Swiss Re Tower, 30 St Mary Axe, EC3

On the site of the Baltic Exchange, severely damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992, comes the recklessly phallic Swiss Re Tower. Initially dubbed the ‘Erotic Gherkin’ (US, read ‘Pickle’), the ‘erotic’ bit was quickly dropped as a statement of the bleedin’ obvious.

Inevitably, in the movies, everybody wants to work in thos photogenic icon. By 2006, fickle old Russell Crowe, who reported to the Lloyds Building in Proof Of Life in 2000, has traded up to work in its young neighbour, the Gherkin, in Ridley Scott’s A Good Year. Socially-climbing Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) wangles a job here in Woody Allen’s Match Point.

But, best of all, police psychologist Dr Glass (David Morrissey) believes the Tower an appropriate place for his sessions with Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone) in Basic Instinct 2. Disappointingly, the film resists the post-production temptation to recolour the Gherkin pink.

Itís not open to the public.

Trivia: The old Baltic Exchange’s striking lobby was the bank to which Leonard Bast (Samuel West) applied for a job in Howards End. Before plans to rebuild the Exchange were finally dropped, the film was to have been used as a reference to its former appearance.

Basic Instinct 2 (2006, dir: Michael Caton-Jones)
Match Point (2005, dir: Woody Allen)
A Good Year (2006, dir: Ridley Scott)