City Hall, in the

London Borough of Newham The London Borough of Newham () is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by ...

east East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, is the headquarters of the

Greater London Authority The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the Metonymy, metonym City Hall, is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved Regions of England, regional governance body of Greater London, England. It consists of two political ...

(GLA), the regional government for

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

. It replaced the previous City Hall, in

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

in 2022. The building opened in 2012 and was previously an exhibition centre for sustainable architecture, known as The Crystal. Built and opened by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

, it was the first building in the world to reach the highest sustainability award level (see

LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

and

BREEAM The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), first published by the Building Research Establishment in 1990, is touted as the world's longest established method of identifying the sustainability of buildings. Ar ...

). It was bought by the GLA in 2019 for the docklands redevelopment project. The building is situated next to the redeveloped

Royal Victoria Dock The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands. History Although, the structure was in place in the year 1850, it was opened in 1855, on a pre ...

Canning Town Canning Town is a town in the London Borough of Newham, East London, England, north of the Royal Victoria Dock. Its urbanisation was largely due to the creation of the dock. The area was part of the ancient parish and County Borough of West Ham, ...

. The northern terminus of the

London cable car The London cable car, also known as the Dangleway and officially as the IFS Cloud Cable Car for Naming rights, sponsorship reasons, is a Aerial lift, cable car link across the River Thames in London, England. The line was built by Doppelmayr Gar ...

, and Royal Victoria station, the

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated medium-capacity rail system, light metro system primarily serving the redeveloped London Docklands, Docklands area of London and providing a direct connection between London's two major financi ...

and

Custom House railway station Custom House is an interchange station by the Royal Docks, in Custom House in the London Borough of Newham, London for Docklands Light Railway (DLR) – on which it is branded Custom House for ExCeL – and Elizabeth line services. It is situa ...

on the

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a railway line that runs across Greater London and nearby towns, operating similarly to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries. It runs services on dedicated infras ...

are within walking distance. It is close to

London City Airport London City Airport is an international airport in London, England. It is located in the Royal Docks in the London Borough of Newham, Borough of Newham, about east of the City of London and east of Canary Wharf. These are the two centres ...

History

Exhibition and conference centre

The Crystal was built as a key part of the Green Enterprise District policy of the

London Development Agency The London Development Agency (LDA) was from July 2000 until 2012 the regional development agency for the Greater London, London region in England. A functional body of the Greater London Authority, its purpose was to drive sustainable economic ...

. The building was designed by

Perkins+Will Perkins is a surname derived from the Anglo-Saxon corruption of the kin of Pierre (from Pierre kin to Pierrekin to Perkins), introduced into England by the Norman Conquest. It is found throughout mid- and southern England. Another derivation com ...

(fit-out, design leader) and

Wilkinson Eyre Architects WilkinsonEyre is an international architecture practice based in London, England. In 1983 Chris Wilkinson founded Chris Wilkinson Architects, he partnered with Jim Eyre in 1987 and the practice was renamed WilkinsonEyre in 1999. The practice ...

(shell and core), with

Arup Group Arup Group Limited, trading as Arup, is a British multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that provides design, engineering, architecture, planning, and advisory services across every aspect of the built environment. ...

who were the building and civil engineers, and

Townshend Landscape Architects Townshend Landscape Architects are a London-based Landscape Architecture practice established in 1988 by Robert Townshend. The practice specialises in landscape architecture, public realm masterplanning and urban design in the UK, Europe, Middle Ea ...

who designed the public realm.

Event Communications Event Communications, or Event, is one of Europe's longest-established and largest museum and visitor attraction design firms; it is headquartered in London. History The firm was founded in 1986 by businesswoman Celestine ("Cel") Phelan and des ...

were the exhibition designers, responsible for the interpretive planning, exhibition design and creative direction, graphic design, media direction and construction management for the exhibition spaces. The building was the first to achieve the highest sustainable building accolades, platinum and outstanding respectively, from the world's two leading accreditation bodies,

and

. When it opened, the Crystal contained a permanent exhibition about

sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

, and was owned and operated by

. In 2016, Siemens sold the building to the GLA, who acquired it to use as a base for the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

's £3.5bn project to regenerate the

Royal Docks Royal Docks is an area in the London Borough of Newham in the London Docklands in East London, England. The area is named after three docks – the Royal Albert Dock, the Royal Victoria Dock and the King George V Dock. They are more corre ...

. After Siemens vacated the building in 2019, it was used by the Royal Docks regeneration team but large parts of the building remained empty.

City Hall

In June 2020, the Mayor of London

Sadiq Khan Sir Sadiq Aman Khan (, ; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting (UK Parliament constituency), Tooting ...

announced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the GLA from City Hall in Southwark to The Crystal in order to save £55 million for the GLA over the course of five years. The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020; Newham Borough Council gave permission for a change of use for the building in December 2020. The move was completed in the third week of January 2022, delayed from the previous planned opening date in December 2021. The building was renamed "City Hall" in December 2021.

Architecture

The entire site is in size and the surrounding landscape was designed to be a sustainable urban landscape to help encourage a shift in the social ideology, making 'sustainability' more attractive and allowing people to participate in social activities within the site, which includes local food programmes and community gardens to help foster this principle. The building contains a number of sustainable technologies, including the

building management system Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, lighting, ...

and KNX infrastructure. The building control devices, such as lighting, windows, blinds and heating, are connected using the KNX protocol. The building has over 2,500 KNX connected devices.

Gallery

File:The crystal (27265775033).jpg, Close up of the building File:Emirates Air Line, London 01-07-2012 (7551145410).jpg, Aerial view File:Emirates Air Line cable car.jpg, View from the

File:London MMB «X6 The Crystal.jpg, Glass panels

References

External links

The CrystalCrystal Clear – The Technology Inside One of the World's Greenest BuildingsCase Study: The First LEED Platinum & BREEAM Outstanding Building
{{LB Newham 2012 establishments in England Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham Exhibition and conference centres in London Silvertown

Greater London Authority