One New Change: views, refections, angled glass and hidden art
- London On The Ground
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
The City of London’s largest shopping centre offers stunning views of St Paul’s and beyond (it also has shops).
Opened in 2010, One New Change occupies a whole block, bounded by New Change, Cheapside, Bread Street and Watling Street. It is the second post World War II building on this site, replacing offices built in 1957 (on what had been a bomb site) for the Accountant’s Department of the Bank of England.
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One New Change was designed by acclaimed French architect Jean Nouvel and cost £500m to build. The distinctive angles of its glass skin create unexpected and sometimes surreal reflections.
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Its exterior profile, smoked glass and ability to blend into the changing colour of the sky have led to its nickname "the stealth bomber".
The building's proximity to St Paul's Cathedral, and total stylistic contrast with it, attracted controversy and criticism when it was completed. Among its detractors were Prince (now King) Charles, who was often vocal on the subject of architecture prior to his accession to the throne.
The eight storey structure is at the maximum height allowed in this part of the City so that views of St Paul’s are not obscured.
There are 220,000 square feet (20,000 square metres) of retail space with around 60 shops and restaurants over three floors (including the basement).
Above the retail floors, there are 330,000 square feet (31,000 square metres) of office space. The top floor has a bar/restaurant and a free public roof terrace with fabulous views of St Paul's Cathedral and across London.
Shops include brands such as Boots, Marks & Spencer, Hugo Boss, H&M, Oliver Bonas, Sweaty Betty, Nespresso and Molton Brown. Restaurants and cafés include Ivy Asia, Zizzi, Nando’s, Krispy Kreme and Godon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen.
One New Change is one of the newest buildings in the vicinity of St Paul’s/Cheapside, an area rich with history.
The street New Change has only existed since the post-war reconstruction of this part of the City. It is a reference to Old Change, a much narrower street with 13th century origins that ran parallel to it and closer to St Paul’s, deriving its name from the King’s Exchange. Old Change, and so much of this area, was destroyed in the Blitz.
Cheapside has always been the City's high street, historically bustling with merchants and traders and a scene of royal processions and medieval jousts. ‘Cheap’ is from an Old English word meaning a market or a shop.
Although now dominated by offices, many of the streets leading off Cheapside give clues to the trades that once congregated in this area: Bread Street, Wood Street, Milk Street, Honey Lane, Ironmonger Lane, Poultry.
The historical importance of the street as a commercial centre was highlighted in 1912 with the discovery of the Cheapside Hoard. This is the greatest single cache of Elizabethan and Stuart jewellery, consisting of around 500 jewels and gems dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Goldsmiths' Row once formed part of the south side of Cheapside, on part of the current site of One New Change. Many members of the Goldsmiths’ Company, whose livery hall is a short walk north of here, had shops on the row.
The vast collection of jewellers’ stock is thought to have been buried here during the English Civil War in 1640s. It remained hidden until workmen discovered it by chance during a new building development in 1912. The approximate location of the find was underneath today’s Cheapside entrance to M&S. Continuing a long tradition, jewellers Fraser Hart have a ground floor shop close to the former site of Goldsmiths’ Row.
The Cheapside Hoard is expected to be on display in the new London Museum when it opens in 2026.
It is easy to pass through One New Change without noticing some intriguing artworks by ‘Brit Art’ artist Gavin Turk (b. 1967), mosaicist Boris Anrep (1883-1969) and sculptor Sir Charles Wheeler (1892-1974).
A sculpture resembling a giant rusty nail stands at the New Change entrance to the shopping centre. The 2010 work by Gavin Turk, simply called Nail, seeks to connect past, present and future.
The nail represents the crafts and trades that once characterised this area and also connects with St Paul's Cathedral through its significance to the Crucifixion and to coffins. Rust signifies obsolescence and the inevitability of the destruction of manmade objects by nature.
On a more practical level, the artwork is tall and slim in order not to block what has become a well-loved view of the Cathedral and its reflections.
The shopping centre also has some surviving artworks originally made for the Bank of England building that was here from 1957 to 2007.
The basement is home to three mosaics by Boris Anrep, a Russian-born artist known for his mosaics in the National Gallery. His works at One New Change depict Elizabeth II (monarch when the Bank of England’s New Change building was opened), William and Mary (monarchs when the Bank of England was founded in 1694) and a rose, leek, shamrock and thistle (representing England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland).
A fourth Boris Anrep mosaic is now on the roof terrace. It depicts Ariel, a winged spirit representing the dynamic spirit of the Bank.
The roof terrace, or at least a glass structure on the roof, is also home to four sculptures carved by Charles Wheeler for the 1950s building. He had previously created all the stone carvings on the Bank of England’s main building, as well as the gilded statue of Ariel on its northwest corner (known as Tivoli Corner).
Wheeler’s works at New Change are two figures of St George (combatant, fighting the dragon, and triumphant, the vanquished dragon at his feet), flanked by two guardian lions.
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When One New Change opened in 2010, it formed an important part of the City of London Corporation’s efforts to widen the Square Mile’s appeal beyond business. It also sought to extend and reinvigorate Cheapside’s centuries old tradition of shopping and trading.
These aims are welcome and have been at least partially fulfilled, although the covid pandemic hit the shopping centre hard and there are still some empty units.
For me, the enjoyment in One New Change comes from its quirky angles and reflections, its hidden-in-plain-sight artworks and the wonderful views it offers of St Paul’s and London.
Click on any photo to enlarge
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
Fabulous photos!