Talk:Shard London Bridge

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I'm planning to request a move of this page to London Bridge Tower - which curretly redirects here - because that is its correct name, given by the developers and the planning authority and whioch will in due course will be its formal postal address. Shard of Glass is simply a nickname given by the press (based on a PR campaign by the developer and architect). Any objections? Icundell 22:35, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yes. Best to keep the article where most people will search for it. jguk 11:02, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

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Moving Shard of Glass to London Bridge Tower was suggested on Wikipedia:Requested moves. The discussion on that page follows, the consensus was to move.

London Bridge Tower is the correct name, but redirects to Shard of Glass, a press nickname. Move in line with 1 Canada Square(Canary Wharf Tower) and 30 St Mary Axe (Erotic Gherkin) -- Icundell 22:53, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Support - obviously Icundell 22:53, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Support. Duh. ADH (t&m) 00:04, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)
• Support: DCEdwards1966 04:57, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)
• Support: You can also cite Tower 42 rather than NatWest Tower and several other examples. -- Solipsist 09:54, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Oppose: Keep the article where most people will search for it. jguk 10:55, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Should we use Shard of glass or Shard of Glass :-) ? Icundell 11:17, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Support. That's what redirects are for. Rd232 11:02, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Oppose as a Londoner who has the other two buildings in his sight nearly every day. The popular name should be the main entry, and you cite some bad precedents. The Erotic Gherkin is a name by which the building in question is known to millions. A few thousand may know the building as 30 St Mary Axe. The same goes for Canary Wharf Tower, same goes for Tower 42. If anything, these articles should be moved, not Shard of Glass. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 11:45, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • You appear to be arguing that popular usage should be used as a substitute for accuracy. London Bridge Tower is the name given by its owners, the local authority and will probably be its postal name. Nicknames should be the re-directs, proper names the main article. Icundell 12:00, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • That kind of formal accuracy is a weak argument for the name of an article. We're not going to move Bill Gates to William Henry Gates III for instance, because while the latter is more formally accurate it is not the name by which Bill Gates is known to the public. The question I ask is: what words would the user be most likely to type into the find box or into Google (which gives precedence to HTML titles of web pages) when searching for information about this building? If this is a reasonably unique phrase (that is, typing it in shows mostly articles about the subject I'm interested in), I consider it to be a good candidate for the name of an article.

Strongly disagree - formal accuracy is a strong argument. Given the ability to redirect, there is little reason for an encylopedia to prefer the informal name to the formal one. (However, precisely this argument was defeated re East Germany.) Also, "shard of glass" has a generic meaning which will be more familiar to most people. Rd232 13:57, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• • Stand on any London street and ask passersby to point to "Tower 42", "30 St Mary Axe" and "1 Canada Square". You'll get lots of blanks looks, although the three buildings are seldom out of their sight. Now ask them to point out the Natwest Tower, the Erotic Gherkin and the Canary Wharf Tower and you'll get smiles and directions. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 12:36, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

This is an encyclopaedia, not a dictionary of slang. If the "Shard of Glass" page has a redirect people will have no problem finding London Bridge Tower. Philip 14:16, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If we couldn't have redirects, that would be a very strong argument. But we can. And encyclopedias are supposed to tell people things they don't know. Rd232 14:05, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If we were being consistent with "30 St Mary Axe" and "1 Canada Square" the article would need to be moved to "32 London Bridge Street". jguk 12:54, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Partly an ontological question. Are we describing entities, which have correct formal names (which should be preferred); or terms (where common usage is much more important)? If we start distinguishing these consistently, it would be logical to describe both "name X" (informal name for Y) and describe other things about Y on page "Y". That, it seems to me, would be logical, consistent and encyclopedic. Rd232 14:05, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It's a building. No need to get philosophical; just called it what it is properly called. Philip 14:16, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually, I think there is a need to get philosophical. This question comes up so often precisely because there is no agreed ontological basis for resolving conflicts between different Wikipedia conventions. Rd232 18:11, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Support We can't have Wikipedia littered with slang names for articles. Philip 14:16, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • It will be littered with "slang" terms whether you welcome that or not. Wikipedia naming conventions favor the use of such common names for people and things: Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Use common names of persons and things. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 14:46, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
    • And the next policy along calls for precision and warns against ambiguity. Erotic Gherkin is a stupid nickname applied to the wrong building - it was coined by the Guardian for the old Trafalgar House 1,200 ft design - the Lloyd's Building (1 Lime Street, if your're interested) is an official name, as is the Oxo Tower). Shard of Glass (or is that Shard of glass?) is also a nickname applied to an older design than that to be built. Oh, and an encyclopedia isn't just for Londoners, but for anyone who may need to find information so it should put the most accurate information most prominently. Icundell 01:18, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Support London Bridge Tower is the proper name, and so should be the primary title for the article. This is exactly why we have redirects. TACD 15:11, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• Support The policy is self-identification. I'm pretty certain Bill Gates calls himself that, ditto 1 Canada Square, Tower 42, etc. Press/slang nicknames should never be used unless the entity itself starts using them. Dtcdthingy 20:20, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • "Self-identification" is not a Wikipedia policy. Proteus (Talk) 11:39, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Support. We use 30 St Mary Axe, 1 Canada Square, so there is clearly a de facto policy of using real names instead of popular nicknames. See also Tall buildings in London and similar articles. Gdr 21:19, 2004 Dec 31 (UTC)
  • As noted above, this would mean the article should be called 32 London Bridge Street. jguk 23:08, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)
    • Um, no. The suggestion is to use the (or at least, a) official name, not the street address. 30 St Mary Axe is called that [1], as is One Canada Square. --Dtcdthingy 00:03, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Why the "official" name when the naming conventions clearly recommend the popular name? The Shard of Glass is what Londoners call it, same with Canary Wharf Tower, the Natwest Building, the Erotic Gherkin, the Oxo Tower and the Lloyd's building (which all presumably also have obscure names that nobody actually uses in real life). --Tony Sidaway|Talk 03:46, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Because an encylopaedia doesn't put things under nicknames; it either puts "See under" (the equivalent of a redirect), and/or has a separate entry on the nickname itself (eg who coined it) if warranted. Rd232 10:47, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You've already been shown that the naming convention does recommend the popular usage, not the "official" one, for people and objects. the conventions could not be more plain. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 17:51, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The convention is fairly plain, but appears to have been developed originally more with subject topics in mind than proper names. Proper names now follow the same format for consistency. Using common terms rather than technical ones for subject topics makes sense, because subjects should be described in laymen's terms first, and technical terms second, and this approach encourages that. This logic does not apply to proper names, especially given the existence of redirects. Which may be why the move is (currently) supported about 9:1 (maybe 9:2 counting Proteus against). Also, a convention is merely what everybody agrees to do. If everytime a convention is challenged, such challenges are shouted down on a "look at the convention" basis (instead of saying "well, conventions are subject to potential revision, which is under semi-permanent discussion [[here]], but in the mean time stick to the current convention"), it isn't a convention any more, it's a rule. Rd232 18:39, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

What you say above simply is not true. The part of the naming convention I cite is specifically developed with proper names in mind. Certainly feel free to challenge the convention, but you have to recognise that the convention has advantages that are difficult to gainsay. Place the main article and all internal links at the popular name of the object or person, and Google's crawlers and the like will see that popular name in the title of many pages that are linked to--Google grants ranking points to such articles. Place the article in something obscure and people will be less likely to find it. An example is if you search on canary-wharf-tower in Google. The first occurrence of this Wikipedia article in the list returned by that query is on page 63 of the results. In German! A search on 1-canada-square puts the exact same article on page 2. The redirects don't help, you have to put the article at the most likely name to get a good Google ranking. This is why it's a good idea to choose sensible names, and not obscure ones that few people will ever know, let alone use. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 05:07, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I take your general point about Google rankings, but (a) how important should that be (especially as we seem to be struggling to keep up with traffic anyway); and (b) your particular example isn't entirely persuasive, because the "1-canada-square" Wikiref on page 2 is also to the German one; I haven't the patience to see how far down the list the English one ranks, but it's beyond page 11. The point is that if the German one is that much higher than the English, other considerations beside the article name must be important for the rankings. In any case, I would have thought that one of the advantages of being a non-commercial project is that we don't have to prostitute ourselves on an hourly basis to get the highest Google rankings. Their methodology changes all the time, so I would just focus on creating good content (which is the most important thing in the long run, for search engines and for users) and let them worry about their search engine. Rd232 11:22, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

BTW, everyone I know refers to it simply as "the Gherkin", not the "Erotic Gherkin". Popular usage is a fickle mistress. Rd232 10:50, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Its an article about a (proposed) building and so should follow the rules for naming buildings. It looks like Wikipedia hasn't really gotten around to formulating the guidelines yet, but they already exist in the world of architecture. To put it simply a building is usually refered to by 'the name of the building'. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how these names are determined, but most often they are the name given by the owner's of the building - for older buildings its the name which has become the norm. It is not the address of the building, although many property companies are unimaginative enough to name their buildings after the address, or possibly it is the default if a building isn't given its own name. The name can also change as the building changes ownership, as is the case with the NatWest Tower becoming Tower 42 and the Post Office Tower becoming the BT Tower. I can also think of a couple of cases where houses are known by the name of the person they were built for (for example the Farnsworth House).

During planning and construction, a building might be known by a working title which is changed when the owner's take possession. This can be confusing, as frequently, editorial coverage of a building is highest whilst a building is nearing completion. So a significant number of column inches may not use the final name of the building.

30 St Mary Axe has never been named the Erotic Gherkin, that's just a tabloid nickname when they wanted to knock the plans - now the building is popular they mostly use the Glass Gherkin or simply the Gherkin. The building was originally to be called the Swiss Re Tower, but as I understand it, before completion Swiss Re ran into mild financial difficulties. Although they are still the owner and principle occupant, they decided to let out many of the floors, so in order not to discourage other tenants too much, the name was changed to be more neutral. These alternative names are discussed in the article.

Some more useful sources to help determine a building's name are http://www.emporis.com/ (for example their list of skyscrapers in London, and http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings.html . Other good sources are the web sites of the architects involved.

Emporis' rules for naming buildings can be found here. -- Solipsist 10:51, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Current Wikipedia convention is essentially that names are irrelevant - what matters is common usage, correct or otherwise, as long as it is unambiguous. So if this time next week Bill Gates becomes universally known as "The Man Who Gets Four Million Spam A Day", presumably his article will be moved there. Rd232 11:22, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

• Oppose. Current location is in line with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). Proteus (Talk) 16:56, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Support. I think that it would be best to use the official name in this case. Read the last part of Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names). I presonally think that having Shard of Glass as title is overdoing it. Shard of Glass is ambigious in by oppinion. - Jeltz talk 14:36, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
  • Exactly which part are you referring to? Shard of Glass is neither "misleading" nor "offensive", so I fail to see how that section applies. Proteus (Talk) 14:53, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Support. I was going to move it myself when I made the London Bridge Tower redirect, but decided against it. I get the impression that Shard of Glass will be more commonly used once the building's finished, but it isn't at the moment. Xezbeth 14:47, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC)
• Support since it's the proper name of it, redirect slang and common names to proper name. Cburnett 23:27, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
• Support Speaking from an expert view point it should work as LBT, the shard of glass, and london bridge tower. all names are currently correct. gothicform (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

What, no pictures? Surely you can add one? 217.137.251.9

How about one in German? Edward 15:37, 2005 Jun 4 (UTC)

well i cant gnu one of my images, the montetary loss would be too great (they cost a fortune to produce). has wikipedia actually changed its policy on non commercial licenses now? gothicform (UTC)

[edit] Official Name Change

London Bridge Tower has now officially changed it's name to Shard London Bridge (check the official website if you don't believe me) I think this article entry should be renamed to show this change. (Jamandell (d69) 16:26, 15 January 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Pre-Letting

"The developers are also hoping to obtain a pre-let for a large section of the office space." - Apparently Transport for London are moving in. Can anyone confirm? --Jamesedmo 11:32, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Source? Icundell 19:06, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

This is Local London --Jamesedmo 23:34, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, for one thing, they won't be taking 300 sq feet (that's barely a one person private office) - 300,000 would be nearer. But the story cites stuff said by the Mayor and a story from Estates Gazette which is the largest circulation property journal in the UK and pretty respected (Personal interest note: I've done work for EG and worked for its principle rival). But it also states "He said TfL only had a "verbal agreement" with the owner." so the deal is certainly not done yet. Probably worth a note along the lines of 'in 2006 the Mayor of London held talks with a view to consolidating TfL's activities in the tower' - and then monitor it. Icundell 00:31, 20 May 2006 (UTC)