To protect public from sun’s rays, owners of Walkie Talkie ‘Fryscraper’ put up screen
Temporary screen is set to be erected to stop further damage from sunlight glaring off a new City skyscraper.
The half-finished 37-storey tower at 20 Fenchurch Street has been dubbed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ due to its distinctive shape.
But as Metro reported it is also being called the ‘Walkie Scorchie’ after it melted businessman Martin Lindsay’s Jaguar and produced enough heat to fry an egg.
Angry business owners in Eastcheap say the £200million project has blistered paintwork, caused tiles to smash and singed fabric.
Joint developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf previously said they were working to prevent the ‘phenomenon’, caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky, from taking place.
hey said in a joint statement on: ‘Following approval from the City of London, we will be erecting a temporary scaffold screen at street level on Eastcheap within the next 24 hours.
‘This solution should minimise the impact on the local area over the next two-to-three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared.
‘We are also continuing to evaluate longer-term solutions to ensure this issue does not recur in future.
We have liaised extensively with local businesses to keep them informed throughout. We have decided on this course of action with their input and agreement.’
They added that three parking bays would also remain suspended after cars parked in them were affected.
The new building was designed by Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Vinoly, who reportedly had similar problems with the Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas.
In 2010 guests complained of receiving severe burns from a ‘death ray’ of sunlight caused by the concave design of the building.
In London this week, Ali Akay, 22, of Re Style barbers, said the position of the sun at a certain time of the day caused a searing bolt of sunlight to start a small fire and burn a hole in his company doormat.
He said: ‘We were working and just saw the smoke coming out of the carpet. We tried to cut the fire down, there were customers in at the time and they were obviously not happy.
‘Customers are not going to come in if there is a fire in the front of the door.
‘It is getting really serious. This is a health and safety issue. They should have looked into this before they built it.’
Next door at the Viet Cafe, Diana Pham, 25, said they had suffered similar problems.
‘Yesterday it was very hot so there was a concentration of light here,’ she said.
‘We thought something was burning in the restaurant but it wasn’t, we searched everywhere. Then a customer came in and showed us.
‘A tile suddenly broke, the paint has bobbled too.
‘This is a problem… it can be dangerous for people. But I don’t know what they (the developers) can do about it.’
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