City Hall (London)

City Hall
City Hall
Location of City Hall in Central London
General information
Address	The Queen's Walk London, SE1 United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°30′17″N 0°04′42″W / 51.50472°N 0.07833°W / 51.50472; -0.07833
Current tenants	Greater London Authority
Completed	2002; 15 years ago (2002)
Owner	More London Development Ltd.
Height	45 m
Design and construction
Architect	Norman Foster
Architecture firm	Foster and Partners
Structural engineer	Arup
Website
www.london.gov.uk/city-hall

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.

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

City Hall was constructed at a cost of £43 million 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. Despite its name, City Hall is not in and does not serve a city (as recognised by English constitutional law), which often adds to the confusion of Greater London with the City of London, which has its headquarters at Guildhall. In June 2011, Mayor Boris Johnson announced that for the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the building would be called London House.

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.