122 Leadenhall Street

Leadenhall Building
The Leadenhall Building (with the Heron Tower and 30 St Mary Axe in the background and the Lloyd's building in front), viewed from the Monument in 2014
Alternative names	The Cheesegrater
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Office
Architectural style	Post-modern; High-tech
Location	London, EC3 United Kingdom
Completed	June 2013
Opened	July 2014
Cost	£286 million
Height
Roof	225 metres (738 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	48
Floor area	84,424 m2 (908,730 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect	Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Structural engineer	Arup Group
Website
www.theleadenhallbuilding.com
References

122 Leadenhall Street, or the Leadenhall Building, is a 225 m (737 ft) tall building on Leadenhall Street in London. The commercial skyscraper, opened in July 2014, was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and is informally known as "The Cheesegrater" because of its distinctive wedge shape. It is one of a number of new tall buildings recently completed or currently under construction in the City of London financial area, including 20 Fenchurch Street, 22 Bishopsgate, and The Scalpel.

The building is opposite the Lloyd's building, also designed by Rogers, which is the home of the insurance market Lloyd's of London. Until 2007 the Leadenhall site was occupied by the P&O Tower (Peninsular and Oriental), a building owned by the developer British Land and designed by Gollins Melvin Ward Partnership that was completed in 1968 as a brother to the still existing Commercial Union tower, now called St. Helen's. That building was demolished in preparation for redevelopment of the site. The project, initially delayed due to the financial crisis, was revived in 2010 and Oxford Properties co-developed the property in partnership with British Land.

On 1st March 2017 British Land and Oxford properties agreed to sell the building to C C Land,a Chinese property developer, at a price of £1.5 Billion.

Prior to the site's previous redevelopment in the 1960s, it had been used as the head office of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) for over a century. Since 1840, P&O had worked in the rent-free offices of Willcox & Anderson. However, business east of the Gulf of Suez increased in the late-1840s resulting in the company needing newer and larger offices. It was the P&O directors' obligation to provide new space. In November 1845, the King's Arms inn and hotel at 122 Leadenhall Street was put up for sale. The freehold was bought by P&O for £7,250, which then commissioned an architect, Beachcroft, to design a new building. The cost of the new building was estimated at £8,000. In March 1848, P&O moved into the new office.