The distinctive 41-storey office building in The City of London is officially known as 30 St Mary Axe but most people simply call it the Gherkin owing to its unique shape.
The Gherkin was built on the site of the historic Baltic Exchange, which was destroyed in 1992 by a Provisional IRA terrorist bomb. The building’s dome, known as the ‘lens’, was designed as a tribute to the glass dome that covered part of the ground floor of the Baltic Exchange and you can see part of the original dome at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
The building is normally closed to the public and there are no public areas apart from the restaurants on the ground floor, or if you have the money, Searcys restaurant on the 39th and 40th floors under the building’s lens.
The Gherkin is one of The City’s best-known landmarks.
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