The rest of the world is already calling the upcoming office tower in EC3 ‘The Cheesegrater’, but British Land is sticking to its guns and hoping we’ll take to its proper name of ‘The Leadenhall Building’.
View examples of serviced office spaces in EC3 here
Whatever you care to call it, there will soon be a 47-storey skyscraper reaching up from the earmarked site at 122 Leadenhall Street, where demolition work has already been completed, and building work on the shell and core is set to be finished by mid-2014.
Businesses from the finance, insurance, and other corporate sectors are said to have already shown notable interest in occupying some of the 600,000 square feet of central London office space that will result from what is now a fully agreed and ongoing joint venture.
“Our partnership with Oxford Properties, brings together two leading property companies with proven development and asset management expertise,” said Chris Grigg, British Land’s chief executive.
“We believe that the Leadenhall Building will provide the City of London with a unique combination of iconic architecture with world-class public and office spaces,” he added.
Roughly £340 million is to be invested to ensure the development can be completed, and Oxford Properties has described its commitment to the JV as a reflection of its confidence in central London’s office space markets.
A report from CB Richard Ellis last week described London as being the “exception” in Western Europe when it comes to having a strong enough commercial property market to support substantial quantities of new office space development over the next few years.
Editor’s notes: The building, adjacent to the Lloyd’s of London building, was completed in July 2014 and is known as both the Cheesegrater and the Leadenhall Building.
Standing 225 metres tall, it is home to a wide range of high-profile tenants such as AON, BRIT Insurance, Virgin Money and flex space provider Servcorp
The flexible workpsace operators are located on the 30th floor and provide a wide range of flexible office space and workspace solutions, such as private serviced offices, managed office suites, and coworking desk spaces for rent.
All solutions offered are available on short-term, flexible contracts and include all-inclusive office rental rates.
In December 2023, it was announced that Lloyds of London would remain at its property at One Lime Street until at least 2035, after reaching an agreement with the landlord, the Chinese investor Ping An.
In April 2026, it was reported that the basement of The Leadenhall Building had undergone a major renovation, resulting in a 20,000-square-foot suite of end-of-journey facilities including bike repair stations, showers, lockers and a laundry service area.