Gardens. (previous | next | back to album | 2020:02:11 15:48:15 | 12% of an album)