| 122 Leadenhall Street | |
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| Leadenhall Building Artist's Impression.jpg An artist's impression of how the approved new Leadenhall building will appear upon completion |
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| General information | |
| Location | 122 Leadenhall Street, City of London, England, United Kingdom |
| Technical details | |
| Floor area | 84,424 m2 (908,730 sq ft) |
122 Leadenhall Street is an address on Leadenhall Street in the City of London where a 225 metre (737 ft) tall skyscraper designed by Richard Rogers and frequently referred to as "the Cheese Grater" is currently under construction. The site is adjacent to the Lloyd's building, also designed by Rogers. Prior to 2007 the site was occupied by a building owned by the developer British Land and designed by Gollins Melvin Ward Partnership that was constructed in the 1960s. That building was demolished in 2007-8 in preparation for redevelopment of the site. By December 2009, the site was cleared but construction had stalled. The project, initially delayed due to the economic climate, was revived in October 2010, and Oxford Properties is now co-developing the property in partnership with British Land.[1] In May 2011, it was announced that the lower 10 floors of the property have been pre-let to Aon Corporation.[2]
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Prior to the site's previous redevelopment in the 1960s, it had been used as the head offices for P&O for over a century. Since 1840, P&O had worked in rent-free offices of Willcox & Anderson. However, business east of the Gulf of Suez increased in 1846 resulting in the company needing newer and larger offices. It was the MDs' obligation to provide new offices. In November 1845, the King's Arms Inn and Hotel was put up for sale. The whole estate freehold was bought by the MDs for £7,250, who then commissioned architect, Mr. Beachcroft, to design a new building. The cost of the new building was estimated at £8,000. In March 1848, P&O moved into new offices at 122 Leadenhall Street.[3]
The MDs volunteered to pay £1,000 of the rent per annum out of their commissions. In 1854, the MDs unsuccessfully attempted to purchase 121 Leadenhall Street. However, they were able to take a lease from the charity which held it. They also bought leases of 80 years from St Thomas's Hospital on the residential properties at numbers 123, 124 and 125 Leadenhall Street which were demolished to create a new frontage at number 122. The new building provided more office space, some of which was for rent, and a spacious new courtyard.[3]
By the mid 1960s Peninsular and Oriental needed to redevelop the site to provide increased office space. At the same time, the Commercial Union Assurance Company was also planning a redevelopment on an adjacent site. However, due to a number of issues affecting both sites, notably poor access to the Commercial Union site and the restricted width of the Peninsular and Oriental site, it was not possible to obtain planning consents that would optimise the amount of floor space desired by either company. As a result, the two companies decided to participate in a joint development that would involve the reallocation of site boundaries and the creation of an open concourse area at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe. Both companies would have frontages to the new concourse and would retain site areas equivalent to those enclosed by the original boundaries.
When completed in 1969, it was 54 m (177 ft) tall with 14 storeys above[4] and three storeys under ground. It originally was designed as a pair with the Commercial Union headquarters building (now renamed St Helen's) by the architects Gollins Melvin Ward Partnership. The two buildings have a central compressional concrete core and have suspended floors which hang using the steel 'chords' visible on the exterior of the building, which are hung from power trusses at the top of the building (and in the case of 1 the Undershaft, a further central power-truss). It is an example of a tension structure. At the time, it was considered one of the most complex glass fronted buildings in the United Kingdom. The building was designed by the Gollins Melvin Ward Partnership, who acknowledged the influence of Mies van der Rohe.
The building was extensively damaged by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb attack in the early 1990s and subsequently had to be reclad. It was occupied by various tenants until November 2006, including Italian International Bank and Calyon.
In 2007-2008, the building was demolished to make way for a new tower development designed by Sir Richard Rogers. The demolition was undertaken by McGee Group Ltd, with Bovis Lend Lease acting as construction manager. The contract value was £16 million. The first phase of demolition was conventional: after securing the site, the contractors performed a soft strip of the interior and an asbestos survey prior to demolishing the low level structures up to podium level.
After this point, the suspended structure of the building required an unconventional demolition approach that successively dismantled each office floor from the lowest upwards. To achieve this, the contractors installed a structural deck that acted both as a work platform for the demolition work and as a safety barrier. This was jacked upwards as each successive office floor was removed. When all the office floors and upper support trusses had been removed, the concrete core was de-stressed and demolished. Concurrently, the 25,000 cubic metre basement was propped and excavated. The contract took 105 weeks to complete.[5]
Designed by Richard Rogers and developed by British Land and Oxford Properties, the new tower will be 225 metres (737 ft) tall, with 48 floors. With its distinctive wedge-shaped profile, it has been nicknamed the Cheese Grater.[6] [7]
The planning application was submitted to the City of London Corporation in February 2004 and was approved in May 2005. Demolition of the previous building commenced December 2006 and was completed in late 2008. In a statement made to the London stock exchange on Thursday 14 August 2008, the developer, British Land, said it was delaying the project, which was due to start October 2010. [8] On 22 December 2010, British Land, did announce the projects moving forward with contracts being signed for the 50:50 joint venture with Oxford Properties.[7]
The new tower will feature a tapered glass façade on one side which will reveal the steel bracings, along with a ladder frame that is aimed to emphasize the vertical appearance of the tower. It will also appear to anchor the tower to the ground, giving a sense of strength. The base will feature a 30 metre high atrium. This will be open to the public and will extend the adjacent plaza. Exterior glass lifts will be used on the building, similar to the neighbouring Lloyd's Building designed by the same architect.
This unusual design's main drawback is the building's relatively small floorspace for a building of its height (84,424 m²). However, 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.
The development is expected to cost approximately £286 million.[9]
122 Leadenhall is just one of several skyscrapers planned for or under construction in the area - which include the Bishopsgate Tower, Heron Tower, 20 Fenchurch Street, 100 Bishopsgate and Shard London Bridge - marking a period of dramatic change for the city's skyline.
British Land and Canada's Oxford Properties are expected to announce that building work will commence on the Leadenhall Building in January 2011.[1]
In July 2011 British Land and Oxford Properties announced Laing O'Rourke as the Main Contractor for the works of The Leadenhall Building.
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