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
Church of St Mary Axe dated to the early reign of King Henry VIII describes a holy relic held in the church; "An axe, one of the two that the eleven thousand Virgins were beheaded with". This refers to the legend that Saint Ursula, when returning to Britain from a pilgrimage to Rome accompanied by eleven thousand handmaidens, had refused to marry a Hunnish chief and was executed along with her whole entourage on the site of modern Cologne, in about 451 AD. It was situated just north of Leadenhall Street on a site now occupied by Fitzwilliam House. First mentioned as "St Mary apud