Gherkin Goes Hollywood

“The biggest gherkin in Christendom could soon be overshadowing London”

So utters Jeremy Paxman to open the trailer for improbable movie ‘Building the Gherkin’. That’s right. Everyone’s favourite pickle-shaped landmark has made its first flick, co-starring Norman Foster and Ken Livingstone.

Just a month and a day after the disastrous attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the first steel beam of a new tower is erected in London. One question is on everybody’s mind: is it the right decision to build a new iconic tower in the midst of London’s financial district, on a site that has already been bombed before? It was a time of heroes, when desperate men battled against unimaginable odds to secure a lateral bracing beam before the end of their shift.

OK, we misquoted them slightly at the end there. Sorry.

The 90-minute documentary chronicles the logistical soap opera of constructing a ground-breaking tower in the heart of a busy, working city. The film received its premiere during Architecture Week, but is now available to buy on DVD (bizarrely, the film’s website asks you to select your country from a limited list of Switzerland, USA/Canada, Germany or ROW. What, do they think no one in London would be interested?)

Of course, Londonist readers were the first to give the gherkin a starring film role.