Strata SE1 SE1 Londoners' fifth favourite tall building, behind 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin), The Shard, The Leadenhall Building (The Cheesegrater) and One Canada Square (Canary Wharf). Strata SE1 Strata SE1, nicknamed "Razor" or "Electric Razor", is a , 43-storey building at Elephant and Castle in the London Borough of Southwark in London. Designed by BFLS (formerly Hamiltons), it is one of the tallest residential buildings in London and more than 1,000 residents live in its 408 flats. Strata SE1 is located on the site of Castle House, an early 1960s six-storey office building, which was the first commercial premises at
30 St Mary Axe designed by Norman Foster and Arup Group. It was erected by Skanska; construction started in 2001. The building has become a recognisable feature of London, and it is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture. The building stands on the former sites of the Baltic Exchange (24-28 St Mary Axe), which was the headquarters of a global marketplace for shipping freight contracts and also soft commodities, and the Chamber of Shipping (30-32 St Mary Axe). On 10 April 1992, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, causing extensive damage to the historic building