Property English Heritage

Over the summer, television viewers were treated to a series hosted by the photogenic chief executive of English Heritage, Simon Thurley. In Lost Buildings of Britain, Mr Thurley made a bit of a fool of himself attempting to ‘recreate’ lost architectural treasures based on old drawings and other clues. One superb building which did not feature in this series was the historic Baltic Exchange in the City of London, described in its prime as ‘a veritable fairy palace’ and demolished three years ago. But Mr Thurley will not want to remind anyone of it, as its loss was entirely the fault of English Heritage.

When it was built to house a historic shipping exchange in St Mary Axe in 1903, the Baltic Exchange’s imposing facade was of Portland stone, and the baroque interiors were covered in the choicest marbles of Europe, including some from the quarry which had been used for St Peter’s in Rome.

Almost 90 years later, in 1992, it was badly damaged by the IRA City bombing. English Heritage immediately decided that the building had to be restored. To this end it ordered that each piece of stone, marble, oak and mahogany, brass, bronze, stained glass and even plaster be carefully numbered and then removed into safe storage. The cost of that exercise totalled £6 million.

The cost of reconstruction was estimated at over £20 million, more than the Baltic Exchange could afford. When the City Corporation threatened to prosecute, the Baltic was forced to sell its historic home to a developer, Trafalgar House, which agreed to restore its classical facade and the baroque trading hall. Trafalgar House duly submitted a planning application, which was granted permission in 1995. But the City Corporation became concerned that the restored building would not be sufficiently attractive to tenants like Citibank, which it was desperate to prevent from relocating to Canary Wharf.