30 St Mary Axe November 2014, the Gherkin was purchased for £700 million by the Safra Group, controlled by the Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra. As of January 2015, current occupiers of the building include the following: Additionally, retailers and restaurants operate from the site, such as The Sterling and Bridge's Newsagent. 30 St Mary Axe 30 St Mary Axe (known previously as the Swiss Re Building) is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 floors, it is tall and stands on the former sites of the
St Mary Axe of the former buildings of the Baltic Exchange and the UK Chamber of Shipping (destroyed by an IRA bomb in 1992). The street originates as a turn off Houndsditch at its northern end, with traffic flowing one-way southbound, and it originates at its southern end as a turn off Leadenhall Street, with traffic flowing one-way northbound. Both one-way portions of St Mary Axe converge at Bevis Marks, where traffic is forced westward into Camomile Street. "Number 70 St Mary Axe" appears in several novels by the British author Tom Holt as the address of a firm of sorcerers headed by