Walkie Talkie Building London, Sky Garden Picture, Scorchie, Design, Location, Height, Images, Review

Walkie Talkie Building London

Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch St: City of London Skyscraper design by Rafael Vinoly Architects, NYC

post updated 13 June 2021
Sky Garden London Building Photos

photos © Adrian Welch

25 Jun 2017

Sky Garden at Walkie Talkie Building

Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street

Please note the Sky Garden will undergo refurbishment works from Friday 7th July 2017 and will last for a number of weeks to improve the visitor experience. Please expect longer queues.

The Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street is a unique public space that spans three storeys and offers 360 degree uninterrupted views across the City of London. Visitors can wander around the exquisitely landscaped gardens, observation decks and an open air terrace of what is London’s highest public garden.

photograph © Nick Weall

The Sky Garden has been designed to create an open and vibrant place of leisure, offering visitors a rare chance to experience London from a different viewpoint.

Entry to the Sky Garden is free, but please note space is strictly limited and visits must be booked online in advance through the website linked below:

photo © Nick Weall

Website: Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street

Walkie Talkie Building in London

‘Trump Tower London Opens’ As The Donald Buys Walkie Talkie Building

A great April Fools Joke:

“Donald Trump has made a successful bid for London’s iconic ‘Walkie Talkie’ building.

The President is reported to have paid around £600m for a 51 per cent stake in 20 Fenchurch Street and has already announced the move in characteristic style.

Videos and pictures posted on social media in the last hour show ‘TRUMP TOWER’ in gaudy gold lettering above the entrance.”

Huffington Post

Film on YouTube
Video published on 29 Oct 2015

15 May 2014

Walkie Scorchie Building

20 Fenchurch Street Building

The heat-ray effect of the City’s Walkie-Talkie skyscraper which melted parts of cars in the City last summer will soon be fixed, the developers of the building said today, reports the London Evening Standard.

photo © Adrian Welch

The curved surface of the £500m building, being developed by Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group, created a ‘solar glare’ effect which focused sunlight and warped the panels of a Jaguar, melting the wing mirrors and badge. The nickname Walkie Scorchie is proving popular!

To fix the problem ‘sun shades’ will be fitted to the building under a “brise soleil” system, costing in the “low single digit millions” according to the firm. Planning permission has been granted for the solution and work will begin by the end of May, lasting around six months. The solution has been designed by the original architect Rafael Vinoly along with solar glare experts Loisos + Ubbelohde.

Walkie Talkie Building

20 Fenchurch St Building

Design: Rafael Viñoly Architects

New photos of 20 Fenchurch St, taken on 15 Sep 2013 for e-architect

all photographs taken using a tripod, various views around the tower:

photos © Nick Weall

A superb set of images of a building that is really difficult to capture. No doubt once the roof garden is completed a lot of attention will focus on it – well it is futuristic and unique for the capital – but the key views for most Londoners will be the ones Nick has used. The lines are smooth and beguiling but unlike most of the skyscrapers in the City the plan is square, which makes the basis for the tower a little dull. Hence the device of expanding the form outwards as it rises, creating interest.

photos © Nick Weall

New photos of 20 Fenchurch St Building as construction of this controversial skyscraper nears the top. The 37-storey tower that breaks with the perceived boundaries of common architectural expression and is located away from the main cluster of skyscapers in the City of London.

pictures © Nick Weall

The building billows out towards the top, the opposite of a typical skyscraper design which aims to get more slender as it rises.

Photos of the 20 Fenchurch Street tower from 29 Apr 2013:

photos © Adrian Welch

Once the roof garden is in place – the Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street – it will no doubt improve this building’s appearance, adding interest and lightness to partially offset the building’s huge mass, but only partially – this building is too bulky and goes against all that one learns as an architect and what one feels instinctively as a designer.

Adrian Welch, editor. 1 May 2013.

20 Fenchurch Street pictures from 12 Nov 2012:

photos © Adrian Welch

20 Fenchurch St building hotos by Adrian Welch, 1 Oct 2012:

images © Adrian Welch

1 Apr 2012

Walkie Talkie Building Construction

Progress photo of the 37-storey tower at 20 Fenchurch Street by Rafael Viñoly Architects. This major new London skyscraper is due to be completed in early 2014.