122 Leadenhall Street
| 122 Leadenhall Street | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Alternative names |
|
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Type | Office |
| Architectural style | Post-modern / Structural expressionism |
| Location | London, EC3 |
| Completed | June 2013 |
| Opened | July 2014 |
| Cost | £1.15 billion[2][3] |
| Owner | C C Land[1] |
| Height | |
| Roof | 225 metres (738 ft)[4] |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 48 |
| Floor area | 84,424 m2 (908,730 sq ft) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architecture firm | Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners |
| Structural engineer | Arup[3] |
| Services engineer | Arup[3] |
| Website | |
| www | |
| References | |
| [3] | |
122 Leadenhall Street, also known as the Leadenhall Building, Leadenhall Tower, or informally the Cheesegrater is a 225-metre-tall (738 ft) skyscraper in central London. It opened in July 2014 and was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. The informal name references its wedge shape similar to the kitchen utensil.[5]
The building adjoins the Lloyd's Building, also designed by Rogers.[5] The previous, 1960s building on the site was owned by British Land and had been designed by Gollins Melvin Ward. By December 2009, the site was cleared but construction stalled because of the financial crisis. The project was revived in 2010 by Oxford Properties in partnership with British Land.[6]
Site history
[edit]
P & O
[edit]From 1840, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company had occupied the offices of Willcox & Anderson. However, business east of the Gulf of Suez increased in the late 1840s, so it needed larger offices. In 1845, the company purchased the King's Arms inn and hotel at 122 Leadenhall Street for £7,250. A new office building on the site cost it about £8,000 and opened in 1848.[7]
In 1854, the company expanded its offices with a lease on 121 Leadenhall Street, and further 80 year leases from St Thomas's Hospital on dwellings at 123, 124 and 125 which were demolished to create a new frontage for 122.[7]
By the mid-1960s, the company sought more office space from its narrow site. Commercial Union Assurance Company planned a redevelopment on the adjacent site at the corner of St Mary Axe but that had poor access. To achieve a satisfactory planning consent and optimise floor space the two companies carried out a joint development, with adjustment of boundaries, and creation of an open concourse at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe.[citation needed]
1969 building
[edit]
Gollins Melvin Ward's 1969 building at 122 Leadenhall Street was 54 m (177 ft) tall with 14 storeys above grade and three below.[8] It matched Commercial Union's new, adjacent headquarters, later St Helen's. The building had a central, compressional concrete core and suspended floors hung using steel 'chords', visible on the exterior, themselves hung from power trusses at the top of the building. The architect acknowledged the influence of Mies van der Rohe.[citation needed]
The building was extensively damaged by an IRA bomb in the early-1990s and subsequently had to be reclad. Tenants included the Italian International Bank and Calyon.[citation needed]
In 2007–08, McGee contracted to demolish the building for £16 million. After stripping the interior and removal of low level structures, the suspended parts of the building had to be dismantled floor by floor from the bottom.[9]
The Leadenhall Building
[edit]
Designed by Richard Rogers and developed by British Land and Oxford Properties, the new Leadenhall Building is 225 m (737 ft) tall, with 48 floors. With its distinctive wedge-shaped profile it has been nicknamedthe Cheesegrater,[10][11] a name originally given to it by the City of London Corporation's chief planning officer, Peter Rees, who upon seeing a model of the concept "told Richard Rogers I could imagine his wife using it to grate parmesan. [The name] stuck."[12]
The planning application was submitted to the City of London Corporation in February 2004 and was approved in May 2005.[13] In 2006 Scheme Design (RIBA Stage D) started. In a statement made to the London Stock Exchange on 14 August 2008, British Land said it was delaying the project, which was due to start in October 2010.[14] On 22 December 2010, the developer announced the project was moving forward with contracts being signed for the 50/50 joint venture with Oxford Properties.[11]
The new tower features a tapered glass façade on one side which reveals steel bracings, along with a ladder frame to emphasise the vertical appearance of the building. It also appears to anchor the tower to the ground, giving a sense of strength. Unlike other tall buildings, which typically use a concrete core to provide stability, the steel "Megaframe", engineered by Arup, provides stability to the entire structure and is the world's tallest of its kind. The base features a 30m high atrium which is open to the public and extends the adjacent plaza.[15] The flat side of the building is also encased in glass, and houses the mechanical services – in particular the elevator shafts. These have been turned into an architectural feature, similar to the neighbouring Lloyd's building – they deliberately display the elevator machinery, with bright orange counterweights and elevator motors.
This unusual design's main drawback is the building's relatively small floorspace (84,424 m2) for a building of its height. It is hoped that the slanting wedge-shaped design will have less impact on the protected sightline of St Paul's Cathedral when viewed from Fleet Street and the west.
In July 2011, British Land and Oxford Properties announced that Laing O'Rourke was the main contractor for the works of the new Leadenhall Building. Throughout 2011, construction began with the basement floors. By December 2012, the steelwork had progressed up to the fifth mega-level, with topping out expected in February or March. The glass cladding had also begun to rise. In May 2013, the co-developers announced that the building was over 51% pre-let. By June 2013, the steelwork of the building was completely topped out with the glass cladding covering almost half the building.
The construction of the building was the subject of an episode of the Super Skyscrapers documentary series by the American television channel PBS in February 2014.[16]
Tenants
[edit][when?]
| Floors | Space designation |
|---|---|
| 45 | DTEK[17] |
| 44 | Affinity[17] |
| 43 | Petredec[17] |
| 42 | Landing Forty Two[17] |
| 40-41 | FM Global[17] |
| 39 | Brit Insurance[17] |
| 35–38 | DRW Trading Group[17] |
| 31–34 | Quadrature Capital[18][17] |
| 30 | Servcorp[19][17] |
| 28–29 | OMERS[17] |
| 27 | DRW Trading Group[17] |
| 26 | Aegon[17] |
| 25 | DRW Trading Group[17] |
| 19–24 | MS Amlin[17] |
| 16–18 | Brit Insurance[17] |
| 15 | Virgin Money[17] |
| 14 | RSHP[17] |
| 4–13 | Aon[17] |
| 3 | Bob Bob Ricard City (January 2019)[20][17] |
| 2 | Reception |
| 1 | Aon[17] |
| Mezzanine | Black Sheep Coffee[17] |
| Ground | Black Sheep Coffee[17] |
The development has succeeded in attracting tenants, especially in contrast to the nearby part-built Pinnacle and completed Heron Tower. In May 2011, it was announced that the lower 10 floors of the Leadenhall Building have been pre-let to insurance broker Aon, which moved its global headquarters to London from Chicago.[21] Insurance group Amlin has also agreed terms on a 20-year lease of the 19th to 24th floors as well as the top floor, the 45th, from March 2015, for a total of 111,000 sq ft of office space.[22]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ Colson, Thomas. "London's 'Cheesegrater' building was just sold to a Chinese investor for over £1 billion". Business Insider.
- ^ Lowe, Richard (1 March 2017). "London's Leadenhall Building sold for £1.15bn". Real Assets.
- ^ a b c d "The Leadenhall Building". Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- ^ "Planning Applications". City of London. 04/00111/FULEIA – Documents > South Elevation. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
- ^ a b Booth, Robert (13 August 2014). "Inside the Cheesegrater – London's latest skyscraper". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ "British Land and Oxford Properties Announce Completion of Joint Venture Agreement to Develop 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building". British Land. 22 December 2010. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- ^ a b Freda Harcourt; Edward Harcourt, Sarah Palmer (2006). Flagships of Imperialism: the P&O Company and the politics of empire from its origins to 1867. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-7393-6.
- ^ "122 Leadenhall Street". Emporis. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015.
- ^ "Case study" (PDF). McGee. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2011.
- ^ "Building 49 – The Leadenhall Building". SkyscraperNews.com. 11 July 2007. Archived from the original on 5 August 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2007.
- ^ a b "British Land and Oxford Properties Announce Completion of Joint Venture Agreement to Develop 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building". Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
- ^ The Cheesegrater: Richard Rogers sprinkles the Square Mile | Art and design. The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
- ^ "Planning Applications". City of London. 04/00111/FULEIA. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
- ^ Hipwell, Deirdre (23 October 2010). "Canadians join British Land to build the 'Cheese Grater'". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
- ^ "Lofty Ambitions". The Leadenhall Building. 28 April 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- ^ Building the Future PBS. Retrieved: 12 February 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "In the building". The Leadenhall Building. Archived from the original on 11 May 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
- ^ "Leadenhall Building reaches capacity with Quadrature relocation". BDaily News. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ "Office Space, Virtual Office & Coworking | Leadenhall Building". www.servcorp.co.uk. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ^ "Cult Russian Restaurant Follow-Up Will Open a Whole Year Late". London Eater. August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ^ "British Land pre-lets 10 floors of office space to Aon in the Cheese Grater building". Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
- ^ Insurer Amlin rents space in the Cheesegrater. The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 26 July 2013.
External links
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