No 1 Poultry

Another option was a modernist minor skyscraper designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the manner of the Seagram Building in New York City – but dropped having failed in an influential architectural and planning show-down in the 1970s.

It is clad in pink and yellow limestone in even stripes (and apex arch stones, that is voussoirs) whilst the courtyard, an atrium, displays some of Stirling's characteristic acidulous colour play.

For example, from the sharp apex of the site a keyhole-shaped opening leads to a little-seen Scala Regia with a ramped floor, gold-leafed terminus and ancient Egyptian aura takes visitors into the heart of the building.

The turret above is sometimes likened to a submarine conning tower while the glazed thus two-sided clock is in concept and detail that of the Art Deco era Palazzo delle Poste, Naples.

Completed nearly two decades after the first designs were published, the building saw a range of muted and divided views from leading critics as the heyday of postmodernism was over.

[2][3][4] As to the apex facing Mansion House, a Conservation Area, to rebuild drew much opposition particularly as standing there, in repairable condition, was a 19th-century neo-Gothic listed building occupied by crown jewellers Mappin and Webb.

An office building and public plaza by Mies van der Rohe was pencilled for the site in 1969, to be Mansion House Square.