A monument to shopping is due to be unveiled at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London this autumn. The Tower of Babel, by the UK artist Barnaby Barford, comprises 3,000 bone china buildings depicting real London shops. "Barford has photographed over 6,000 shop fronts in the process of making the Tower, cycling over 1,000 miles to visit every postcode in London," the organisers say. The shops will be derelict at the base, while some of London's more lavish emporiums will teeter at the top of the tower. "It’s about retail as a pastime, and the idea of shopping as a means (or not) to attain happiness," says Alun Graves, the senior curator of the ceramics and glass collection at the V&A.The shopping shrine is due to go on show in the museum’s Medieval & Renaissance Galleries from 8 September to 1 November.