London's Baltic Exchange building moving--to Estonia!
It was one of Britain’s finest Edwardian buildings until an IRA bomb ripped through its Portland stone and red granite façade in 1992.
The Baltic Exchange, built in 1903 with an opulence befitting the headquarters of global maritime trade, could not be restored on site and its marble columns, teak panelling and plaster sea monsters made way for Sir Norman Foster’s Swiss Re tower – better known as the Gherkin.
After spending nearly a decade in various salvage yards around Britain, the former Grade II* listed building is set to rise again, this time on the shores of the Baltic itself. The dismantled building was bought for £800,000 by two businessmen from Estonia after one of them found an advertisement on the internet for the building while looking for antique flooring.
The last consignment of the 45 shipping crates containing the carefully catalogued remains of the exchange has now arrived in the Baltic seaport of Paldiski where it will be kept before being rebuilt in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The Baltic Exchange, built in 1903 with an opulence befitting the headquarters of global maritime trade, could not be restored on site and its marble columns, teak panelling and plaster sea monsters made way for Sir Norman Foster’s Swiss Re tower – better known as the Gherkin.
After spending nearly a decade in various salvage yards around Britain, the former Grade II* listed building is set to rise again, this time on the shores of the Baltic itself. The dismantled building was bought for £800,000 by two businessmen from Estonia after one of them found an advertisement on the internet for the building while looking for antique flooring.
The last consignment of the 45 shipping crates containing the carefully catalogued remains of the exchange has now arrived in the Baltic seaport of Paldiski where it will be kept before being rebuilt in Tallinn, the Estonian capital.