The Old Baltic Exchange

St Mary Axe façade

We still can’t quite get over being asked to sell this—for conservation freaks it’s a bit like Father Christmas and the Easter Bunny all at once.

Entrance Hall

This is the famous building that was on the site of Norman Foster’s erotic gherkin in the City of London. As a conservation officer remarked recently, if you want consent to demolish a listed building, get a big name architect for the replacement.

The Dome

Built in 1903 by Smith and Wimble, the building set out to demonstrate the wealth and solemnity, not to say solidity, of London’s maritime trade. By no means cutting edge architecture, instead it harks back to the heydey of Queen Victoria and the empire.

The Grand Staircase

In 1992 its foundations were damaged by the IRA bomb that so badly damaged the City (although with miraculously small loss of life). The little St Ethelburga’s church next door has been exquisitely restored, and it was the intention to restore the Exchange, but commercial interests got in the way and in 1998 John Prescott gave permission for it to be taken down.

The Floor in the 1980s

The Baltic Exchange now sits in pieces in a great many wooden crates in a barn near Canterbury. Dismantling, recording and moving it cost £4 million. It is for sale like a glorious Lego kit, ready to make a fine country house, magnificent company headquarters, or just a rich man’s set of building blocks. It is of red granite, coloured marble, and Portland stone. The plaster interiors are intact, complete with sea monsters, and mermaids riding dolphins, among the classical mouldings. It is no longer listed (it was Grade II*), as officially it no longer exists, so what you do with it is up to you.

The Floor in 1991

For immediate viewing contact Gwyn Headley at the sole agents
Pavilions of Splendour, 020 8348 1234

The Floor during the filming of 'Howards End'

Pavilions of Splendour
22 Mount View Road
Winchester
Hampshire
N4 4HX