SCULPTING THE SOUNDS OF OLD LONDON TOWN!

Our collaboration with Sculpture in the City in London's historic City, includes creative responses that take in the full spectrum of sites in and around the millenniums-old square-mile and surrounding space.

Hi-tech glass and steel; lovingly-landscaped squares for banker-lunches; ancient churchyards + more.

For the full experience [and if you are in London] take your headphones [hang up your hangups] + take in the sights with the sounds.

Take the time to dig in to a rich sea of content, including our ever-growing geotagged playlist, an interview between MSCTY Founder Nick Luscombe + SITC artist Midori Komachi, and a sound and video collaboration between The Analog Girl + Jake Elwes.

NEW FOR 2021: Latent Space
Jake Elwes + The Analog Girl
Read Here

INTERVIEW: 10 Questions
w/ Nick Luscombe + Midori Komachi
Read Here

LOCATION: ST HELEN'S SQUARE

The 3rd largest open space in the City of London offers a welcome place for workers from surrounding offices to enjoy al fresco lunches.

This square was designed to front the new headquarters of Commercial Union and the main London office of P&O when it was created in the 1970s. The open space was not part of the original plans, but came about as a result of access and planning issues that made it impossible for either company to optimise the amount of floor space they desired across the site. As a compromise, the two companies decided to participate in a joint development of an open concourse area at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe, onto which both would have front entrances. St Helen’s Square [named after the nearby 15th-century church of St Helen’s Bishopsgate] became a key public piazza.

In 2016, permission was granted for a new 73-storey skyscraper to replace the Commercial Union building [now called St Helen’s], though a date for demolition has not yet been confirmed.

LOCATION: ALDGATE TOWER

Designed by WilkinsonEyre, Aldgate Tower [completed 2014] is an 18-storey office tower that forms part of the first phase of a wider regeneration of the Aldgate East area at the edge of the City of London.

The building – on the busy junction of Leman Street and Whitechapel High Street, incorporates an entrance to the London Underground station on its ground floor and is notable for its curved corners and highly reflective glass facade. Behind the building, a new green space was created by closing Braham Street to traffic, as part of the Mayor of London’s ‘Great Outdoors’ programme, which sought to improve the main road connecting the City with the venues at Stratford for the 2012 Olympic Games. Three floors of Aldgate Tower are occupied by WeWork [London’s infamous biggest occupier of corporate buildings], which enables businesses to hire office or desk space month-by-month, rather than leasing or buying buildings.

LOCATION: 1 UNDERSHAFT

Running west from St Mary Axe, directly opposite The Gherkin, Undershaft is a narrow street behind the Leadenhall Building and St Helen’s [formerly the Commercial Union building].

It is named after a maypole [or ‘shaft’] that was erected annually at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe until 1517, when student riots put an end to it [the maypole itself survived until 1547 when it was seized by a mob and destroyed as a ‘pagan idol’.] The 16th-century church of St Andrew Undershaft replaced other church buildings on the site, built in the mid-12th and the 14th centuries. In September 2016, permission was granted for a new building at 1 Undershaft, which has been developed by Aroland Holdings and designed by Eric Parry Architects to replace St Helen’s. The new tower is designed to be built 10.5 metres off the ground in order to create public space underneath. To make room for this, the core will need to be positioned to the side of the tower. As a result, bronze diamond-shaped external cross-bracing will be required, giving the building its nickname, ‘The Trellis’. Upon completion, it will become the second-tallest skyscraper the UK.

LOCATION: 99 BISHOPSGATE

When 99 Bishopsgate was completed in 1976, it had the fastest lifts in Europe, travelling at up to 6.5 metres-per-second up and down the 25 floors of the building.

Designed by GMW Architects [Gollins Melvin Ward Partnership, who were subsumed into Scott Brownrigg in 2015], it is notable for a slight bulge running vertically up the centre of each facade and a horizontal black stripe around halfway up the tower. While the building is a commercial skyscraper, a public right of way exists through the building as part of the City of London ‘highwalk’ system, connecting a pedestrian bridge over London Wall to the walkways around the neighbouring Tower 42 [aka the Natwest tower]. 99 Bishopsgate was heavily damaged in 1993 by a truck bomb detonated by the Provisional IRA, which destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga’s church and also damaged Tower 42. It re-opened in mid-1995 as a multi-let office tower and is currently owned [leasehold] by Hammerson and managed by CBRE Group.

LOCATION: 120 FENCHURCH STREET

LOCATION: PRINCIPAL PLACE

Located on Worship Street, Shoreditch, at the northern edge of the Square Mile and just north of Liverpool Street Station, Principal Place is a 15-storey mixed-use block designed by Foster and Partners with two roof terraces on levels 10 and 16 that offer nearly an acre of elevated outdoor space.

The development is part of the Principal Place masterplan, which also includes Principal Tower [a 50-storey residential tower designed by the same architects] and a new public piazza. Archaeological digs at the site, ahead of construction, found the remains of one of the first gasworks in London.

LOCATION: ST BOTOLPH-WITHOUT-BISHOPSGATE CHURCHYARD

The church of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate [the fourth such structure on this site] was completed in 1729 to the designs of James Gould, although Christian worship is thought to have taken place at this site since Roman times, and remains of a Saxon church were found when the foundations of present structure were dug.

It is considered one of the City of London churches, but by virtue of lying outside the City’s [now demolished] eastern walls, it is also part of London's East End. The building is aisled and galleried in the classic style, and is unique among the City churches in having its tower at the east end, with the chancel beneath. The font, pulpit and organ all date from the 18th century and the church lost only one window in the Second World War, but on 24 April 1993 it was one of the many buildings to be damaged by an IRA bomb. The Baltic Exchange bomb the year before had damaged the exterior joinery and windows, but the Bishopsgate bomb opened up the roof and left the church without any doors or windows.

An extensive restoration project followed, completed in January 1997, with a new stained glass window commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Bowyers.

LOCATION: MITRE SQUARE

A small, nondescript cobbled square to the north of Aldgate High Street, Mitre Square is connected via three passages to Mitre Street, Creechurch Place and [via St James's Passage, formerly Church Passage] to Duke's Place.

The square occupies the site of the cloister of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, which was demolished under Henry VIII at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. The square became infamous as the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes by Jack the Ripper in September 1888.

It was the western-most of the Whitechapel murders and the only one located within the City of London. Eddowes’ murder on the site of the old monastery was ascribed to an ancient curse in a ‘penny dreadful’ novella by J.F. Brewer entitled The Curse Upon Mitre Square AD 1530–1888, published in November 1888.

LOCATION: LEADENHALL MARKET

One of the oldest markets in London, Leadenhall Market dates from the 14th century, and is located to the east of Gracechurch Street.

Originally a place to buy meat, poultry and game, it is now home to a number of boutique retailers, restaurants, cafes, wine bars and pubs. The current arcade structure was designed in 1881 by Sir Horace Jones [who was also the architect of Billingsgate and Smithfield Markets] and is a Grade II listed building. The double-height entrance is flanked by tall, narrow, gabled red-brick and Portland stone blocks, and the ornate roof structure is painted red, cream and gold. The interior has cast-iron Corinthian columns and the cobbled streets come together in a central octagonal area beneath a stunning star-painted ceiling.

LOCATION: LEADENHALL BUILDING

LOCATION: BURY COURT

Bury Court is part of the historic Baltic Exchange located at the foot of 30 St Mary Axe [aka ‘The Gherkin’].

The Baltic Exchange traces its roots back to 1744, at the Virginia and Baltick Coffee House in Threadneedle Street – the traditional meeting- and information trading place of merchants and sea captains in the City of London. From 1903 until 1992, the Baltic Exchange was located in a Grade-II listed, neo-classical style building at 24–28 St Mary Axe. On 10 April 1992, the facade of the offices was partially demolished, and the rest of the building was extensively damaged by a huge Provisional IRA bomb that killed three people. In 1998, after it was established that the damage was more severe than was initially thought [and despite objections by architectural preservationists] the building was razed and the site, together with that of the Chamber of Shipping at 30–32 St Mary Axe, was used to built 30 St Mary Axe [opened 2004]. The Baltic Exchange is now located at 38 St Mary Axe.

LOCATION: 70 ST MARY AXE

London boasts an instantly recognisable skyline, comprised of architecturally valued buildings. 70 St Mary Axe is an exemplary addition to the line-up. The building’s distinctive, curvaceous form soars elegantly from the surrounding historic streets, with its curved glass and finned elevation wrapped over the top of the structure.

70 St Mary Axe is a very rare find in the heart of the City of London – an almost perfectly rectangular island site. The development responds to this opportunity with a classic central core building, arranged over three basement levels and twenty-one floors above ground within a unique curvaceous form.

Great design is not just about the way things look, it’s about how they work. 70 St Mary Axe is engineered for the changing shape of a modern, forward-thinking London that welcomes the world’s most innovative businesses – those who shape the future of commerce and creativity. There is function in this form. A subtle strength in being different. A building that offers a wide range of smart-tech workspaces, adaptable to individual commercial needs for the most innovative occupiers.

Welcome to 70 St Mary Axe, 300 ft tall, 300,000 sq ft of space in a highly sustainable and beautiful building.

LOCATION: LIME STREET

Lime Street is a minor road in the City of London between Fenchurch Street and Leadenhall Street.

Its name comes from the lime burners who once sold this material there for use in the construction industry. It is perhaps best known as the home of Lloyd's of London insurance exchange, with its iconic Richard Rogers designed building at 1 Lime Street [opened 1986]. Opposite Lloyd’s is the 26-storey Willis Building designed by Norman Foster [opened 2008], whose a ‘stepped’ design is intended to resemble the shell of a crustacean. The newest skyscraper can be found at 52–54 Lime Street, on the corner of Leadenhall Street. Nicknamed the ‘Scalpel’, the 38-storey building designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox houses the European headquarters of global insurer W. R. Berkley.

Sonically, the track might not have sounded out of place on someone’s Walkman circa 1986.