In June 2020, the GLA started a consultation on proposals to vacate then City Hall and move to The Crystal, a GLA-owned property in Newham, at the end of 2021.

[4] The City Hall building was designed by Norman Foster and was constructed at a cost of £43 million[5] on a site formerly occupied by wharves serving the Pool of London.

[9][10][2] Khan cited the high cost of rent as the reason for relocating the GLA headquarters, stating that vacating City Hall in favour of a property owned by the authority would save it £55 million over the course of five years.

[11] In 2023, St Martins Property announced that the architectural firms of Gensler and LDA Design had completed a plan to redesign the unused structure as a mixed-use office and retail building.

[12] The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag (parliament), when Germany's capital was moved back to Berlin.

[22] The building is located on The Queen's Walk, a part of the extended pedestrianised south-side embankment of the River Thames in the London Borough of Southwark.

[24] In 2016 the walkways were filled with musicians during Open House London in a site-specific work by British composer Samuel Bordoli, which explored the unique acoustic of the structure.