Sir Stuart Lipton wants people to know he’s not finished with this industry just yet. He turned 76 two weeks ago, prompting inevitable questions about when he might pack it all in. But the veteran developer behind the City of London’s soon-to-be tallest tower, 22 Bishopsgate, is not quite ready to call it a day.

“My mentor is [US developer] Gerry Hines and he’s 93. He’s still going strong. He came to 22 Bishopsgate a few months ago and he said one word: ‘winner’. There is something in this industry called experience.”

Tall and imposing – the photographer thinks he must have a good osteopath – Lipton whips out a note sent by a friend. “I have a wonderful quote a pal at Imperial College gave me the other day. I think it’s a Bernard Shaw quote: ‘We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.’”

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