Lloyd’s of London’s opposition casts doubt on plans for City Tower
The decision on whether to approve London’s tallest skyscraper was delayed after new criticisms that the design would “robb” office workers vital outdoor space.
Officials had expected the 1 Undershaft, a proposed behemoth of 73 floors in the heart the financial district to be approved on Tuesday, but they deferred the decision due to disagreements over the Square Mile.
Developers are working to assure the City of London Corporation – which approves the plans – about the impact of this skyscraper.
The proposal was criticized by the chairman of Lloyd’s of London, the largest insurance market in the world. Bruce Carnegie-Brown has been the most prominent figure to voice concerns over the new skyscraper.
The 335-year old Lloyd’s of London, along with the Bank of England (BoE) and London Stock Exchange (LSE), is often considered part of the holy trinity of City of London institutions.
The views of the Chairman and the committee are therefore given considerable weight.
Mr Carnegie-Brown stated that the plans for 1 Lowershaft would “rob the City of an important space to convene”.
The Corporation’s deferral of approval will keep the project in limbo.
1 Undershaft, designed by Eric Parry as a landmark on the skyline of the capital city, would be a transformational building.
The new skyscraper will be 309 meters tall, making it central London’s highest landmark. It will sit right next to the existing Cheesegrater Building.
The building would dwarf other well-known structures such as City’s Gherkin Building, and HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf.
The critics of the 1 Undershaft Plan say the building is too big.
The 73rd and 71st floors will be a museum of London educational space, while the 11th and 12th floors will have a sky garden of 2,500 square metres.
The sky garden will replace St Helen’s Square, where City workers gather at lunchtime for snacks and coffee.
The City of London was expected to vote for the latest version of plans which will increase the amount of offices in the skyscraper from 90,000 to 117,000 square metres. The building will house restaurants and shops.
Developers said that the recent changes were due to “notable growth in the demand for more wellness-led office spaces”.
City of London Corporation also wants to keep London in front of competitors such as New York or Paris when it comes to the availability of top-notch office space. The building will accommodate 10,000 office workers.
In his letter to City of London, Mr Carnegie Brown criticised current plans that deny workers the right to outdoor space.
He said that the City of London had a good record of creating additional space for public use at street level when new development plans were approved.
“For the very first time since recent memories, the plans for 1 Undershaft will rob the City a really significant convening space.
The compensation offer of outdoor space for the new building on the eleventh floor does not address the issue and I think the security requirements will make it significantly less appealing than the space that would be replaced.
The Twentieth Century Society and Historic England as well as the Greater London Authority, Tower Hamlets Borough Council, and London Borough of Tower Hamlets are also against the plan.
St Helen’s is the name of a local parish for the tower that will be demolished to make room for 1 Undershaft. It was Aviva’s former headquarters in the 1960s.
St Helen’s suffered severe damage from the Provisional IRA’s 1992 bombing of Baltic Exchange. Three people were killed and 91 injured. The attack led the area to be redeveloped with the Gherkin as its centre.
The Twentieth Century Society wants the St Helen’s Tower listed as an important 1960s skyscraper. The building was part of the new wave of skyscrapers that appeared in , the historic finance district.
Since it was approved for development more than a decade before, 1 Undershaft went through a torturous design and funding process.
It was originally conceived by Avery Associates in London, headed by Bryan Avery. The architects wanted to create a design that was elegant, thin and sloping.
The tower, at 270 meters, would have been eight meters shorter than the tallest skyscraper of the Financial District, 22 Bishopsgate.
After funding issues and investors were shaken up, the plan was reworked by Mr Parry who designed many public spaces in London’s City.
The design was dubbed “The Trellis”, due to the large x-shaped intersecting lines, and approved for development just before Covid.
The original building design was 289m, slightly higher than Avery’s but shorter than current proposal of 309m.
The Trellis project was scrapped for a more ambitious one costing £1bn, even though it had been given the green light.
Singapore developer Aroland Holding is funding the project. Aroland Holdings is owned by Kuok Khoon Hong. He is the billionaire Singaporean businessman and founder of Wilmar International.
Wilmar is the dominant palm oil producer in the world. It is listed on Singapore’s stock exchange.
The Lloyd’s of London building designed by Richard Rogers, known as the inside-out building sparked some ridicule when it opened in the 80s, but now is widely admired.
In a coffee shop in London in the 17th century, the insurance exchange was created to cover cargo-carrying vessels. Over the years, it has grown into the largest insurance market in the world.
A 1 Undershaft’s spokesman stated: “We listened to carefully the comments regarding the public area at the ground floor that were made today at the subcommittee for planning applications.
We will work closely with City of London Corporation, and our insurance industry neighbours to make minor changes to the scheme.
We look forward to our return to the subcommittee, as soon as we can.
Shravan Joshi said that the City of London Corporation Planning and Transportation Committee had deferred a decision regarding Undershaft so that developers can consider “minor alterations in relation to ground floor public realm”.
Mr Joshi stated: “This does not mean that we are against the development of industry or that we don’t need to densify eastern cluster.
We will take the proposals to the Planning Applications Sub-Committee as soon as we can for a decision.”
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