By the mid-1960s P&O needed to redevelop the site to provide increased office space again. At the same time, the Commercial Union Assurance Company was also planning a redevelopment on an adjacent site on the corner of St Mary Axe. However, due to a number of issues affecting both sites, notably poor access to the Commercial Union site and the restricted width of the P&O site, it was not possible to obtain planning consents that would optimise the amount of floor space for both companies. So they decided on a joint development with the reallocation of site boundaries and the creation of an open concourse area at the junction of Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe. Both companies would have frontages to the new concourse and would retain site areas equivalent to those enclosed by the original boundaries.