What is the official name of the Gherkin skyscraper in London?

The Gherkin’s official name is 30 St Mary Axe. The name comes from the London street address, while “The Gherkin” is the building’s famous nickname, inspired by its rounded, cucumber-like profile.

The 180-meter, 41-storey office tower stands in the City of London. Foster + Partners designed it with structural engineering by Arup, and its completed form became one of London’s best-known examples of contemporary high-tech architecture.

The building occupies the former site of the Baltic Exchange and the Chamber of Shipping. The Baltic Exchange was badly damaged by a Provisional IRA bomb in 1992, and the redevelopment that followed eventually produced the tower completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004.

A common quiz mix-up is treating “The Gherkin” as the formal name. It is the popular nickname; “Swiss Re Building” was an earlier corporate name, and 30 St Mary Axe is the official designation associated with the address.