30 St Mary Axe

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After the massive damage to the old Baltic Exchange (the last remaining exchange floor in London) by an IRA bomb in 1992 the site was eventually sold to Swiss Re, who commissioned Sir Noman Foster of Foster + Partners to create a new London Headquarters for the firm. Foster created London's first environmentally sustainable tall building, using gas as its primary energy source, utilising the natural light to minimise artificial lighting and the windows as ventilation to avoid a heavy reliance on air conditioning. The planning authorities demanded that London's narrow streets were not compromised, hence the building's innovative shape, becoming wider as it gets taller.

Though officially simply called 30 St Mary Axe, the building's unusual appearance lead to several nicknames, but the moniker that has stuck over the years is 'The Gherkin' The building is 180 metres tall - more than two and a half jumbo jets stood vertically! At the building's widest point, the circumference is 178 metres - and although many people think so, none of the glass (bar the 'lens' on the top) is curved.

During the construction of the Gherkin the remains of a teenage Roman girl were found. 30 St Mary Axe is her final resting place as after the initial stages of construction (where her body was kept safe at the Museum of London), she was reburied underneath the foundations of the building.

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