City Hall is a building in Southwark, London, which previously served as the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA) between July 2002 and December 2021. It is located in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge. In June 2020, the GLA started a consultation on proposals to vacate City Hall and move to The Crystal, a GLA-owned property in Newham, at the end of 2021.[2] The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020 and the GLA vacated City Hall on 2 December 2021.[3] The Southwark location is ultimately owned by the government of Kuwait.[4]
History
The City Hall building was designed by Norman Foster and was constructed at a cost of £43 million[5] on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the Pool of London. It opened in July 2002, two years after the GLA was created, and was leased rather than owned by the GLA.[6] Despite its name, City Hall did not serve a city (according to UK law). It had responsibilities over Greater London, which should not be confused with the City of London, which has its headquarters at the Guildhall.[7]
In June 2011, Mayor Boris Johnson announced that for the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the building would be called London House.[8]
In November 2020, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced plans to vacate City Hall at the end of 2021 and relocate to The Crystal in the Royal Victoria Docks area of East London.[9][10][2] Khan cited the high cost of rent as the reason for relocating the GLA headquarters, stating that vacating City Hall in favour of a property owned by the authority would save it £55 million over the course of five years.[11]
Design
The interior helical staircase of City Hall
The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency, although the excess energy consumption caused by the exclusive use of glass (in a double façade) overwhelms the benefit of shape. Despite claiming the building "demonstrates the potential for a sustainable, virtually non-polluting public building",[12] energy use measurements have shown this building to be fairly inefficient in terms of energy use (375 kWh/m2/yr), with a 2012 Display Energy Performance Certificate rating of "E".[13] It has been compared variously to a helmet (either Darth Vader's or simply a motorcyclist's), a misshapen egg, and a woodlouse. Former mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a "glass testicle",[14][15] while his successor, Boris Johnson, made the same comparison using a different word, "The Glass Gonad"[16] and more politely as "The Onion".[17]
A 500-metre (1,600 ft) helicalwalkway ascends the full ten storeys. At the top is an exhibition and meeting space with an open viewing deck that was occasionally open to the public. The ramp could not be used as intended for security reasons.[18] The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag (parliament), when Germany's capital was moved back to Berlin. In 2006 it was announced that photovoltaic cells would be fitted to the building by the London Climate Change Agency.[19]
The debating chamber was located at the bottom of the helical stairway. The seats and desks for assembly members were arranged in a circular form.[20]
In 2023, St Martins Property announced that the architectural firms of Gensler and LDA Design had completed a plan to redesign the unused structure as a mixed-use office and retail building. It was intended to replace the iconic spiral with leafy terraces[18] and replace the glazing with different materials.[21]
In 2015, City Hall acted as location for the fictional HQ of the Joint Intelligence Service in the James Bond film Spectre. The building appeared taller, and in a different Thames-side location in the movie through the use of Computer-generated imagery.[23] In 2016 the walkways were filled with musicians during Open House London in a site-specific work by British composer Samuel Bordoli, which explored the unique acoustic of the structure.[24] In 2018, the final selection for the television show The Apprentice was filmed in City Hall.[25]
It is featured in the Mario Kart games Mario Kart Tour and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of the London Loop racecourse.[26]
