The view from across the marketing suite road. The building looks possibly less like a walkie talkie and more like its other nickname, ‘The Pint’. Or maybe we are just thirsty.
Last week, I donned my hard hat for a trip up the skeleton of the new kid of the London skyline, the bulbous 20 Fenchurch Street with ‘more up top’. The new 38-floor skyscraper, already affectionately known as ‘The Walkie Talkie’, is set to open in 2014 and will be packed full of lovely new offices of various sizes (19% of space has been pre-let). However, unless you’re planning on relocating your business to greater heights, I don’t expect this aspect to be of great interest to you. Instead, we’re most excited about what will be happening on those crowning floors: the Skygarden. It’s yet to be confirmed exactly what will be in the huge glass atrium apart from some plants and a still-to-be-decided restaurant, but, unlike the Shard, we do know that it will be free to go up and take in the view. And it is quite a view. The core of the building is already built, with the rest of architect Rafael Viñoly’s curvy shape rapidly developing around it.
Here are a few snaps from our peek around the site and ascent up the tower...
