Machaca
The beautiful photograph you posted has been digitally enhanced.
The glass curtain wall has been attached to some more floors since this picture was taken last year but it shows what the tower looks like in real life.
TRC
just about every other floor was lit internally by what looked like strip lights - as is just about every office building in London, 24 hours a day
Offices are usually brightly lit, and London office buildings are frequently lit as you describe.
However, the St George Tower is not an office building but a partially constructed residential block.
The strip lights to which you refer can be seen in the pictures above and below.
Neon Circuits
I don't doubt what you encountered - some miles away, and 1½ hours after the crash - but the cloud/fog level when I drove past the north side of Vauxhall Bridge exactly 15 minutes after the crash was certainly not 200 ft.
Supposing, for the purpose of this exchange, that the pilot was not flying in accordance with the relevant law, that does not change the (IMHO very real) possibility that if the crane (incl the jib) had been better lit he might have seen the raised jib in time to avoid it. He was flying an easily manoeuvrable helicopter, not an airliner.
At that life or death moment, whether the pilot should or should not have been there is irrelevant.
mike-wsm
Was this a bona fide Charter Flight, or was it Self Fly Hire with a 'friend' going along for the ride?
It was a bona fide charter flight.
There was no passenger on board.
Even if the pilot had done so, it is not illegal to take someone along for the ride.