Yes, that night portrait is stunning. The building was still very new in 2005 and there wasn’t a lot of photography available then. Sadly there is so much more now that I couldn’t relocate that picture when I searched tonight.

However, this image by Geoff Hamilton shows a similar lighting scheme, and here’s another shot of a spacerocket-like Gherkin.

I finally made it to the top of the Gherkin a few weeks ago, and I’ll be writing about that long-awaited visit soon. In the meantime, many thanks again.

I maintain it’s the most beautiful skyscraper built anywhere for many a decade – perhaps since the Chrysler Building. It’s so perfect I used it for the spaceship in my children’s book, Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London (the Gherkin is the Spirit of London).

I absolutely adore your picture of the building with her green Christmas lights. Can you tell me where that came from originally. Never has the building looked more like a fantastic starship!

That picture from the South Bank that you link to on your site does capture it very well.

In return, here is a marvellous panorama taken from Tower Bridge which says many of the same things about The Gherkin, and perhaps even more about London itself.

Phrases like ‘London Gherkin’ crop up in searches that lead to this site, almost every day, so it’s gratifying to know that it does provide some answers, of a kind at least.

It’s interesting to note that the building’s media team until very recently expressly forbade the use of the name ‘Gherkin’ in any of their official publicity as well as that of other organisations who use the building. They always insisted instead on use of the official name of 30 St Mary Axe.

That was understandable in many ways, since this kind of architecture surely commands a degree of respect. And yet, on a different kind of level, it looked like quite an impressive case of denial, and really just a little late. Because 7 million Londoners, and just about the rest of the world, already knew the building by exactly that name.

It makes me suspect that they might have been missing a marketing trick, right there. Because if a brand name works – use it.

I wonder if that policy is changing now, since the building has recently been sold by Swiss Re for £640 mm, bringing them a £300 mm profit in the three years since the tower was completed.

It seems remarkable that the building’s value has increased quite that much in such a short time, until you factor in the unique cachet of owning a stylish (and practical) London landmark with such instant worldwide recognition. And until you realise that this rate of price inflation is actually also pretty close to that achieved by almost every house in London over the same period.

In my recent post about Hyde Park, I note the new apartments under construction there which are now on sale off plan for £ 84 million each.

That’s an amazing figure, in any language, and makes one wonder if such prices really are sustainable, or if they’ll end in tears, one day not all that far away.

Many thanks once again for reading this site, and with all best wishes from me to Scotland.