Lloyd's building

Lloyd's building
Lloyd's building from Leadenhall Street
General information
Type	Office building
Location	1, Lime Street City of London
Coordinates	51°30′47″N 0°04′56.5″W
Construction started	1978
Completed	1986
Opening	18 November 1986
Cost	GB£75,000,000 (approx. $107,876,055.44 USD)
Height
Antenna spire	95.1 m (312 ft)
Roof	88 m (289 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	14
Lifts/elevators	12
Design and construction
Architect	Richard Rogers
Structural engineer	Arup
Services engineer	Arup
Main contractor	Bovis
Designations	Grade I listed

The Lloyd's building (sometimes referred to as the Inside-Out Building) is the home of the insurance institution Lloyd's of London, and is located at 1, Lime Street, in the City of London, England. It is a leading example of radical Bowellism architecture in which the services for the building, such as ducts and lifts, are located on the exterior to maximise space in the interior.

Only 25 years after completion, the building received Grade I listing in December 2011; it was the youngest building ever to obtain this. It is said by English Heritage to be "universally recognised as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch."

History

The first Lloyd's building (at 12 Leadenhall Street in the City of London) had been built on this site in 1928. In 1958, due to expansion, a new building was constructed across the road at 51 Lime Street. Lloyd's now occupied the Heysham Building and the Cooper Building. By the 1970s Lloyd's had again outgrown these two buildings and proposed to extend the Cooper Building. In 1978, Lloyd's ran an architectural competition which attracted designs from architecture practices such as Foster Associates, Arup and American architect I.M. Pei. Lloyd's then commissioned Richard Rogers to redevelop the site, and the original 1928 building was demolished to make way for the present one which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1986. However, its entrance at 12 Leadenhall Street was preserved, and forms a rather incongruous attachment to the 1986 structure. Demolition of the 1958 building commenced in 2004 to make way for the Willis Building, a new 26-storey tower and ten-storey building.

Design

The building was designed by architect Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986. Bovis was the management contractor. Like the Pompidou Centre in Paris (designed by Renzo Piano and Rogers), the building was innovative in having its services such as staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits and water pipes on the outside, leaving an uncluttered space inside. The twelve glass lifts were the first of their kind in the UK. Like the Pompidou Centre, the building was highly influenced by the work of Archigram in the 1950s and 1960s.

The building consists of three main towers and three service towers around a central, rectangular space. Its core is the large Underwriting Room on the ground floor, which houses the famous Lutine Bell. The Underwriting Room (often simply known as "the Room") is overlooked by galleries, forming a 60 metres (197 ft) high atrium lit naturally through a huge barrel-vaulted glass roof. The first four galleries open onto the atrium space, and are connected by escalators through the middle of the structure. The higher floors are glassed in, and can only be reached via the outside lifts.

The 11th floor houses the Committee Room, an 18th-century dining room designed for the 2nd Earl of Shelburne by Robert Adam in 1763; it was transferred piece by piece from the previous (1958) Lloyd's building across the road.

The Lloyd's building is 88 metres (289 ft) to the roof, with 14 floors. On top of each service core stand the cleaning cranes, increasing the overall height to 95.10 metres (312 ft). Modular in plan, each floor can be altered by addition or removal of partitions and walls.

In 2008 The Twentieth Century Society called for the building to be Grade I listed and in 2011 it was granted this status.

The building is owned by Dublin-based real estate firm Shelbourne Development Group, who purchased it in 2004 from a German investment bank.

Use in feature films and record album covers

It is seen on the cover of British pop group Five Star's 1986 album Silk and Steel, Hundred Reasons debut album Ideas Above Our Station and the 2001 reissue of British electronic musician Mike Paradinas' 1993 album Tango n' Vectif, under the alias µ-ziq.

Use as a location in films

• Climbing Great Buildings (2010)
• Burn Up (2008) TV series
• Ashes to Ashes (2008) pilot episode.
• Mamma Mia! (2008)
• The Outer Limits 1998 episode, "The Joining"
• A Good Year (2006)
• Code 46 (2003)
• Spy Game (2001)
• Proof of Life (2000)
• The Ghost Writer (film), in a clip about the Hatherton Group
• Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments (2000) TV series
• Entrapment (1999)
• The Avengers (1998)
• Different for Girls (1996)
• Hackers (1995)
• Incredible Games (1994) TV gameshow (the roof section was used for the credits of the CBBC show)
• High Hopes (1988)
• Search Out Science "Search Out Space" (1990)

Gallery

• 

  Lloyd's building among the City skyline

• 

  Lloyd's is flanked by the Willis Building on the opposite side of Lime Street

• 

  Lloyd's building at night

• 

  The 1925 building façade on the northwest corner

• 

  View of the underwriting floors

• 

  The Lutine Bell is housed in the rostrum

• 

  The Head Waiter (clerk) writes in the Loss Book

• 

  The Adam Room, on the top floor of the building

See also

• Willis Building, opposite at 51 Lime Street, on the site of a former Lloyd's building
• 30 St Mary Axe - Norman Foster's gherkin-shaped skyscraper nearby
• 122 Leadenhall Street - a skyscraper under construction opposite on the northern side of Leadenhall Street
• 52-54 Lime Street - a skyscraper proposed for construction opposite
• List of tallest buildings and structures in London

External links

• Galinsky: Lloyd's building
• Lloyd's official website
• 0lll Architecture Gallery: Lloyd's building (images)