The City of London is set for a flurry of crane activity this year as a spate of new skyscrapers emerge to dominate the skyline.
With three schemes approved in just the last few months and four more already in pre-construction, the Square Mile will rapidly expand upwards to fuflill the City of London Corporation’s goal of an extra 1.2m sqm of new office space.
These schemes are increasingly sustainable and high-quality as firms try to lure workers back to the office at the same time as complying with more stringent environmental standards.
Towers in pre-construction and under construction
The City currently has four skyscrapers in pre-construction, including 1 Undershaft – soon to be the City’s tallest tower – and two under construction.
Pre-construction refers to the stage after planning approval has been granted but before actual construction work begins; it includes finalizing design details, securing permits, hiring contractors, preparing the site for building, and – in the case of 85 Gracechurch Street – uncovering hugely significant archaeological finds.
1 Undershaft
Planning permission for 1 Undershaft was approved last December. Named for the rather large maypole under whose shadow St Andrews Church – which remains at the site – used to stand, it is set to offer 154,000 sqm of commercial space in 74 storeys and provide nearly 13 per cent of the City’s identified office space requirement.
50 Fenchurch Street
The City is set to welcome the ‘super green’ Fenchurch Street development amid growing demand for low carbon, mixed-use office space. The property, slated to be one of the lowest carbon workplace towers in the UK, received planning permission four years ago in 2020. Pre-construction started last summer and the site is expected to be completed in 2028.
50 Fenchurch Street. Credit: AXA
60 Aldgate High Street
This development, which has been ongoing since 2011 and which was granted approval only in 2022, is set to deliver over 30,000 sqm of commercial office and retail space to the City by 2028. Its developers say it will help to “close the void” between the City and Whitechapel.
100 Leadenhall
Plans for this 56-storey building, dubbed the ‘The Diamond’, were approved all the way back in 2018. Situated in the eastern cluster of the financial district, the new 263 metre-tall building will include two podium terraces and a public viewing gallery on the top two floors.
The skyscraper was designed by award-winning architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill – the company behind the Broadgate Tower, One World Trade Centre and the Burj Khalifa. Construction began in 2023 and is expected to complete in 2027.
Under construction
1 Leadenhall
Located between Bank and Fenchurch Street, the only skyscraper currently under construction in the City is expected to complete this year.
Providing 40,000 sqm of office space, the 36-story One Leadenhall will have two basement levels, ground floor retail units, and a restaurant and public terrace on the fourth floor with views of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Despite planning permission being granted in 2018, the developers had to wait to secure an anchor tenant, which ended up being global law firm Latham & Watkins. Constrcution began in January 2021.
2 Finsbury Avenue
The multi-tower development at 2 Finsbury Avenue will offer 63,000 sqm of office floorspace, 1,000 sqm of retail space and 1,800 sqm of learning space.
The project, which is a joing venture between GIC and British Land, is set to finish construction later this year.
Its developers say it will boost the Broadgate area through an “extensive offer of flexible, high-quality working space catering to a diverse tenant base”. This is set to include incubators, start-ups, and medium sized businesses. British Land has said it will become a “world class, seven-day, mixed use central London destination”.
Four more approved towers
The pipeline of approved skyscrapers has grown significantly in the past year, with three new towers given the green light by the City of London Corporation in the last few months alone.
99 Bishopsgate
99 Bishopsgate, approved at the end of January, is set to provide a minimum of 1.2m sq metres of office space by 2040. Set to stand at 54 storeys, it aims to achieve the “highest level” of sustainability credentials, was proposed in response to “increasing demand for new office schemes of this kind”, the City Corporation said.
70 Gracechurch St
Planning permission for 70 Gracechurch Street was granted at the start of February. The 33-storey tower will sit at the old headquarters of M&S and deliver over 550,000 sq m of sustainable office space.
The site will provide a public viewing gallery at the 32nd floor, as well as three cultural venues and a public footpath connecting Fenchurch Street to Ship Tavern Passage.
A mock-up of a redeveloped 70 Gracechurch St. Credit: City of London Corporation
60 Gracechurch St
This £500m, 36-storey building was approved by the City of London Corporation last December. The proposal was put forward last April by the UK property developer behind The Shard, Sellar, and Japanese developer Obayashi. Construction will start in 2026 once the existing building is vacated and will be completed in 2029.
55 Bishopsgate
Approved in 2023, the plans for 55 Bishopsgate will make it one of the tallest buildings in Europe – at 284m – and the third biggest in the City, just behind 1 Undershaft scheme and 22 Bishopsgate. It is set to house 7,000 workers.
Although construction was meant to begin in 2024, little has been heard of the scheme since.
Three additions to the skyline still in the admin pipeline
There are a number of towers stuck in development purgatory, with planning permission submitted but not yet approved, or in the process of being redrafted.
85 Gracechurch Street
This hopefully soon-to-be 32-storey mixed-use development is currently being excavated by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) in preparation for the construction of the tower, leading to archaeologists uncovering the remains of London’s first Roman Basilica earlier this month.
Director of Development at MOLA, Sophie Jackson, said it was like “discovering the Speaker’s Chair and chamber of the House of Commons, 2,000 years into the future”.
Although planning permission was granted in October 2023, the scheme is being redesigned around the incorporation of a public display of the basilica. The planning application is expected to be submitted in spring 2025, with further archaeological excavations planned ahead of construction. If approved, the redesigned scheme is projected to be completed by 2029 or 2030.
63 St Mary Axe
Planning permission for 63 St Mary Axe was submitted on February 24. The proposed development will be 46 storeys, and sit at the edge of the City of London’s Eastern Cluster. As with the other planning applications approved recently, the scheme will be sustainable and provide a range of public amenities.
Continuing with 85 Gracechurch’s Roman theme, the proposals include the display of a currently-buried section of London’s ancient Roman Wall.
The submitted design for 63 St Mary Axe. Credit: Fletcher Priest Architects
130 Fenchurch Street
This 31-storey tower, which is involved in a public consultation ahead of planning approval, will involve the demolition of the site’s current 16-storey 1950s building, Fountain House – one time HQ of City AM. It is almost double the size of the 17-storey design drawn up by Farshid Moussavi Architecture, which was mothballed several years ago. Construction is expected to get underway in 2026 and to complete by 2030.