please empty your brain below
Actually I spotted the restaurant imposter straight away. Yay, me!

Ian | 25.10.17 - 7:28 a.m. | #

What no Greggs there!?!

solar penguin | 25.10.17 - 7:31 a.m. | #

Haha! A Greggs would be awesome there!

I think that's actually a rather handsome building and though rather sterile, they didn't need to put a public passageway through the building so I say Bloomberg get a thumbs-up for doing that.

Kevin | 25.10.17 - 7:46 a.m. | #

No doubt some poor sod has the responsibility to have the bottles in that order on every table, every day, and make sure they stay that way all the time.

Approve of the fountain, although it reminds me of compacted grass cuttings.

Still anon | 25.10.17 - 7:58 a.m. | #

Looking forward to seeing the resited Temple of Mithras. Bucklersbury House was a brute but there were some interesting decorative glass panels above the entrance, and a some glass display cases with finds from when the site was developed. There were extrordinary queues to view the temple when it was opened to the public after being excavated. It was a war bomb site of course.

Andrew | 25.10.17 - 8:07 a.m. | #

I've been walking past this under construction for one and a half years now. To finally see it finished is impressive.

P.S. Those wanting Greggs, note that Cheapside is just up from it. That's where you wanna be.

EonLeader | 25.10.17 - 8:31 a.m. | #

Can't wait to tour this on an Open House weekend.

Very high standards here. Compare the similar in scope, but dreary in execution Rathbone Place development.
http://www.gpe.co.uk/our-portfolio/rathbone-square/

Dan | 25.10.17 - 8:35 a.m. | #

Well I like the fountain, it fits it's surroundings. The whole building is better than you normally get for an office block these days.
I like these walkways they add a human touch to otherwise concrete deserts, as for guards and CCTV it's a fact of life.

YDU | 25.10.17 - 8:47 a.m. | #

Memory can play tricks but I think that back in early 90s Bucklesbury House DID have a central passageway that you could walk through. And it might even have had cafes in it .

Anyone else remember that ?

botogol | 25.10.17 - 9:17 a.m. | #

Well, three cheers for the super green rating, if it's authentic and independently verified. Would be nice if some of that spending on architectural talent and quality design and materials could be used for housing projects though. Money attacts money, it seems.

Malcolm | 25.10.17 - 10:24 a.m. | #

A 1951 map shows that there were three thoroughfares on the site that no longer exist.
[1951 map]

I wonder when they disappeared and was there any opposition at the time to a public right of way becoming private.

Tetramesh | Homepage | 25.10.17 - 10:28 a.m. | #

@Tetramesh Thanks for that map. It's fascinating to see all the blank spaces and "ruins" showing the extent of bombing in the area.

I can't wait to finally walk among what was behind all that hording and visit the Mithras Temple museum!

Cornish Cockney | 25.10.17 - 10:49 a.m. | #

Has an opening date been announced for the Tube entrance?

timbo | 25.10.17 - 10:56 a.m. | #

@ Timbo - 21st December 2017 according to the most recently published TfL Quarterly investment report. Target date is 18 Jan 2018 so running slightly ahead of target.

We also have Bond St and Victoria schemes due to complete and open to the public around the same time give or take a few weeks.

PC | 25.10.17 - 11:04 a.m. | #

I don't mourn Bucklersbury House, though one of the things I have always missed - from my brief spell as a commuter into Cannon Street - was the line of trees that used to stand outside the building. They used to be an evening roost for birds, which might have been less of a spectacle but for the fact they were Pied Wagtails... hundreds of them!
That was in the 80s. To this day it still mystifies me where they all came from; and - after the loss of the trees - where they all went?

RogerW | 25.10.17 - 11:09 a.m. | #

Wasn't there a carvery of some sort in Bucklersbury House in the 80s?
I'm sure can recall shoving in massive wine and port laden expenses from there.
But as I say, it was the hedonistic 80s, which are a bit of blur nowadays.
As for the building, it certainly could be worse but that fountain looks an absolute dead cert for City drunks to head for in the evening.

Chris | 25.10.17 - 11:23 a.m. | #

Ah, so we should take to calling the private footway "Budge Row" not "Bloomberg Arcade". But no reappearance of Sise Lane or Tower Royal.

The etymology "Budge Row" is obscure (perhaps pertaining to lambskin) but Sise Lane use to be much longer before the formation of Queen Victoria Street, and was apparently named after St Osyth and the former church at No.1 Poultry before the Great Fire; and Tower Royal was named after La Réole in Gascony. Sometimes I think these antiquarians just make it up. But in this case all three roads are attested back to the 15th century or before ("La Ryole" in 1276, the reign of Edward I; "Bogerowe" in 1356, which was Edward III; and "Seint Sythes lane" in 1401, Henry IV, just before Part 1).

Just up the road, the building that replaced St Swithin's church at 111 Cannon Street has also been demolished and is being replaced. Hopefully the London Stone will reappear there at some point.

Andrew | 25.10.17 - 12:06 p.m. | #

@Andrew

Reinstatement at No 111, in a rather more prominent display, is the plan, but for the time being London Stone has temporary lodgings at the Museum of London
[link]

timbo | 25.10.17 - 1:00 p.m. | #

Had a nose round just now - there are actually three pools - two at the Queen Vic Street end, and a third at the Cannon Street end. I don't think the pools mark the original line of the Wall Brook, which is followed by the street of that name along the east side of the Bloomberg estate, rather than cutting across the middle. The source of the Walbrook is somewhere in Shoreditch.

timbo | 25.10.17 - 2:37 p.m. | #

Shoreditch was never a shore, incidentally, but there was a ditch.

Any more clarifications, anyone?

timbo | 25.10.17 - 4:36 p.m. | #

The collection of restaurants is strikingly similar to Nova in Victoria. Same developers, perhaps?

zappomatic | Homepage | 25.10.17 - 5:26 p.m. | #

As a self-proclaimed 'undesirable' I am quietly quite looking forward to testing the 'accessible connectivity'.

E | 25.10.17 - 5:51 p.m. | #

@timbo 4:36

have I an alter ego / evil twin?

(Or maybe I'm the evil twin?)

timbo @ 2:37 | 25.10.17 - 6:02 p.m. | #

You certainly used to be able to walk through Bucklersbury House back in the 60's

Dave B | 25.10.17 - 11:49 p.m. | #

And, what's happened to the bronze statue of a LIFFE trader, complete with 1999-era flip-open mobile phone, that used to stand at the junction of Walbrook and Cannon Street? When the site clearance started it was boxed over for protection, but then it just went. Where is it now?

AlanBG | 26.10.17 - 8:30 p.m. | #

Although if the article is about an office block I think this picture fits.

https://abload.de/img/img_223lbshu.jpg

Welcome | 27.10.17 - 11:53 a.m. | #

The LIFFE Trader on Walbrook was by Stephen Melton and was unveiled in October 1997. I have seen a suggestion that it was on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery in 2016. Is it still there?

There was a different bronze statue of a LIFFE trader by Neil Lawson Baker, called "Open Outcry". http://neillawsonbaker.com/project/open-outcry-liffe-trader/
Where is that now?

Andrew | 27.10.17 - 12:20 p.m. | #











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