Walkie Talkie tower is full up

The City’s Walkie-Talkie skyscraper — one of the first to rise from the ashes of the financial crisis — is finally full up, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Representing a revival for the City’s property market, the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (Cisi) is poised to take the last space — the third floor — in the Rafael Vinoly-designed tower.

The move comes more than five years after property giant Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group formed a joint venture to develop the building in October 2010.

The Walkie-Talkie has been pitched against rival British Land’s nearby Cheesegrater in London’s insurance district, with agents battling fiercely for tenants in a market initially soured by the eurozone debt crisis and a sluggish economy until 2013.

But Land Securities has won the race to fill up first as the Cheesegrater still has four floors left to fill.

“When Land Securities said they were going to do this in 2010, a lot of the City analysts stood up and said they were mad. But they — and British Land — have been completely vindicated,” one industry insider said.

The tower was labelled the “Walkie-Scorchie” in 2013 as sun reflected from its concave surfaces melted bodywork on parked cars. The problem was fixed by fitting a permanent sunshade to the top of the 37-storey structure.

The building’s shape also meant the biggest — and most expensive floors — were near the top, giving it a major commercial advantage.

Commodities trader Castleton took the highest floor last year, paying nearly £90 a square foot. Other tenants include insurers such as Kiln and RSA. Land Securities and CWG declined to comment.