0:00:05 > 0:00:07I am halfway up the outside of an inside-out building.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10No work of architecture better expresses London's dual status
0:00:10 > 0:00:14as a capital of cutting-edge culture and as an economic machine.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16This is the Lloyd's Building.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21This is Climbing Great Buildings and throughout this series
0:00:21 > 0:00:24I'll be scaling our most iconic and best loved structures,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27from the Normans to the present day.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30I'll reveal the building's secrets and tell the story
0:00:30 > 0:00:36of how British architecture and construction developed over 1,000 years.
0:00:48 > 0:00:49The Lloyd's Building is home
0:00:49 > 0:00:52to the world's most famous insurance market.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54It takes its name from Edward Lloyd
0:00:54 > 0:00:58who founded a coffee shop about half a mile or so from here in 1688.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02It's a long journey from mere coffee house to global institution,
0:01:02 > 0:01:05but today this bastion of history and tradition
0:01:05 > 0:01:08is housed in the most futuristic-looking of buildings.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Like a giant machine looming over the City of London.
0:01:13 > 0:01:17In order to explore the world of modern high-tech architecture,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19I'm going to climb up this mammoth structure.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23I'll be bouncing off the walls to get a unique view
0:01:23 > 0:01:25of the building's futuristic design.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Look at that. What a view! That's amazing.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Getting up close and personal with the sanitation system.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32I'm cuddling a sewage pipe.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Oh! Oh, it's the toilets. Yeah.
0:01:35 > 0:01:41And abseiling 236ft down the building's colossal atrium.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45As ever, I'll be joined by one of Britain's best climbers, Lucy Creamer.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49And a team of riggers, an intrepid cameraman, Ian Burton,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52on my quest to discover the secrets behind
0:01:52 > 0:01:55one of London's most striking and controversial buildings.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02At the end of the 17th century, London recovered from its Great Fire
0:02:02 > 0:02:05as a hub for maritime commerce.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08With that came an increasing need for ship insurance.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10Lloyd's Coffee House became a popular meeting place
0:02:10 > 0:02:15for sailors, merchants and ship owners to discuss insurance deals.
0:02:15 > 0:02:16Over 300 years later,
0:02:16 > 0:02:21Lloyd's of London has grown into the most established insurance market in the world.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27In 1978, Lloyd's of London found their old headquarters
0:02:27 > 0:02:30here on Lime Street cramped and outdated.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34So they sought consultancy advice from six architectural practices
0:02:34 > 0:02:37on what their best options might be.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41The people who came forward most strongly were headed by Richard Rogers,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43but Lloyd's were concerned about taking Rogers on,
0:02:43 > 0:02:47because he'd only recently finished the Centre Georges Pompidou
0:02:47 > 0:02:48in the middle of Paris,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50a brightly coloured and avant garde building.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53Is that the kind of style they really wanted?
0:02:53 > 0:02:56But they took a risk and the result was this.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Britain's most dynamic and controversial building of the age.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07Construction on the foundations started in 1980.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11The building would provide some 600,000 square feet of office space.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14And it was to become something of a modern landmark in the city.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19Now this isn't like any other building we've climbed. It's not.
0:03:19 > 0:03:25I feel like we're in some sort of Pink Floyd video or something from the Seventies.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29It is more like a machine than a building. Yeah, it is.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Isn't it? Yeah. Like some giant piece of equipment.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36Or something from War Of The Worlds. Yeah. I know exactly...
0:03:36 > 0:03:40You can imagine it getting up and walking away like a giant robot.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44It's so complex looking. Legs and tentacles everywhere.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48Underlying its machine-like look is a pretty ruthless logic. Right.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50And I think one of our tasks
0:03:50 > 0:03:53is to get to grips with why it's designed this way.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Yeah, I'm intrigued.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58There's always a reason and this is celebrated as a masterpiece,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00so it's got to be good. Yeah.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02We've got to find out why. All right.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06I'm climbing up what's known as Tower One,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09which reaches a height of around 300 feet.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13It's one of six towers which surround the core of the building.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16One of the tower's key features is its use of steel.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19I want to get a closer look at this material.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23It's a totally new thing for us to see steel like this.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25Wow. Isn't it? Yeah, it is.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27It's like the outside of a fridge.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30A giant fridge door or something.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33So far, our 20th century buildings, like the Liver Building,
0:04:33 > 0:04:36which was concrete frame covered in granite
0:04:36 > 0:04:40and Coventry, which again was concrete but covered in stone.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Now we've got an industrial material
0:04:43 > 0:04:46that has no particular belonging to a place. No.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Or any natural quality.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50It's about purely machine-made.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Given that Lloyd's started out by insuring ships,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Rogers' choice of steel to clad the facade of his modern structure
0:04:59 > 0:05:00is very appropriate.
0:05:00 > 0:05:06It was after all the material that built some of the world's biggest ocean liners.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11See those boxes stacked one above the other up there like shipping containers? Yeah?
0:05:11 > 0:05:14They do look like large containers.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18Well, they're all linked by this giant pipe. Yeah.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Do you know what it's for?
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Erm... Rubbish bin, I've got no idea.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25I'll give you a clue. I'm cuddling a sewage pipe.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Oh, no! It's the toilets! Yeah.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33The Lloyd's Building is popularly known as the Inside-Out Building,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35because it puts everything on display
0:05:35 > 0:05:39from the staircases to the soil and ventilation pipes.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45The term coined to describe this type of architecture is "high-tech".
0:05:46 > 0:05:49High-tech was pioneered in Paris
0:05:49 > 0:05:52in the Pompidou Centre also designed by Richard Rogers
0:05:52 > 0:05:55with his then accomplice, the Italian Renzo Piano.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Putting the services on the outside
0:05:59 > 0:06:01left more display space on the inside.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04The same approach has been used here at Lloyd's.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06It was the first time any building in Britain
0:06:06 > 0:06:09had taken this radical step.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11Hey, Lu, you've got a long rope.
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Shall we give it a bounce
0:06:12 > 0:06:15and see if we can see the whole facade of the building?
0:06:15 > 0:06:17Bounce-back? Yeah. Yeah, let's do it.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Let's make the street emerge, shall we? OK.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Are you ready, Ian Burton? Are you ready, Lucy Creamer?
0:06:22 > 0:06:26I'm ready. In three, two, one, it's the Lloyd's bounce.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Woo-hoo! Look at that.
0:06:31 > 0:06:32Wahey! Oh, no.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Wahey!
0:06:42 > 0:06:44I've now climbed 182ft
0:06:44 > 0:06:47and I've reached the seventh floor of this massive structure.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Did you enjoy that? I did, really.
0:06:51 > 0:06:52Phew!
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Well that's quite a height already, Lu.
0:06:54 > 0:06:55I think we made a dent in that.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Yeah, well, hopefully we didn't actually make a dent in it.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Yeah, not literally. Metaphorically.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09Completed in 1988,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12this is the fourth building to house Lloyd's of London.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21I want to find out more
0:07:21 > 0:07:24about what Lloyd's wanted out of their brand new building
0:07:24 > 0:07:26when it was first commissioned.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30And what better way to do this than to meet the architect who designed it.
0:07:30 > 0:07:31There were two criteria.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Number one was flexibility.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Lloyd's had been in four buildings in under 50 years
0:07:37 > 0:07:41and every time they'd designed a building something had happened,
0:07:41 > 0:07:45they grew too fast, there wasn't enough space for mechanical services.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47So this was going to be the fourth.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49They said "We're not in the building business,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52"we want a building that will last into the next century."
0:07:52 > 0:07:55The other thing is this is a market. It's a market space.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57As traders we want to be able to see each other.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59It has to have an atrium in the middle.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Now why are all the services on the outside of the building?
0:08:02 > 0:08:04Quite a radical thing to do.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08Part of the building that goes out of date quickly is the mechanical services.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13The engine of the car, the ship, it breaks down before the rest does.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15You remove it outside, you can get to it,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18you don't have to close the building down. Work can continue.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23And you don't stop people working by having builders or plumbers inside their building,
0:08:23 > 0:08:24so you put all that on the outside,
0:08:24 > 0:08:28so you have a juxtaposition between the service towers and the buildings.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30There's a dialogue between these two.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37I'm at the start of my second climb here on Tower Five
0:08:37 > 0:08:41because this is where Rogers' functional inside-out design
0:08:41 > 0:08:43really comes to life.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46We also see here how Richard Rogers was way ahead of the game
0:08:46 > 0:08:50in designing this building when it came to protecting the environment.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54But the environment's not the only thing that needs saving. Slowly.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56This is all a bit awkward.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00It's proving a little bit tricky to get to grips with my second climb.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03If I can get around here...
0:09:05 > 0:09:09The point was to get you round this side to look at these pipes. They're funky pipes.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11They are funky pipes. I like funky pipes.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14They're like some sort of giant robot's ribs.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18What they do is very clever indeed. Industrial looks off-putting.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22It looks like it's energy producing but these are all energy-saving.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24This building is triple-glazed. Right.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28The point of the pipes is that they take out stale air
0:09:28 > 0:09:32which is warmed through the triple-glazed glass. Yeah.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33They pump back in fresh air
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and that means that in winter the building hardly loses any heat
0:09:36 > 0:09:39and in summer it keeps it at a pretty even temperature,
0:09:39 > 0:09:40so it doesn't gain too much.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42I want one. You do! I do!
0:09:44 > 0:09:48It is a machine. It's constantly changing, working and... Breathing.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52Yeah, it is. Blowing out air, breathing in air.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55Yeah. It's so busy it becomes part of the dynamic environment
0:09:55 > 0:09:57that these people work in.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00One of the defining features of the building's exterior
0:10:00 > 0:10:05is the array of 12 lifts gliding up and down all around us.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Ian, have a look over there where the lifts are.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10Get a sense of the dynamism of this place. Have a look.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14People on view going up and down in this building. Oh, yeah.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Beautiful. They're great, aren't they?
0:10:18 > 0:10:21They're the first in Britain on the outside of the building. Right.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29They are fast. Aren't they great?
0:10:29 > 0:10:33They say that architecture is theatre.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37As soon as you start thinking this is a machine, it's industrial.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39Then you see thrilling things like that
0:10:39 > 0:10:41and you think actually it's very humane
0:10:41 > 0:10:42because it involves people.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44It shows them the whole view of London.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46It reminds them where they are.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49It's quite generous in that respect.
0:10:57 > 0:10:58It's got windy again.
0:10:58 > 0:11:00We've reached the end of the second climb
0:11:00 > 0:11:03but there's still more to discover at the top
0:11:03 > 0:11:06where we can see how Rogers has once again designed this building
0:11:06 > 0:11:07with the future in mind.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Amongst a ring of towers around the core of the Lloyd's Building
0:11:12 > 0:11:14are several of these service towers.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17They look for all the world like great shipping containers.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20They're bigger than they were intended to be
0:11:20 > 0:11:24because it's not just the lift services in there
0:11:24 > 0:11:26and air-conditioning, but electrics too.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29In 1980, only about 4% of Lloyds' staff
0:11:29 > 0:11:32had new-fangled things like computers.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36But Rogers and his staff knew that there was about to be an explosion
0:11:36 > 0:11:38of information technology, can you imagine?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41And so the scale of the services was increased
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and the provision of electric cables massively improved
0:11:45 > 0:11:48and this building was made fit for the future.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51OK, Lu, we're off.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Let's lead the charge up the service tower.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01Rogers kept these giant blue cranes at the top both as a feature,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05but also because the building's designed to be modified in the future.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10The highest crane sits at 312ft on top of the north-west tower.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11That's where I'm headed now.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16There's no better place to get a good look at the building's layout.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21It also gives us a chance to take in some of the sights of the great city of London.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26Well that's it, Lu.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28Look at that! Wow!
0:12:28 > 0:12:30That is a view of London to die for.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34It's amazing!
0:12:34 > 0:12:35And windy!
0:12:41 > 0:12:43Hold on, Lu!
0:12:43 > 0:12:44I am!
0:12:44 > 0:12:47It's like being on a motorbike at 70.
0:12:47 > 0:12:48What?
0:12:50 > 0:12:52"What did he say? I'm 70?"
0:12:53 > 0:12:55Woo-hoo! Gosh.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Oh, we're being pummelled.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Here at the top we can make sense of the plan of the building.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10So now we've found a shelter from the wind, it's time to draw.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15On plan, it's quite a simple building really.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19It's like, if you think of it as being a square doughnut. Right.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23If you take the basic idea as being like this
0:13:23 > 0:13:26with that atrium in the middle. Yeah.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30And then around the outside, are all the offices and galleries. Yeah.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33I don't know if that reminds you of anything?
0:13:33 > 0:13:36Maybe that we've seen before on our many travels?
0:13:36 > 0:13:40A ring with towers around the outside?
0:13:40 > 0:13:43What about Caernarfon? My mind's bl... Yeah.
0:13:43 > 0:13:44I did think castle.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Richard Rogers had the idea, he studied concentric castles
0:13:47 > 0:13:51and thought that if you could free up the space on the inside
0:13:51 > 0:13:54and then have all of the services and towers around the outside,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57much as Caernarfon had those courtyards.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02Or wards. And then everything was stuck in towers around the outside, similar thing.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05Amazing how that concept leaps the centuries.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09The Lloyd's building can be seen as Rogers' modern-day castle,
0:14:09 > 0:14:13but his design was also influenced by the surrounding buildings.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16One rectangular giant doughnut, that's all very well.
0:14:16 > 0:14:17But there are adjacent buildings
0:14:17 > 0:14:21and they had what are called rights of ancient lights. Right.
0:14:21 > 0:14:23Which means...
0:14:23 > 0:14:26They don't want their light obscured.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Absolutely. They don't want it to be interrupted so...
0:14:28 > 0:14:33The ancient right of lights nibbled away the south side
0:14:33 > 0:14:36and it ended up rather more stepped. Ah!
0:14:36 > 0:14:40So what you end up with then, is the tower has been more fully expressed
0:14:40 > 0:14:42and the south side nibbled away
0:14:42 > 0:14:45so that the southern elevation
0:14:45 > 0:14:49with this great cathedral-like cliff of glass
0:14:49 > 0:14:53is the result of having responded to historic buildings on the site.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56It makes it much more dynamic, interesting, responsive.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00And really getting a sense of how that final arrangement was arrived at... Yeah.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03..Is the point I think of this little journey.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05I'm now going to traverse
0:15:05 > 0:15:09from the 312ft north-west tower over the atrium,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12so I can get a bird's-eye view of the building's arrangement.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15But I'll need to be careful along the way.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18Right, well, it's not going to be the fastest zip this one,
0:15:18 > 0:15:23cos obviously we don't want to crash into the crane on the other side.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26But I think we're going to enjoy the views. Yeah? Yeah.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And it will help us get a real sense of the building
0:15:29 > 0:15:31and how it all slots together. Well, I hope so.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34You don't normally get the aerial view but that's where the plan
0:15:34 > 0:15:39that the architect puts on paper normally retains its expression
0:15:39 > 0:15:41as it comes through the roof.
0:15:42 > 0:15:43OK, let's go, shall we?
0:15:46 > 0:15:47OK.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51Doctor Foyle. Ma'am?
0:15:51 > 0:15:56I think you've had way too many weeks of initiation.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58It's your turn to take the plunge.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01You chucking me off first? Lead the way, yeah.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Are you happy with that?
0:16:03 > 0:16:06OK? Right, go for it.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Woo-hoo!
0:16:09 > 0:16:10Ha ha!
0:16:11 > 0:16:12Yeah!
0:16:12 > 0:16:14That's amazing!
0:16:14 > 0:16:16Awesome!
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Now the whole thing makes sense.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Woo-hoo!
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Oh, wow!
0:16:25 > 0:16:27That's cool.
0:16:27 > 0:16:28Wahey!
0:16:30 > 0:16:31Thanks!
0:16:33 > 0:16:35That was brilliant actually.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36Yeah. Wasn't that great?
0:16:36 > 0:16:38Yeah. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40You've turned me into an adrenaline...
0:16:40 > 0:16:42Adrenaline, what is it?
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Adrenaline... A gibbering wreck?
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Pretty cool view as well.
0:16:49 > 0:16:50Now, have a look.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54See, here's the building at full height
0:16:54 > 0:16:57and the atrium sails through towards the south.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00But look where it starts to step down.
0:17:00 > 0:17:01Oh, yeah, I see.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04See? And there are doors and gantries and walkways.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08See the cranes up here are 50 metres higher than down there.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10Yeah.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12So the whole lot steps down.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Up here looking down at this striking structure,
0:17:19 > 0:17:21it's hard to believe that Rogers' building
0:17:21 > 0:17:25had a negative public reaction when it was first constructed.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26But it wasn't the first time
0:17:26 > 0:17:29this had happened to one of London's landmark buildings.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Buildings are of their time.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34All good buildings are modern of their time.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36We get used to it, whether it's St Paul's...
0:17:36 > 0:17:39St Paul's had much worse problems being accepted by the public
0:17:39 > 0:17:41than we had with this.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44And we had some serious problems when this building was opened
0:17:44 > 0:17:46because there was a considerable resistance outside.
0:17:46 > 0:17:47Now this is seen to be
0:17:47 > 0:17:51one of the pioneering examples of high-tech architecture
0:17:51 > 0:17:54which you are recognised as the daddy.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56What is high-tech? I never know.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58I never made that statement.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02I suppose this building was built at a time
0:18:02 > 0:18:05when most modern buildings were glass boxes.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09I think this broke down the building into components and so on
0:18:09 > 0:18:12in a functional mode in response to changing needs,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14but also in response, like all architecture,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17we try to give rhythm, we try to give poetry,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20we try to give beauty as well as function. So you marry these two.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24In that sense it's no different to a Gothic or Classical building.
0:18:24 > 0:18:2825 years after this was completed,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31how do you look back on the building, how do you view it now?
0:18:31 > 0:18:33I'm very proud of this building.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Very proud. We had a fantastic team and a great client.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39If there is quality which I hope there is in this building,
0:18:39 > 0:18:43it's the joining together of client, architect, technology
0:18:43 > 0:18:46and the environment we set the building in.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54I've explored the exterior of Rogers' landmark building
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and now I want to see how his hi-tech design is engineered
0:18:57 > 0:19:00to meet the needs of those who work within.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05To achieve this, I'm going to abseil over 200ft down the atrium.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Oh, boy. We're in trouble, Lu.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13It's a vast space, isn't it?
0:19:13 > 0:19:15This is probably about as high as St Paul's all over again.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17I shall face my fears straight off
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and I shall not be a gibbering wreck holding on squirrel fashion.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24Let's go for it. Let's try, and see what happens.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29The Lloyd's Building has 130,000 square feet of glass to keep clean.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Reached using this gantry.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33But I'm going to use it for something else.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36The gantry is going to roll over and bring the ropes to us.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Well we haven't had that before. We haven't.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41We've had to go to the ropes.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44But here the ropes come to us. It's all very convenient.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48But I guess in a building like this, maintenance is such an issue.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52How else do you clean the inside of those giant glass windows?
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Unless you've got some kind of cradle.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19Now we have to make our way down through this cradle
0:20:19 > 0:20:22to get to a point where we can launch ourselves off.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24It reminds me of a couple of phrases that involve cradle.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26One is cradle of civilisation,
0:20:26 > 0:20:29when you look over the City of London, it kind of rings true.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32The other is cradle to grave - I don't even want to think about that.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36This, standing on a cradle like this,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39there's no normal geography to me of a cradle.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43I can't really figure what's firm surface and what's...
0:20:43 > 0:20:45There's nowhere to stand, there's no floor.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50Shall we? Shall we go over the edge?
0:20:50 > 0:20:52Yes. Nice and gently.
0:20:52 > 0:20:54Right then, I'll let myself off the edge.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57As if I'm slipping into a warm bath.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01That's quite a bath. How high is this, guys?
0:21:01 > 0:21:04It's about 200 feet. 200 feet?
0:21:04 > 0:21:06OK, next stop, 200 feet.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22Wow. That's actually a thing of beauty.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24This is where I start to enjoy it.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Now that I'm comfortably suspended in the atrium
0:21:26 > 0:21:28I can take in all of its wonders.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30Divided into 12 levels
0:21:30 > 0:21:33with escalators going up to the fourth floor,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37the atrium is the heart of Rogers' masterpiece.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Even though we're inside a modern cutting-edge building,
0:21:40 > 0:21:42from this perspective it's hard to ignore
0:21:42 > 0:21:45how this structure relates to the past.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50Impressive space, Lu, isn't it? Yeah, awesome.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54Really, really awesome in fact.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56I'm getting St Paul's again.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Are you? Yeah, I'm getting that St Paul's feeling.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01It's a comparable scale.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Even if it's not the round shape but it's a rectangle,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07it's got exactly that dramatic vertical space
0:22:07 > 0:22:09which goes beyond any practical need.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11But this is like a cathedral of commerce.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14That's one way of looking at it. It feels that way.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18One of the most prominent features of the atrium
0:22:18 > 0:22:21is the six giant concrete columns that support it.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24Rogers originally intended for them to be made of steel,
0:22:24 > 0:22:28but due to fire safety concerns, he had to make them out of concrete.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32The final product was still modern, yet with a powerful grandeur.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35It's a very Gothic feeling space too, I think.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38The way in which the skeleton of the building is exposed
0:22:38 > 0:22:40around a really pure form,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44so you've got this rectangle of big space,
0:22:44 > 0:22:48but around it are these elements of support.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52Big shafts like a giant skeleton.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It's almost like they've tried to make the concrete pillars
0:22:55 > 0:22:58look like kind of stone pillars that you might find in a cathedral.
0:22:58 > 0:22:59They remind me of that.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I think he's made a virtue of the fact he had to use concrete.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06You tend to think of concrete as being just giant elephants' legs everywhere.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09It's just crude and it's rough and it's ugly,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12but it's beautifully textured, this stuff.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16The whole lot was poured in one go so that you get that uniformity.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29That chandelier is just ridiculous!
0:23:29 > 0:23:31This office is totally...
0:23:31 > 0:23:34They've made it. Chandelier, pink furniture. Need comfort!
0:23:34 > 0:23:35It's like a real emotional plea.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37It does look a bit incongruous though.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44I'm admiring this building a good deal.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46You just look at every little inch of it.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48Every facet is so carefully thought through.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52Incredible! Modern building often suffers from the idea
0:23:52 > 0:23:54that old buildings are made using craftsmanship
0:23:54 > 0:23:58and modern buildings are just thrown up industrially. Yeah.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01But actually, the level of care and thought
0:24:01 > 0:24:04in a building of this quality is absolutely comparable.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10That's amazing to lay on your back and just look at that roof.
0:24:10 > 0:24:11Yeah.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16Up here I have a unique perspective of Rogers' cathedral of commerce.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19What's more, with an empty trading floor,
0:24:19 > 0:24:21we're given a rare opportunity to really take in
0:24:21 > 0:24:23all of this magnificent space
0:24:23 > 0:24:26without the hustle and bustle of daily business.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The atrium shows us that Rogers designed a space
0:24:32 > 0:24:36to accommodate constant changes in the financial market.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39A central requirement in the design of this building
0:24:39 > 0:24:42was to create a trading floor.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46It's called the Room from the early origins of Lloyd's in a coffee house
0:24:46 > 0:24:50which allowed it to expand and contract as the market suited.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53So these open levels, not just the ground floor,
0:24:53 > 0:24:58but one, two, three mezzanine levels all just open-plan office space
0:24:58 > 0:25:00linked by those fabulous,
0:25:00 > 0:25:04transparent, yellow, black and grey escalators
0:25:04 > 0:25:06that link the spaces together,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09so that people can freely travel between them as traders need to.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13And if the market then becomes an expansive one, a growing one,
0:25:13 > 0:25:18you can simply open up more floors and add the escalators as you need.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21It's answering that need to make the building flexible,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25which makes this design so remarkable.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31Whee! Ha ha!
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Oh, boy! That's quite a good one.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39# He flies through the air with the greatest of ease. #
0:25:42 > 0:25:45All right, I'm going.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Whee!
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Wow!
0:25:50 > 0:25:52That was a fun slow swing.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I'm almost at the end of my abseil and at the bottom,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08as if marking the altar in Rogers' cathedral
0:26:08 > 0:26:12is a small piece of history with a strong connection to Lloyd's past.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16It's nice to get face-to-face with the Lutine Bell.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18Yes, it looks quite old.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22The bell is taken from a French ship called the Lutine,
0:26:22 > 0:26:27which was captured by the English and it was ours till 1799. Wow!
0:26:27 > 0:26:31And then the thing sunk with a gold cargo insured by Lloyd's.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33Of course, "would like it back."
0:26:33 > 0:26:3550 years on there is a dive on it
0:26:35 > 0:26:37and they came up with the Lutine Bell.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39They just found the bell?
0:26:39 > 0:26:41On finding the bell a tradition began whereby
0:26:41 > 0:26:45whenever there was news of a ship that hadn't returned on time,
0:26:45 > 0:26:46the bell would be rung.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51Once if the ship had sunk and twice if it had safely come back.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55It's only used now for major international disasters like 9/11.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Asian tsunami, that kind of thing.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00But the losses of ships are still recorded down there.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Look. On those giant books. They are giant books.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Fitting really for this building.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22I enjoyed the Lloyd's Building,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26it's a modern Gothic masterpiece with all of the spatial excitement
0:27:26 > 0:27:30and the inside-out structural honesty of a medieval cathedral.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34It's still fresh looking, but it's now 25 or so years old
0:27:34 > 0:27:36and there's a debate being had
0:27:36 > 0:27:38as to whether it should be listed and preserved,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40because this modern masterpiece
0:27:40 > 0:27:43is itself becoming an historic building.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:17 > 0:28:21E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk