During a wave of development in the early 2000s, 40 Bank Street became one of the first six skyscrapers to be built on Canary Wharf after One Canada Square (along with 8 Canada Square, 25 Canada Square, One Churchill Place, 25 Bank Street, and 10 Upper Bank Street).[10] Immediately to the west of 40 Bank Street is 25 Bank Street, a skyscraper of the same height, while to the east is a shorter building, 50 Bank Street, which matches the style of 40 Bank Street.[7] These latter three buildings were all designed by Pelli and are connected by glass winter gardens.[7] 40 Bank Street connects to Jubilee Place, an underground shopping mall.[2]
40 Bank Street is the most slender of the three towers speculatively built by Canary Wharf Group on Heron Quays (the others being 25 Bank Street and One Churchill Place).[2] Whereas 25 Bank Street was designed in the International Style, 40 Bank Street is a modernist structure.[7][1] The building has uniformly spaced windows bounded by a light-coloured stone facade—recalling the 1980s-style buildings in the area—except for a glass section which runs along the side and onto the top of the structure.[7][8] The solid facade meets the glass curtain walls in such a way as to give the impression that two different buildings have been fused together, an effect that Pelli also employed at the World Financial Center in New York City.[2] The windows are slightly recessed from the facade, giving the illusion, in certain lightning, that the windows are hollow openings.[11] The proportion between the window openings along the curtain wall was chosen in order to emphasise the height of the building.[8]
Construction on 40 Bank Street began in 2000 and was completed in 2003.[9][2] The curtain walls were manufactured by Permasteelisa.[8] In 2023, Canary Wharf Group completed renovations of the lobby, including security updates.[3]
In 2022, Canary Wharf Group began offering fully-fitted office space at 40 Bank Street, with Citibank being its first customer.[17][18][19][5] In 2023, HVIVO, a research group specialising in human trials signed a ten-year lease for 39,000 square feet of office space at 40 Bank Street.[5]
^ abcdeWright, Herbert (2006). "40 Bank Street". London High: A Guide to the Past, Present and Future of London's Skycrapers. Frances Lincoln. pp. 203–204.