Insights

The Evolving City – architecture in the Square Mile 2012-2026

By Andrew Reynolds

CAF is producing a book to celebrate its 35th anniversary that will be published in February 2027. The Evolving City – architecture in the Square Mile 2012-2026- will be a high-quality hardback, a study of the Square Mile at the opening of a new era, reflecting the ambitions of the...

Stage-set for a cocktail of users

By Alex Thorpe, Associate Director, CO-RE

What's a CAF event without cocktails and canapés? Thankfully, this one didn't disappoint. An evening at AHMM’s Clerkenwell studio, looking at the future of offices and in particular, Brockton Everlast’s The Dovetail building in Houndsditch, brought together three distinct perspectives on the workplace of tomorrow: the planner, the architect and...

Something in the City – a model for mayors everywhere

By Lee Mallett

Something in the City – CAF’s founder Michael Cassidy, CBE, with his new memoir, celebrating the Forum’s 35th anniversary Had Michael Cassidy been Mayor of London rather than ‘Something in the City’, we might now be living in a different city. This became clear at the City Architecture Forum’s sold-out inaugural...

City Architecture Forum – Mid Year Review 2026

By David Magyar

For those who are unaware, this year marks the 35th anniversary of the City Architecture Forum. This is, of course, a significant milestone and is not only a mark of how well the Forum has endured but also how well it is regarded by both members and guests. This doesn’t...

Tour de force from City’s Planners

By Lee Mallett

CAF’s inaugural planning tour of the intense development activity around Holborn and the Fleet Valley, led by Planning and Development Director Gwyn Richards with Assistant Director (Design) Tom Nancollas, was a sell-out success, evading rain until the last moment. Weaving south from Make Architects’ Holborn Gate scheme for Hoi Hup...

Three-into-one at Angel Square

By Lee Mallett

Architect AHMM’s reimagining of Angel Square in Islington for US developer Tishman Speyer has quickly attracted tech and social media tenants since its completion in November 2025. It offers a hotel-like welcome in an elegant, animated lobby that includes a new public café and a more direct visual relationship with...

Over the tracks at One Liverpool Street

By David Lawrence, MD of Architects Flanagan Lawrence

CAF members were very pleased to be able to visit the nearly completed project at 1 Liverpool Street this week. Robert Kennett, Lee Higson and Rupert Willard from Eric Parry Architects together with Ben Stallward from Aviva Investors and Jonathan Emmines, Martin Bailey and Levan Sichinava from Mace gave an...

2 Aldermanbury Square

By Christopher Breiner

We are sincerely grateful to our hosts and guides, Piers Blewitt, Director of Development Management at Great Portland Estates (GPE), and Artur Carulla, Partner at Allies and Morrison Architects. CAF members and their guests were afforded a rare privilege: visiting the project shortly after practical completion, just days before the...

Refurbishing retrofit as ‘FutureFit’

By Lee Mallett

Rebranding retrofit as ‘FutureFit’ to generate a more positive, forward-looking image and removing or reducing VAT on refurb projects, with developers incentivised to pursue retrofit first through a reward based planning approach, were suggestions at CAF’s Retrofit at Scale event, hosted by architect and design firm Gensler. Gensler’s Co-Managing Director...

Helical’s 100 New Bridge Street nears completion

By Lee Higson, Eric Parry Architects

CAF members visited the soon-to-be-completed project at 100 New Bridge Street, a retrofit project of an existing building (completed in 1992) to renew the life of the building to meet current tenant requirements and environmental standards. Developed by Helical and Orion, with architects Gensler and main contractor Mace, the project...

‘CAF 2.0’ forges ahead

By Andrew Reynolds

2025 was the first year of ‘CAF 2.0’ – an evolution of the Forum responding to the new era opening up in the City of London, and to look ahead to 2026, our 35th anniversary since we were founded in 1991. So, what has changed? Our new Operations Director Jenny...

New embodied-carbon contender for Farringdon

By Lee Mallett

The City may have a contender for best-in-class when it comes to the lowest levels of embodied carbon for a new building....

One Leadenhall Street Event Review

By Xavier Aguilo

Yesterday's journey through One Leadenhall Street was nothing short of architectural poetry in motion....

City Architecture Forum: Annual Dinner 5 November 2025

By Lee Mallett

Read the report on our Annual Dinner 2025 with guest speaker Tom Sleigh, Chair of the City’s Planning and Transportation Committee, and Robin Dobson, CEO of Platform4...

Reflections on the Talk: 85 Gracechurch Street

By Matthew Thomas

Architecture is at its most compelling when it not only responds to context but actively reshapes it, carrying the past into the present while opening doors to the future. Last Tuesday’s talk on 85 Gracechurch Street delivered on this, offering an inspiring glimpse into a landmark scheme that sits at...

TBC . London: going for green and social impact

By Lee Mallett

What is probably the best view of the City core’s cluster, CAF members agreed on their recent tour, is now available from the northern roof terrace of TBC.London – an environmentally and socially impactful remodelling of an unlovely 1980s building at 224-226 Tower Bridge Road, south-east of Tower Bridge that...

‘Destination in the sky’ – One Undershaft

By Lee Mallett

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The sudden emptying of streets in the Pandemic meant ‘we started to think harder about the human elements of the City in that pause’, said Eric Parry, newly minted CBE in this year’s Birthday Honours, introducing One Undershaft to Forum members and guests at his practice’s Old Street offices. Having...

Mid Year Review 2025: Reading the heartbeat of the Square Mile

By David Magyar

As I pondered possible themes and topics for this half year report, I cast an eye over the events we have held in the first six months of 2025 and began to think about what linked them, and how they characterise what the Forum aims to do. The roster –...

40 Leadenhall: More of the Metropolis

By Richard Golding

Image courtesy of Make Architects On a sun-drenched afternoon in early April, members of the City Architecture Forum filtered through the thirsty Leadenhall Market to arrive at an exclusive tour of 40 Leadenhall. A striking and unavoidable new presence on the City’s skyline and one of the most ambitious commercial...

Bishopsgate Goodsyard: Where the buddleia reigns… for now

By Lee Mallett

“East is best, the West is the rest” was a saying in Shoreditch’s artist-led renaissance back in the 1990s, affirmation that a new place was emerging. We’re talking pre-Tea Building and way before Shoreditch House opened in 2007 – when nearly all buildings in Hoxton Square were vacant. Times were...

Mixed outlook for Truman Brewery

By Lee Mallett

The 4 ha Truman Brewery site which members visited in February, courtesy of development manager Grow Places, like British Land’s nearby Norton Folgate site, has proved controversial and is the subject of three planning applications now in public consultation. Founded in 1666 and the world’s largest brewery by 1873 before...

A Visit to Panorama St Paul’s

By Russell Whitehead

Panorama St Paul’s is an ambitious adaptive reuse project developed by Orion, transforming a substantial office building in the heart of London. Before visiting, I had heard a bit about the project from the architects, and chat in the market – particularly around HSBC’s pre-let – so was wondering what...

A turning point – a personal view

By Lee Mallett

The draft City Plan 2040 is at its Examination in Public. The Corporation has abandoned plans to move Billingsgate and Smithfield fish and meat markets to Barking and to close them, with traders to be compensated and presumably freed to fend for themselves. Michael Cassidy, an ‘architect’ of today’s Square...

Art & Architecture in the City

By Cécile Brisac

Artworks taking root within architectural and urban surroundings inspire us and challenge our thinking. Any doubts you may have had about their importance in our daily lives would have been lifted during last week’s talk on “Art and Architecture in the City”. Their production and their influence make for fascinating...

CAF Annual Dinner 2024: Delivering Destination City

The City Corporation will work “collaboratively and transparently” with developers, architects and their teams alongside businesses to deliver “Destination City”, the object of City Plan 2040, the new Director of Environment, Katie Stewart (below, middle right), told a packed City Architecture Forum annual dinner. 88 CAF members and guests filled...

Hold the front page for Fleet Street’s renaissance

By Lee Mallett

So the City Corporation sponsored the establishment of a fourth BID in the City, the Fleet Street Quarter Business Improvement District, which opened for business in 2022. Two years on, Mike Fairmaner, former Westminster planner, now head of placemaking for the BID, Introduced an update for CAF members (ironically in...

2024 Mid-Year Review

By David Magyar

The City of London and its architecture is never static. The City is a location steeped in history and architectural heritage but this has rarely held it back from being forward-looking, ever changing and willing to address new challenges. It captivates and fascinates with its ability to reinvent itself and...

2 Finsbury Avenue – Research based design thinking in the pursuit of innovation

By David Magyar

The business of attracting visitors to hotels and restaurants, customers into shops to buy retail products, and tenants into offices has, in recent times, become hugely challenging – and the competition is fierce. Leasing agents would have us believe we are in an ‘arms race’ to persuade people back into...

Beyond the fringe at Norton Folgate

By Lee Mallett

A world away from the city’ promises one of the headings on British Land’s website for its £225m, 330,000 sq ft office-led mixed-use reincarnation of the Norton Folgate site in Spitalfields that was so controversial in its nascent stages back in 2013 when AHMM prepared their first feasibility study for...

The City 2040: perspiration outweighs inspiration

By Paul Finch

The draft City of London local plan, at 44,000 words, is a prodigious effort, suggesting future development can be directed or fine-tuned to suit a very decent set of strategies reaching 2040. The product of a process which began in 2016, which has been subject to five public consultations so...

Retrofit and Re-use First : The City’s journey to net-zero

By Kara Thompson

In the world of sustainable architecture and design, the conversation for the built environment is evolving rapidly, challenging industry norms and pushing for innovative solutions. With the Draft 2040 City Plan focusing on a ‘retrofit first’ approach there is a need to prioritise retention and retrofit of existing building in...

A New Museum for London pt II

By Lee Higson

On a crisp and sunny February afternoon, a privileged group of 10 CAF members assembled at West Smithfields in anticipation of an early glimpse of the new Museum of London spaces as they begin to take shape. We were met by Museum Director Sharon Ament and Stephanie Kirkness from Museum...

Transport for a changing Square Mile

By Gonzalo Coello de Portugal

Tuesday, 12 December 2023 City Architecture Forum set up an enlightening presentation by Bruce McVean, Assistant Director, Policy & Projects, City of London Corporation and Roy McGowan, Managing Director at Momentum Transport, followed by a lively discussion with the members of CAF attending the event. Will the UK meet the...

2023 End of Year Reflections

By Andrew Reynolds

So as we come to the end of another year for the Forum and for the post-Covid City of London I sense a feeling of optimism and purpose in the City marred only by the inertia of our Whitehall politicians who I suspect are mindful of the Mayoral elections in...

All rise for Fleet Street’s super-court

By Lee Mallett

Tuesday, 12 September 2023 City Architecture Forum members were treated to a preview of the City Corporation’s new court complex at its Salisbury Square Development on Fleet Street by Lee Higson, director, Eric Parry Architects, and Tim Cutter, director, Avison Young (City of London). If you think a major city...

Behind the Scenes: 8 Bishopsgate

By Mike Taylor

Wednesday, 10 May 2023 With less than a month until Practical Completion and with the building still a hive of finishing and commissioning activities the CAF were privileged to be given a tour of 8 Bishopsgate by Ollie Tyler of Wilkinson Eyre. Mitsubishi’s latest addition to the London skyline is...

Behind the Scenes: Urbanest City

By Ross Hutchinson

On the 28th of March 2023 I had the great pleasure of joining the CAF’s tour of Urbanest’s Emperor House development on Vine Street, in the City of London. It was a project that I was unfamiliar with, designed by a practice whose work I used to know well when...

Revealing the City: The City – the next five years

By City Architecture Forum

Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman at the City of London Corporation, outlines the continuities and changes needed over the next five years for the City to remain a world-leader in the build environment.

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Behind the Scenes: Leathersellers’ Hall

By Fabrizio Cazzulo

Thursday, 8 September 2022 I joined the tour of the of the Leathersellers’ Hall as a learning opportunity. I am an architect and I am always keen to visit good architecture and expand my pool of references. “The Leathersellers’ Company has occupied this site continuously since 1543. Whilst earlier halls...

Behind the Scenes: The Gilbert & One Lackington (City Gate House)

By Ailish Killilea

Thursday, 14 July 2022 As we seek sympathetic and practical update of our City offices and rich heritage it was refreshing to join and learn about the recent architectural revamp of The Gilbert & One Lackington (‘The Gilbert’) carried out by Brookfield Properties. The Gilbert never was intended as offices,...

Behind the Scenes: 21 Moorfields

By Chris Dyson

Thursday, 26 May 2022 New York was rebuilt on large plots of land, in a new grid network, with new ordinances that, for example, forbade the use of wood and encouraged tall buildings. But today, even New York is zoned into conservation areas and plots where tall buildings are allowed....

2021 End of Year Review

By Andrew Reynolds

Sadly it looks as if the concluding headlines for 2021 will, like those for 2020, be dominated by COVID and its variants. Despite this depressing turn of events, 2021 has been a year of significant progress for the City of London and in turn for its built environment, and the...

Behind the Scenes: 135 & 155 Bishopsgate

By Jenny Freeman

Wednesday, 3 November For those who recall the mid-80s development scene in the City the huge Broadgate redevelopment represented a step change from the dismal multitude of dull buildings provided by so-called ‘developers architects’ of that time. The wholesale demolition of historic, characterful, useable City buildings that redevelopment entailed was...

Revealing the City: Thermal Comfort – a ground breaking initiative

By City Architecture Forum

Gwyn Richards Chief Planning Officer and Development Director in the Department of the Built Environment at the City of London, and Ender Ozkan Vice President of RWDI discuss how the 2 organisations worked together to produce the new guidelines for the next generation of post COVID developments in the City...

Behind the Scenes: 22 Bishopsgate

By Barnaby Collins

Tuesday, 12 October 2021 It is always a pleasure to experience the physical manifestation of one’s endeavours, particularly after such a long break away from being able to move around freely, let alone visit buildings, but it was even more exciting to be afforded the opportunity to tour the new...

2021 Mid Year Review

By David Magyar

The first 6 months of this year have seen a gradual re-awakening from the long winter of the pandemic – there is cautious optimism in the air and a discernible feeling that we are on the brink of a new beginning, brimming with opportunity. The pandemic has forced many of...

Revealing the City: Eight Bishopsgate

By City Architecture Forum

Architect Oliver Tyler (WilkinsonEyre) and engineer Jeremy Edwards (Arup) explore the development of Eight Bishopsgate – the new 51 storey tower in the City of London.

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Revealing the City: The future of offices in the City of London

By City Architecture Forum

Despina Katsikakis, Global Head of Total Workplace at Cushman and Wakefield, Peter Murray London Mayoral Design Advocate and Chair of New London Architecture, and Andrew Reynolds City Architecture Forum Chair and advisor on a number of new City tower projects discuss the future of cities and workspace in the post-COVID...

Revealing the City: One Bishopsgate Plaza

By City Architecture Forum

Mark Kelly, PLP Architecture explores a number of the project goals of One Bishopsgate Plaza, including the regeneration of part of the local Conservation Area.

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Revealing the City: 77 Coleman

By City Architecture Forum

Victoria Cooper, Associate at architecture and interior design practice Buckley Gray Yeoman and Gordon Armstrong-Payne from Heyne Tillett Steel present 77 Coleman – the comprehensive redevelopment of an existing building that fronts onto two major thoroughfares within the City of London.

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