Looking up at the glimmering Landmark Pinnacle on London’s Isle of Dogs, it’s hard to crane your neck back far enough to see right to the top.
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00:00Completed in 2020, it is the tallest mainly residential building in Europe, soaring 784
00:06feet, 239 meters and 75 floors into the sky. It has a gym, roof terrace and designated Pilates
00:14area. Inside, one of three concierges asks, without smiling, who I'm visiting, and I'm shown
00:21to one of the lifts. Apparently they don't usually let you in without a name. Seven years ago,
00:28the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower led to changes in how high-rises should be designed to
00:33keep residents safe during a blaze. But problems persist in existing blocks. I visited the landmark
00:40pinnacle as well as Invicta House, a council-owned block on an estate just outside Margate.
00:46While there are significant differences, concerns have crept up at both. Invicta House, built in the
00:531960s on the Isle of Thanet in East Kent, has a mere 14 floors and stands austere among mainly
00:59low-rise housing. There are no door staff here and I tailgated some residents through a starkly
01:05decorated lobby. Both towers have stunning views of the Kent coast and the Looping Thames respectively.
01:12But there is no denying the economic gulf between those on minimum wage and benefits at Invicta
01:17House and the city workers and well-off foreign students living at the landmark pinnacle.
01:22You could buy 15 one-bed flats at Invicta House for the same price as a studio apartment just
01:28over 70 miles away, in the landmark pinnacle in Canary Wharf. Invicta resident David Bond is a
01:35council tenant and proud of his military service in Cold War Germany, signified by two model tanks
01:41carefully displayed on his sideboard. The block is a place where people keep themselves to themselves,
01:48he says, admitting he prefers it this way. There are drug users, drinkers and prison
01:53leavers among his neighbours, and, too many dogs, he complains.
01:58The overpowering smell in the buildings lifts, several residents explain, is dog urine.