City Hall

Workers are still unpacking boxes inside London's newest seat of power, three years after the Mayor and London Assembly made their dramatic escape from one of the world's most expensive civic buildings. You're standing outside The Crystal, a striking glass-clad angular structure that became City Hall in 2022, saving Londoners a staggering £55 million over five years compared to the eye-watering rent on Norman Foster's famous egg-shaped building by Tower Bridge. The street beneath your feet tells an extraordinary story that nearly vanished from history. Kamal Chunchie Way was chosen by over 1,500 voting Londoners to honor a Sri Lankan pioneer who founded 'The Coloured Men's Institute' right here in the Royal Docks back in 1926. Chunchie spent his life savings helping discriminated ethnic-minority sailors and their families, creating London's first major race relations organization just steps from where you stand. Inside this Perkins & Will-designed structure, the sleek glass walls and modern exhibition spaces couldn't be more different from the traditional oak-paneled chambers most people expect from government buildings. The Royal Docks location isn't accidental - this regenerating area represents Mayor Sadiq Khan's vision of moving London's political center eastward, closer to the diverse communities that make up modern London rather than the historic power corridors of Westminster.