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20 Fenchurch Street

Commercial and Office Buildings

20 Fenchurch Street, widely known by its nickname the Walkie-Talkie for its distinctive top-heavy profile, stands in the City of London financial district and was completed in 2014 to a design by the Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Vinoly. Unlike most tall office buildings, its floor plates widen progressively toward the top rather than narrowing, a shape intended to maximize valuable upper-floor space and views over the Thames. During construction in 2013 the building's concave south facade concentrated reflected sunlight strongly enough to melt parts of a parked car and scorch nearby shopfronts, an incident widely reported as the Fryscraper affair that led to the later installation of a permanent shading system. Its top three floors house the Sky Garden, a public viewing space with landscaped terraces and restaurants open to visitors.

Facts
Building Type
Commercial Skyscraper 2
Location
London, England 2
Completed Year
2014 3
Height (m)
160 2
Classification
Standing Status
Standing 1
Building Type
Building Type (category)
Skyscraper 2
Connections

Has Building Type

Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.

In Style

Source 20 Fenchurch Street - Wikipedia
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. 20 Fenchurch Street - Wikipedia
  • standing status determination, wikipedia summary
    A bar and restaurants are included on the 35th, 36th and 37th floors; these are, with restrictions, open to the public.
  • In Style: Neo-Futurism, infobox architectural_style field: Neo-futurism
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2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street, body text, construction-completion sentence
    Construction was completed in spring 2014, and the three-floor "sky garden" was opened in January 2015.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street, lead section, height sentence
    The 38-storey building is 160 m (525 ft) tall.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street, opening sentence
    20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Fenchurch_Street, opening sentence, backing the entity description
    20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district.
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3. Wikidata: 20 Fenchurch Street
  • Wikidata Q212834, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
  • Wikidata Q212834, P571 claim (w-bbfill-artsarchag-0926)
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