Drapers' Gardens is a site in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

at the junction of Throgmorton Avenue and Copthall Avenue on land owned by the

Drapers' Company The Worshipful Company of Drapers is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London, formally styled The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Drapers of ...

. Originally a garden space, it was largely built over by the early 20th century. It has been the site of two major office blocks since the 1960s.

Before the 1960s

Before the building of a comprehensive sewage system in London during the late 19th century, the site had been largely undeveloped since Roman times as it was waterlogged by tributaries of the

River Walbrook The Walbrook is a subterranean river in London. It gives its name to the Walbrook City ward and to a nearby street. It played an important role in the Roman settlement of Londinium. Name The usual interpretation is that the brook's name come ...

. During the period from the first occupation by the Drapers' Company in 1544, it was a market garden and place of recreation. After the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

, the west side was built over. Over the following 200 years, the remainder of the gardens remained a largely open space but were finally built over in 1873 (except for a small patch to the east of Throgmorton Avenue, now the gardens of

Drapers' Hall The Worshipful Company of Drapers is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London, formally styled The Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Fraternity of the Blessed Mary the Virgin of the Mystery of Drapers of ...

). The buildings standing within the boundary of the Drapers' Company property line on the west side of Throgmorton Avenue were demolished to make way for the Seifert Tower.

Seifert's Drapers' Gardens

The original Drapers' Gardens was a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

in the

, designed by architect

Richard Seifert Richard Seifert (born Reubin Seifert; 25 November 1910 – 26 October 2001) was a Swiss-British architect, best known for designing London's NatWest Tower (now officially named Tower 42), once the tallest building in the United Kingdom, ...

. It stood at tall and had 30 storeys. It was completed in 1967 and demolished in 2007 by Keltbray. After completion, the building was leased by the

National Provincial Bank National Provincial Bank was a retail bank which operated in England and Wales. It was created in 1833 as National Provincial Bank of England, and expanded largely by taking over a number of other banks. Following the transformative acquisitio ...

and continued to be used by the successor

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it becam ...

until the 1990s. It was used as overflow office space for the bank's nearby head office at 41 Lothbury. There were those who cited the building as a fine example of its period and one of the few genuinely well-designed towers of the 1960s. Seifert, its designer as well as the architect of

Tower 42 Tower 42, commonly known as the NatWest Tower, is a skyscraper in the City of London. Designed by Richard Seifert and engineered by Pell Frischmann, it opened in 1980 as London's first skyscraper and the tallest building in the United King ...

, described the Drapers' Gardens skyscraper as his proudest achievement. When the tower was demolished in 2007, it was the tallest building to have ever been demolished in the United Kingdom. As of 2018, it remains the joint-tallest demolished building in the country, alongside the subsequent

Southwark Towers Southwark Towers was a high rise building at 32 London Bridge Street, designed by TP Bennett architects, overlooking London Bridge station, in Southwark, London. When it was demolished in 2008 to make way for The Shard, it was jointly the tall ...

, demolished the year after Drapers' Gardens.

New development

During the 1980s, it became apparent that Seifert's building was not suitable as a modern office space. The sole occupant, National Westminster Bank, sought to end its lease and there was a weak market for replacement tenancies. The new office development was designed by Foggo Associates. The replacement Drapers' Gardens is tall with 16 floors, three roof terraces and a

pocket park A pocket park (also known as a parkette, mini-park, vest-pocket park or vesty park) is a small park accessible to the general public. While the locations, elements, and uses of pocket parks vary considerably, the common defining characteristic of ...

. At it has more floor space than the Seifert's design. The building’s

stepped profile A stepped profile describes the edge of something that has a series of defined steps. It has applications in architecture, construction, Profile (engineering), engineering, and geology. Applications Architecture and construction In building design ...

was developed in response to local and long-distance views, and landscaped roof gardens were to provide amenity space for the building's occupiers. The developers were Exemplar Developments and Canary Wharf Developments. It was completed in Autumn 2009. The development was then sold on to Evans Randall in 2010 for £242.5 million. Most of the floors of the building were originally taken by Macquarie, however

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

subsequently made a higher offer. Between the demolition and rebuilding, an archaeological dig by Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd found Roman remains dating from 63 AD to 383 AD. These included a well with 19 metal vessels in an exceptional state of preservation, a ruler, and the skull of a bear.

References

External links

Drapers' Gardens
details of the new development
News story on the planned demolition
*
Details of the redevelopment
{{Coord, 51.5158, -0.087, display=title Skyscrapers in the City of London Former buildings and structures in the City of London Office buildings completed in 1967 Richard Seifert buildings Demolished buildings and structures in London Skyscraper office buildings in London Buildings and structures demolished in 2007 1967 establishments in England 2007 disestablishments in England Former skyscrapers NatWest Group

Before the 1960s

Seifert's Drapers' Gardens

New development

See also

References

External links