Why did a London skyscraper once accidentally melt cars on the street
It sounds like science fiction, but a simple design flaw turned a London skyscraper into a giant heat-ray, concentrating sunlight with enough power to melt cars and famously fry an egg on the pavement below.
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TLDR: A London skyscraper’s curved glass facade acted like a giant magnifying glass, concentrating the sun's rays into a powerful beam that was hot enough to melt cars parked on the street below. A permanent sunshade was installed to fix it.
The Walkie-Talkie's Death Ray: Why Did a London Skyscraper Once Accidentally Melt Cars?
Imagine parking your luxury car in central London on a sunny day, only to return and find parts of it have literally melted. This isn't the plot of a science fiction movie; it was the bizarre reality for several vehicle owners in the summer of 2013. The culprit was no arsonist, but one of the city's newest and most distinctive skyscrapers. The building, officially named 20 Fenchurch Street but widely known as the "Walkie-Talkie," earned a new, more menacing nickname: the "Walkie-Scorchie." This post will delve into the unique architectural design and the simple physics that explain why a London skyscraper once accidentally melted cars on the street below.
The Incident: A Hot Spot in the City
In late August 2013, reports began to surface of strange damage occurring on Eastcheap Street, located directly south of the then-under-construction 20 Fenchurch Street. The most famous case involved businessman Martin Lindsay, who returned to his Jaguar XJ to find its wing mirror, panels, and badge had warped and melted in the heat.
But it wasn't just cars. Local businesses reported:
- Singed doormats.
- Cracked tiles on their storefronts.
- A bicycle seat that had melted.
- Reporters even managed to fry an egg in a pan placed in the hot spot.
Journalists with thermometers recorded temperatures in the concentrated sunbeam reaching over 117°C (243°F). The phenomenon was so intense and predictable that the City of London Corporation agreed to suspend three parking bays in the area to prevent further damage.
The Architectural Culprit: An Unintentional Solar Concentrator
So, what turned a state-of-the-art building into a solar weapon? The answer lies in its award-winning, yet problematic, design by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly.
The Walkie-Talkie's signature feature is its unconventional shape; it flares outwards as it rises. Crucially, its south-facing facade is not flat but deeply concave, curving inwards like a giant satellite dish. This entire curved surface was clad in highly reflective glass.
This combination of shape and material created a perfect storm. The concave facade acted as a massive parabolic mirror. When the sun was at a specific height in the sky (for about two hours each day during that time of year), the building collected the sun's rays and focused them onto a single, concentrated point on the street below, creating an intense, moving beam of light and heat. It was, in effect, a giant magnifying glass aimed at the city.
The Science Behind the 'Death Ray'
The physics at play are straightforward. A flat mirror reflects light at the same angle it hits, scattering it. A convex (outwardly curved) mirror spreads light out over a wide area. However, a concave (inwardly curved) mirror, like the one on the Walkie-Talkie, causes parallel rays of light to converge at a single focal point.
While computer modeling is a standard part of modern architecture, reports at the time suggested that the solar reflection analysis may not have fully accounted for the sun's position at every time of day and year. Interestingly, the same architect’s Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas had previously encountered a similar issue, creating a "death ray" that scorched sunbathers by the pool.
The Solution and Aftermath
The developers, Landsec and Canary Wharf Group, responded quickly. They paid for the damage to Mr. Lindsay's Jaguar and erected a temporary screen at street level to block the beam.
For a permanent fix, the building was retrofitted in 2014 with a "brise soleil," a French term for "sun-breaker." This structure, a series of horizontal aluminum fins running across the building's southern face, was specifically engineered to diffuse the sunlight. It effectively breaks up the sun's rays before they can be focused by the curved glass, neutralizing the "death ray" effect for good.
Conclusion
The case of the car-melting skyscraper is a fascinating and powerful real-world lesson in architecture, physics, and unintended consequences. The Walkie-Talkie’s unique concave design, combined with its reflective glass facade, inadvertently created a solar concentrator that was powerful enough to warp metal and plastic on the street below. While the issue was resolved with a clever engineering solution, the incident remains a striking reminder of the need to model for every environmental variable. It proves that even with modern technology, the immense power of the sun can still find surprising and dramatic ways to make its presence felt in our urban landscapes.
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