C20 Society has welcomed plans by the City of London to create a new Creechurch Conservation Area, and recommended the proposed boundary be extended to include 30 St Mary Axe, commonly known as ‘the Gherkin’.

The Conservation Area would be the first designated in the City for more then two decades. Of the three options presented in the consulation, the Society’s preference is for ‘Option Three’ (see the full range here), but with boundaries slightly extended to the north and south-east, to include a brace of twentieth and twenty-first century buildings. C20’s proposal follows similar recommendations from fellow conservation organisations SAVE Britain’s Heritage and the Georgian Group, along with leading architectural historians and independent consultants, Alec Forshaw and Kenneth Powell.

Modern Heritage in the City

30 St Mary Axe has been internationally acclaimed as a major work by Foster and Partners, and is arguably the most important twenty-first century building in London. The Society believes it to be one of very few tall office buildings of recent date in London that must, in due course, be considered for statutory listing. Inclusion in the proposed Conservation Area would be a suitable interim step to that designation, and provide a measure of protection for its wider setting and key views.

It comes amid an increasing focus for C20 Society on Millennial architecture and design, and follows our recent listing applications for Alsop and Störmer’s Peckham Library (ultimately unsuccessful) and Herzog & de Meuron’s Laban Dance Centre (pending assessment).

Erotic Gherkin

Designed by Foster + Partners in 2001-4 for the insurance business Swiss Re, the unmistakable 41-storey ‘Gherkin’ is a technically and environmentally-ambitious building which became an instant icon on the London skyline. A worthy recipient of the prestigious Stirling Prize in 2004, the building was extensively and highly reviewed upon its completion.

It was constructed on the site of the former Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping (1903), which was damaged beyond repair by an IRA bomb in 1992. Foster + Partners unveiled controversial proposals for a 92-storey replacement known as the Millennium Tower in 1996, leading the Guardian newspaper to coin the memorable moniker, the ‘Erotic Gherkin’. These plans were ultimately dropped and superseded by the 30 St Mary Axe development, yet the name stuck.

Generated by a circular plan, with a radial geometry, the building widens in profile as it rises and tapers towards its apex. This distinctive form responded to the constraints of the site: the building appears more slender than a rectangular block of equivalent size, and the slimming of its profile towards the base maximises the public realm at street level. A newly created piazza leads to an arcade of shops and cafés, while at the apex is a panoramic restaurant offering spectacular 360-degree views across the capital. Known as the ‘lens’, this feature recalls the glass dome that covered part of the ground floor of the Baltic Exchange, and contains the only curved glass on the façade of the building.

The tower’s diagonally braced structure allows column-free floor space and a fully glazed triangulated skin, developing ideas first explored by Buckminster Fuller. The building uses energy-saving methods, which allow it to use only half the power that a similar tower would typically consume. Gaps in each floor create shafts that serve as a natural ventilation system for the entire building. The shafts also create a giant double glazing effect, insulating the office space inside and reducing the reliance on air conditioning.

In addition to the Gherkin, the proposed Creechurch Conservation Area includes a fine collection of inter-war and post-war buildings, which relate well to one another, and create an interesting and varied streetscape.

• Aldgate Station – Charles Walter Clark, 1925-6
  Its white faience façade is very similar to Clark’s other stations at Farringdon, Paddington and Willesden Green, all of which are Grade II listed. Remarkably, Aldgate is not statutory listed but is clearly of architectural and historic interest as well as townscape value and would benefit from conservation area protection. Drawing the conservation area boundary around Aldgate Station would help to provide a clear boundary in itsnorth-east corner.
• Portsoken House, 84-85 Aldgate High Street and 155-57 Minories) – George Val Myer, 1927-8
  Built back from the street to allow the road to be widened at this point, which was a notorious traffic bottleneck, this is a landmark building at a prominent location where Minories meets Aldgate High Street, and its curved elevation responds to its corner plot. Portsoken House was reportedly the tallest office in the City of London when completed in the 1920s and it is stone-faced and richly ornamented. Myer was also the architect of the BBC’s Grade II* Broadcasting House (1932) on Portland Place.
• No.1 Minories
  A 5-storey interwar Neo-Georgian building of red brick with stone dressings. It faces Portsoken House and mirrors its curved elevation. Together, the two buildings provide a gateway to the Minories from Aldgate High Street. No.1 is well-detailed, with decorative window surrounds and mouldings.
• 31 Jewry Street – ‘Sir John Cass College’
  (Including an interwar extension by Vener Rees)
  This Grade II listed building would appropriately book-end the conservation area.
• Creechurch House, No.17 Bevis Marks – Lewis Solomon, 1935
• No.31 Bury Street, built in 1967 by Gotch & Parters, which extends from the Grade II* Holland House of 1916 by Berlage and Van de Velde (which is also included in Option 2)
• Irongate House, No.30 Duke’s Place – Fitzroy Robinson, 1978
• Greenly House, No.40 Duke’s Place – Levin Solomon, son & Joseph, 1950
• Nos.40-41 Houndsditch – 1920s
• Nos.76 Leadenhall Street – Gollins Melvin Ward, 1987
• No.78 Leadenhall Street – Ley, Colbeck & Partners, 1991
• No.80 Leadenhall Street – Hamilton Associates, 1990
• Cunard House, No.88 Leadenhall Street – Fitzroy Robinson, 1999
  (Incorporating elements of the former Mewes & Davis Art Deco building)
  Cunard House and Irongate House are particuarly good examples of the late 20th-century architecture of Fitzroy Robinson, who had an important role in shaping the architecture of the post-war City. Writing in Building Design in 1991, Kenneth Powell declared that “No firm has set its stamp so firmly on the City of London since 1960 than ‘Fitzroys’” (p.18). Powell described the practice’s work as embracing “stylistic pluralism” and “diversity”, while being “streetwise” and contributing positively to the urban scene. These buildings showcase these characteristics.