Canary Wharf: Spectacular photos of skyscraper rediscovered

15 April 2023

The pyramid-shaped top of One Canada Square, decorated with flags, being lifted into place by crane while workers look on. — Image caption,
The photographs of the "topping out" ceremony at One Canada Square were rediscovered last year

Spectacular photographs of a Canary Wharf skyscraper being completed have been rediscovered more than 30 years after they were taken.

Amid strong winds, Tony Brien sat in a wooden box suspended by a crane some 250m above east London to capture the images of One Canada Square.

Previously believed to have been lost, the photographs were uncovered during a search of Mr Brien's archives.

He said he was "completely staggered" to find the photos from November 1990.

Mr Brien said he had worked on the Canary Wharf project before when he was approached to photograph the "topping out" of One Canada Square.

"I said 'fine', not realising quite at that time that the only way I could really do it was to go up in a bucket or a crate from the ground which was attached to a crane," he explained.

Mr Brien standing with his camera inside a small wooden box suspended high in the air by the crane.

Tony Brien

"I was waiting in the wind, hanging in this bucket, effectively, with every camera you could shake a stick at"

Mr Brien, from Felsted in Essex, said there were concerns about his safety on the day the pyramid was laid on top of the building, because of the strong winds.

He said: "I was waiting in the wind, hanging in this bucket, effectively, with every camera you could shake a stick at."

Seven steel workers look up into the air as the pyramid topper is lifted into place by the crane.

Tony Brien

Mr Brien said about 20 steel workers waited on several levels at the top of the building for the pyramid to be moved across "like a satellite"

"They had attached to it the union flag, United States flag and the Canadian flag," he said.

"It was all knotted up and I shouted across to him (a construction worker) 60ft away: 'Can you pull the flag out?' And he's tugging away trying to do it and then he eventually pulled the flag out.

"The images with that moment and the steel workers grappling with this - I don't know what it weighed, but quite a bit - hanging from another crane, was quite a scene."

A steel worker pulls at the Union Jack suspended from the pyramid top of One Canada Square.

Tony Brien

Mr Brien said he managed to get this shot in high winds after shouting at a worker to unknot the flag

Mr Brien explained that because he had moved studios several times, he thought he had lost the photos until six months ago.

"I was hunting for something else and I came across them and was completely staggered," he said.

A photograph showing steel workers attaching the pyramid top to the skyscraper, with the River Thames and city behind.

Tony Brien

One Canada Square was once the tallest skyscraper in the UK

"I'd often thought about the images and thought it was a terrible tragedy that they had never been seen. And to find them; I literally had to sit down... Thankfully I'd kept them properly and they were fine."