30 St Mary Axe 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 Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 by a bomb placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, a narrow street leading north from Leadenhall Street. After plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped, 30 St Mary Axe was
30 St Mary Axe on the design of the building, said in 2011 that he believed the style was now out-moded: "I was looking at the glass all around and [thought], 'Why on earth did we do that?' Now we would do things differently". The building featured in recent films such as "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", Russell Crowe's "A Good Year", Sharon Stone's "Basic Instinct 2", and Woody Allen's "Match Point" and, rechristened the "Spirit of London", became the spaceship centrepiece of Keith Mansfield's 2008 novel "Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London". In September 2006, the building was put up