30 St Mary Axe aka: The Gherkin, Swiss Re Tower

Dis manibus
Puella icognita
Londiniensis
hic sepulta est.

So there I am on a late night walk, and bang! Latin. And carved in stone (how else?) near a hyper-modern building. Crazy. Talk about a convergence of ancient and modern.

It looks like the Gherkin won’t be one of the buildings open to the public in this year’s Open House London event.

I’ll have to cross my fingers and hope that the owners decide to let it feature in the 2009 programme.

The “Gherkin” (I reckon very few Londoners would know the official address of the building) has been a very cool addition to the London skyline.

It’s not generally open to the public as it houses offices for the reinsurance firm Swiss Re.

I realised from the entry below that it’s possible for the public to visit it on Open House Weekend, when some private buildings with special architectural significance are opened up for viewing. This year it’s taking place on 20-21 September, so I’ll look to see whether the Gherkin is on the list!

i hate it with a passion! ok so its great for architecture and all, but on london open day my mum made me que for 6 hours to get into it, it was raining and we didnt have an umbrella, i got stung by a wasp, i was ill, and i missed my best friends birthday party!

oddest building. I have a picture somewhere. When anyone looks at my photos of London they go, “what is that?”