City Hall, London

City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), which comprises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. It is located in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge.

Designed by architects Norman Foster and engineers Arup, it opened in July 2002, two years after the Greater London Authority was created.

CPI EuroMix provided natural coloured mortar for the construction of the unusually shaped building. The bulbous shape has been compared to a helmet (either Darth Vader’s or simply a motorcyclist’s), a misshapen egg, and a woodlouse. Former mayor Ken Livingstone referred to it as a ‘glass testicle’ while his successor, Boris Johnson, made the same comparison using a different word, ‘The Glass Gonad’ and more politely as ‘The Onion’.