At 41 storeys up, the two jump-form rigs currently forming the giant concrete core of the 22 Bishopsgate tower are the latest addition to the City of London skyline. Already level with the tops of some of the City’s tallest buildings, the rigs still have another 20 floors to climb to complete the core of what will, at 278m high, be the second-highest building in Europe, after the Shard.

Developed by Lipton Rogers, 22 Bishopsgate is being built at the heart of the City’s cluster of tall towers on the site that was to be occupied by the tapering Pinnacle tower. The Pinnacle’s construction came to an abrupt halt in the financial crisis of 2007. According to Peter Rogers, partner and co-founder of Lipton Rogers, the subsequent financial austerity and puritanism that followed the crash meant the market no longer wanted such corporate ostentation, a criticism that cannot be levied at its replacement.

Now marketed simply as Twentytwo, the giant tower is far more restrained than that of its slender predecessor, the Pinnacle, and its smaller, more flamboyant City neighbours including the Gherkin and the Cheesegrater. “Because of the financial crash, we took the view that no one wanted iconic buildings so this scheme is about getting a classic American-style, big floorplate building into the City of London,” says Rogers.

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