I was also bemused by this object. Some colleagues and I passed it on a post-lunch walk and none of us knew what it was. The best guess we came up with was that it must be a lightning rod/conductor of some description, but that made little sense because there were buildings near it that seemed just as likely to get struck as the tall red pole.

It turns out DuckDuckGo (other search engines are available but not as cool) is your friend. A quick search revealed this page that suggests it might be a sculpture by Ron Arad called ‘Windward’. Not quite right, in fact it’s  called Windwand:

Windwand was created by Ron Arad who is also responsible for The Big Blue, the huge asymmetric sculpture that dominates Canada Square Park.

Trained as an architect, Arad first gained recognition as a furniture designer. His other famous works include an interactive installation of metal crushers at Paris’s Pompidou Centre.

Wind wand is constructed from red carbon fibre, narrowing to a clear point containing lights.

The whole structure sways in the breeze causing light trails across the night sky.

Ron Arad - Windwand (2000)

So there you go, it has no greater purpose than any other piece of art, but that’s not a bad thing.