Medieval Tower Propped Above £1bn London Development

The 700-year-old Grade I-listed tower of All Hallows Staining has been temporarily propped on stilts about 14 metres (45 ft) above ground at 50 Fenchurch Street in the City of London to allow excavation beneath it. Developers Axa IM Alts have removed more than 125,000 tonnes of earth to create basement levels for a 36-storey, roughly £1bn office development that will provide about 62,000 sq m (650,000 sq ft) of office space, ground-floor retail and a public roof garden. A “bottoming out” ceremony marked the milestone, and developers say the tower will be reunited with ground level and become the centrepiece of a new green public square once basement works are finished; completion is scheduled for 2028. The scheme includes reinstating Lambe’s Chapel crypt beneath the building and constructing a new subterranean livery hall for the Clothworkers' Company, while other site structures including the old Clothworkers' Hall and St Olave church hall have been demolished. The medieval tower — which survived the Great Fire of 1666 and later partial collapses — will be protected through the works, though the project has drawn scrutiny from heritage bodies even as it aims for high sustainability and modern public-realm features.