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- HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf to undergo transformation with new design features
- Man arrested for hiding father’s body in wardrobe to claim pension in Spain
- Berlin voters prepare for state parliament elections amid competitive polls
- Michelle Bachelet withdraws from UN secretary-general race following low support
- Carney and Macron to hold meeting in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon on Sunday
- Trump announces the creation of an AI Force to support technology growth
- Funeral held for couple who died in hot tub incident in Spain
- Dutch police clash with far-right protesters in The Hague rally
Hunt for Tube hero who gave blind man his shoes after he lost one through the gap The hunt is on find an ‘absolute hero’
Get you up to speed: London’s HSBC tower turned into ‘Swiss Cheese’ complete with holes | News UK
Qatar Investment Authority and Canary Wharf Group submitted proposals to Tower Hamlets Council to transform the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf into a mixed-use development. The redevelopment is set to include a 181-room hotel, leisure facilities, and restaurants, with an estimated cost between £800 million and £1 billion.
HSBC’s lease on the tower expires in 2024, with renovation plans anticipated to commence in 2028 after the bank vacates the building. The proposed transformation could cost between £800 million and £1 billion, with designs featuring staggered terraces and public access to rooftop views.
Canary Wharf Group (CWG) and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have submitted proposals to Tower Hamlets Council to redevelop the HSBC Tower into a mixed-use development, which will include a hotel, restaurants, and office space. Following HSBC’s anticipated departure in 2027, demolition of the building’s interiors is set to take place in 2028, with no completion date specified for the redevelopment.
What remains unclear — No official completion date has been shared for the HSBC tower’s redevelopment.
HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf to undergo transformation with new design features
Canary Wharf’s iconic HSBC Tower is the next major London landmark to undergo a massive transformation.
HSBC’s lease on the building expires next year, and the banking giant is expected to move into the City of London, leaving the iconic London tower up for grabs.
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Canary Wharf Group (CWG) submitted the proposals to Tower Hamlets Council, revealing plans to transform the 45-storey tower into a mixed-use development.
It will reportedly include a 181-room hotel, restaurants, leisure facilities, and some office space. Reports also suggest the transformation will cost between £800,000,000 and £1,000,000,000.
Chunks of the tower’s upper floors will be cut away to create terraces throughout the building – creating the appearance of holes and drawing comparisons between the design and Swiss cheese – as well as a publicly accessible rooftop venue that will offer panoramic views of London.
The ground floors of the tower will see the addition of a walkway cutting through the building to link the Elizabeth line station with Canada Square Park.
Office space will make up the middle of the building, designed to house multiple occupants rather than just one.
According to The Banker, asset management company BlackRock is already eyeing up the space.
Meanwhile, the top floors of the tower will feature the staggered terraces as well as a large glass box called ‘The Cloud’ that will function as an event space with restaurants and bars, while also offering panoramic views of the city.
When will the HSBC revamp begin?
The HSBC tower will be stripped of its interiors once the banking giant leaves the building in 2027, and the renovation is expected to begin in 2028.
No official completion date has been shared.
Shobi Khan, CEO of CWG, said in a statement on its website: ‘We look forward to working with QIA on 8 Canada Square to deliver a building of outstanding design, engineering and sustainability standards.
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‘This redevelopment is another step in Canary Wharf’s evolution into a vibrant mixed-use neighbourhood offering workspace, retail, homes, leisure and amenities all in one location – a true 15-minute city.’
Elie Gamburg, of architectural practice Kohn Pedersen Fox – which is leading the revamp – said: ‘We are extremely excited to collaborate with QIA and CWG to reimagine the single-use office building as a blueprint for the highly sustainable, mixed-use building of the future.
‘This transformation embodies the ethos behind much of our work, we see it as an integral part of the evolution of today’s single-use neighbourhoods into vibrant mixed-use neighbourhoods of tomorrow – an evolution of which CWG is already leading the way.’
What other buildings are coming to London?
A lot, actually.
In fact, the HSBC tower isn’t the only London landmark transforming into a hotel.
The iconic BT Tower is also being transformed into a posh hotel with a rooftop swimming pool, a 360-degree revolving observation deck, and lots of new retail space.
Meanwhile, the City of London is about to get a brand-new £1,000,000,000 skyscraper offering panoramic views of the city, as well as the ‘highest bar in London’.
In south London, several new skyscrapers are being built in Vauxhall that will include homes, student accommodation, another hotel, and retail and leisure amenities.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
The Tech Titan Who Led His Company From a 68-Square-Foot Jail Cell
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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