125 Old Broad Street tops out

London witnessed its lowest ever topping out ceremony yesterday. The celebrations at the building replacing the old London stock exchange, 125 Old Broad Street, had an unusual twist.

The respective chief execs of the 345,000 sq ft scheme’s developer Hammerson and contractor Bovis Lend Lease cut an odd image as they squatted down side by side to perform a bit of old fashioned grouting.

The reason? They were re-burying a time capsule from the 1970s found in the original foundations of the building and also adding their own from 2006.

New Bovis boss Aussie Murray Coleman was no doubt setting out to prove his much mooted “man of the people” credentials. And QS News had to concede he did an expert job with that trowel, swiftly pushing in the grout and diligently scraping up left over bits. After all that “hard graft”, however, he was ceremoniously presented with an elegantly boxed silver trowel, which somewhat dented his rough and ready stage persona.