The Stock Exchange Tower is a high-rise building located in the City of London at 125 Old Broad Street.
Contents |
Standing at 100 metres (328 ft) tall,[1] with 26 floors, the tower was completed by Trollope & Colls[2] in 1970 and opened by the Queen in 1972. It served as the headquarters and offices for the London Stock Exchange until its departure for new premises in Paternoster Square in July 2004. Face to face trading was conducted on the trading floor of the exchange until it was abolished in favour of electronic trading in the 1986 deregulation of the London Stock Exchange known as Big Bang.
On 20 July 1990 the Provisional Irish Republican Army exploded a bomb inside the tower, causing its evacuation. The bomb destroyed the public viewing areas in the building which subsequently closed in 1992. The tower was also evacuated on September 11, 2001 after the attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
The building underwent a major renovation which saw its pre-cast concrete façade reclad in a high-performance glass curtain wall, and thousands of square metres more office space created, including a new 10-story office building at 60 Threadneedle Street, a 6 story wing to the east, and a single-story wing in the northwest. As part of the renovation, the floor plates were extended beyond the perimeter of the original building to give more overall space. The renovation scheme was designed by GMW Architects.
The building has eleven 17-person passenger lifts and 1 goods lift, as well as firefighting lifts and vehicle shuttle lifts.