Member Article

“The Gherkin” is “nickname of the century”

The Gherkin is the “nickname of the century”, suggests a poll to find the best-known nickname of any new building in Britain since the year 2000.

The Cheese-Grater and the Walkie-Talkie, the nicknames of two other London skyscrapers, rank second and third respectively in the poll of 2,141 Britons conducted by YouGov on behalf of Skanska, the Swedish construction company which built The Gherkin.

Nicknames for high profile new buildings, and skyscrapers in particular, are all the modern rage, to the point where no smart new edifice seems complete without one.

The Gherkin, however, emerges from the YouGov poll as by far the most widely known such name. Over three times as many Britons (72%) have heard of it as The Cheese-Grater in second place (23%) and the Walkie-Talkie in third (19%).

“The Gherkin may be the most successful such nickname since Big Ben was completed in 1858”, says Paul Heather, Managing Director for Skanska’s London and South-East building business. (And even Big Ben, strictly speaking, was the nickname of the clock bell rather than the tower housing it.)

Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Britons have heard of The Gherkin, while nearly nine in 10 (86%) of Londoners have done so. This also makes The Gherkin the only new UK building that is nearly as famous nationally as locally.

“The Gherkin has become the famous name of a famous building”, says Heather. “The Gherkin itself is an icon not just of the London skyline but of modern Britain, if not of modern architecture itself.”

The YouGov poll was restricted to buildings to have opened in the UK this century and to their nicknames rather than official or formal ones.

The official name of the Gherkin is 30 St Mary Axe, which is also its address in the City of London. It, however, is far less used than the Gherkin nickname, which derives from the building’s alleged resemblance to a variety of pickled cucumber.

The Gherkin was designed by architect Norman Foster, constructed by Skanska and opened in 2004. In its early days it was known as the Swiss Re Building after its primary occupant, the insurance company Swiss Re, but the Gherkin nickname has long since overtaken it.

The Shard is another London skyscraper and landmark, with a widely known name. The fact, however, that the Shard is the building’s official name rather than its nickname ruled it out of contention for the YouGov poll. The best known of its various nicknames is The Salt Cellar, which ranks sixth in the YouGov poll. .

The fact that the three best-known nicknames of new buildings all belong to London skyscrapers may be no surprise, given that such buildings tend to be higher profile, both literally and figuratively.

The best-known nickname of any new building outside London, finds the poll, is The Armadillo, moniker of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. It ranks fifth nationally (despite the fact that even in Wales, only 25% of people have heard of it).

The best-known nickname of any London building that is not a skyscraper also happens to be The Armadillo (known by 10% of Britons), as in the best known of various nicknames for London’s City Hall. By further coincidence, London’s Armadillo ranks fourth in the national rankings, one place above its Cardiff namesake (9%).

While some nicknames catch the imagination and enter our shared vocabulary, others struggle for acceptance.

So, the Rust-Bucket (alias the Broadcasting Tower in Leeds), the Filing Cabinet (The Civil Justice Centre, Manchester) and The Pregnant Pin (Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth) all seem reasonable efforts at memorable nicknames but, in the event, rank joint last in YouGov’s poll, as names recognised by just one per cent of Britons.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Pacini .