City Hall, London

City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), which comprises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. It is located in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. It was designed by Norman Foster and opened in July 2002, two years after the Greater London Authority was created. In June 2020, the Greater London Authority started a consultation on proposals to vacate City Hall and move to The Crystal building at the end of 2021.[2] The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020 with the move due to be completed by 31 December 2021.[3]

City Hall
City Hall, London
Location of City Hall in Central London
General information
TypeTown hall
Architectural styleNeo-futurism
AddressThe Queen's Walk
London, SE1
United Kingdom
Coordinates
Current tenantsGreater London Authority
Completed2002 (2002)
OwnerMore London Development Ltd.
Height45 m[1]
Design and construction
ArchitectNorman Foster
Architecture firmFoster and Partners
Structural engineerArup
Website
www.london.gov.uk/city-hall

Background

For the first two years of its existence, the Greater London Authority was based at Romney House, Marsham Street in Westminster.[4] Meetings of the London Assembly took place at Emmanuel Centre, also on Marsham Street.[5]

City Hall was constructed at a cost of £43 million[6] on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the Pool of London. The building does not belong to the GLA but is leased under a 25-year rent.[7] Despite its name, City Hall is not in and does not serve a city (according to UK law), often adding to the confusion of Greater London with the City of London, which has its headquarters at Guildhall and is surrounded by the former. In June 2011, Mayor Boris Johnson announced that for the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the building would be called London House.[8]

The predecessors of the Greater London Authority, the Greater London Council and the London County Council, had their headquarters at County Hall, upstream on the South Bank. Although County Hall's old council chamber is still intact, the building is unavailable for use by the GLA because of its conversion into, among other things, a luxury hotel, amusement arcade and aquarium.[9]

Design
The interior helical staircase of London City Hall

The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency, although the excess energy consumption caused by the exclusive use of glass (in a double facade) overwhelms the benefit of shape. Despite claiming the building "demonstrates the potential for a sustainable, virtually non-polluting public building",[10] energy use measurements have shown this building to be fairly inefficient in terms of energy use (375 kWh/m2/yr), with a 2012 Display Energy Performance Certificate rating of "E".[11] It has been compared variously to a helmet (either Darth Vader's or simply a motorcyclist's), a misshapen egg, and a woodlouse. Former mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a "glass testicle",[12][13] while his successor, Boris Johnson, made the same comparison using a different word, "The Glass Gonad"[14] and more politely as "The Onion".[15]

A 500-metre (1,640 ft) helical walkway ascends the full ten stories. At the top is an exhibition and meeting space called "London's Living Room", with an open viewing deck that is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag (parliament), when Germany's capital was moved back to Berlin. In 2006 it was announced that photovoltaic cells would be fitted to the building by the London Climate Change Agency.[16]

The council chamber is located at the bottom of the helical stairway. The seats and desks for Assembly Members are arranged in a circular form.[17]

Location

The building is located on the River Thames in the London Borough of Southwark, as part of the extended pedestrianised South Bank. It forms part of a larger development called More London, including offices and shops. Next to City Hall is a sunken amphitheatre called The Scoop, which is used in the summer months for open-air performances; it is not, however, part of the GLA's jurisdiction. The Scoop and surrounding landscape were designed by Townshend Landscape Architects. The nearest London Underground and National Rail station is London Bridge.[18]

In 2018 the final selection for the television show, The Apprentice, was filmed in City Hall.[19]

Future

In June 2020, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced the start of a consultation on whether the Greater London Authority should vacate City Hall at the end of 2021 and relocate to The Crystal in the Royal Victoria Docks area of East London. The Crystal building is owned by the Greater London Authority and is currently under-occupied. The current City Hall is owned by a Kuwaiti investment group and not by the authority itself and the proposed move would save the Greater London Authority £12.6 million a year in rental costs. [20][21][2]

  • The Chamber
  • Model of London City Hall in Legoland Windsor
  • Southwark bank of the River Thames, near Tower Bridge
  • Tower Bridge and Canary Wharf viewed from the balcony around the top of the building.
  • A view of City Hall in London from the River Thames

See also

References
  1. City Hall on Emporis.com
  2. "Khan proposes moving City Hall to cut costs". 24 June 2020 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  3. "City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End". BBC. 3 November 2020.
  4. "Greater London Authority – Press Release". Legacy.london.gov.uk. 15 March 2001. Archived from the original on 21 August 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  5. "London Assembly meeting – 24 May 2000". Legacy.london.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 17 August 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  6. "SPICe Briefing" Retrieved 2010-03-01
  7. "Inside City Hall" Retrieved 2010-03-01 Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  8. London SE1 website team London SE1 community website. "City Hall to be renamed 'London House' during 2012 Olympics [15 April 2011]". London-se1.co.uk. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  9. Buchanan, Rhoda (8 April 2009). "A fishy day out at the new London Aquarium". thetimes.co.uk. Times of London. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. "Public building CO2 footprints revealed". the Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  12. Deyan Sudjic (8 July 2001). "A thoroughly modernising mayor". The Observer. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  13. "Inside London's new 'glass egg'". BBC News. 16 July 2002. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  14. Stephen Robinson (28 December 2008). "Is Boris on an upward spiral at last?". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 23 January 2010.
  15. "The Onion". Shaftsbury. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  16. "Solar panels to power London's City Hall". Edie. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  17. "Is the architecture of Westminster bad for politics?". The Conversation. 29 February 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  18. "Nearest station to City Hall". London Town. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  19. "The Apprentice: Finale review – surely time to dismantle this panto?". The Guardian. 16 December 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  20. Peracha, Qasim (24 June 2020). "Sadiq Khan announces plan to leave City Hall and move to East London". getwestlondon.
  21. "London's iconic City Hall set to close in a shock plan to save £11m a year". ITV News.
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