1 Undershaft will be as tall as the Shard. But whence its peculiar name?
The Shard will soon have a lofty partner across the water. 1 Undershaft, which recently won planning approval after years of back-and-forth, is to stand at exactly the same height, 309.6 metres.
There is much to say about this building: its impact on the skyline; the mix of office and cultural space; why the epic throes of planning committees have vanilla-fied a once sleek design; the involvement of the London Museum; the environmental impact; and the curious 'tongue' structure that's sure to become an "I'm the King of the World" TikTok magnet, if people are still using TikTok or watching Titanic by the time this thing ever gets built:
Those issues are for another time. Today, we just want to interrogate that name: 1 Undershaft. It has quite a history.
The number is easily addressed... because it's the address. Undershaft is the curly street opposite the Gherkin, and this building will be at door number ONE. It's probably going to be the only door number on the street, because this is a monster of a building that brooks no room for neighbours. But even if other properties do squeeze into this tiny street, then this skyscraper will still be number ONE because that's what landmark buildings always have to be these days (One Blackfriars, One New Change, One Nine Elms, One Canada Square, One Hyde Park, etc. etc.).
But what of the Undershaft? What can it mean? A clue to the name can be found lurking beneath the Cheesgrater building (more properly called One Leadenhall, of course). Here it is:
No, not the sculpture, which is an embodiment of navigation, but the bright twisty pole. This is a representation of a maypole, a gaily decorated stick around which youths would once frolic to welcome in the spring. It probably still happens in some places. Not in the Square Mile, though.
Once upon a time, when the City *was* London, maypole dancing was very much part of the calendar. A particularly lofty specimen would go up here, next to St Andrew's church, each May. The pole was so tall, that it outstretched the church, which became known as St Andrew-under-shaft. And that is where the street name and now the building name ultimately come from.
The last maypole on the site was erected in 1517, when the festivities got so out of hand that the maypole was taken down and put into permanent storage. As the century wore on, Londoners grew to hate their confiscated maypole. It was a pagan symbol, at a time when people got burned for deviating from the official faith. Contemporary historian John Stow tells us that, in 1547, the maypole was "raised from the hooks whereon it had rested for two-and-thirty years, sawn in pieces and burnt." And that was that.
What Stow and his fellows would make of St Andrew's today is anyone's guess. It's already dwarfed by the Gherkin, Cheesegrater and Scalpel buildings. Soon, The Shaft will rise 15 times higher than any maypole. Perhaps the church will need to be renamed as St Andrew-even-more-Undershaft.
PS: before they can build it, the 118 metre St Helen's Tower must be demolished. We think this will be the tallest skyscraper ever dismantled in London.
PPS: Someone who used to work in St Helen's Tower tells us that it contains a 'secret passage' from the basement across to the site of the former The Underwriter pub.
