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Forget frying, you could poach an ostrich egg in that heat.

But while the Walkie Scorchie is causing much amusement to curious pedestrians coming to gawp, it is causing serious problems for the row of shops caught in its glare. Ali Akay of Re-Style barbers, opposite the tower, told me he was “too stressed” to talk, but confirmed his carpet was burnt yesterday and many of the plastic bottles of shampoo and hair gel in the window had started to melt.

Diana Pham, assistant manager of the next-door Viet Cafe, admitted she was enjoying the extra trade from office workers swapping their lunchtime sunbed for five minutes of UV from the Towering Inferno. But four slate tiles, which clad the outside of her cafe, have popped off the building in the last two days, and her furniture is starting to cook.

“The chairs started to smell, very, very bad, like they were burning. We thought something terrible was happening,” she says. The upholstery of the chairs in the windows is starting to gently fricassee.

At the end of last week, the wing mirror, panels and Jaguar badge of a businessman’s car had all melted, after being parked outside the cafe for just two hours. The parking bays are now suspended. How long before an enterprising deckchair supplier and ice lolly merchant moves into the vacant space?

The developers responsible for 20 Fenchurch Street say that the building’s glass cladding has been in place for months, but only caused problems in the last few days, “caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky.” Er, I think they mean “autumn.” They promise they are working on a solution, which in the short-term is likely to be a temporary awning to protect the shops.

Architectural experts are not impressed and point out that too many modern skyscrapers are causing similar problems.

Three years ago, residents at the Vdara hotel in Las Vegas – also designed by the Rafael Vinoly architectural practice that is behind the Walkie Talkie – complained of being “scorched” by the rays hitting the swimming pool area. The rays were melting their plastic drinking cups, guests claimed.