Crunching on credit

It was on this parade of shops in Whitechapel, London in the 1970s, in a kosher restaurant called Blooms, that I had my first gherkin.

The British call the cucumber a Wally which is a bit of a shame since - in shape at least - it has graced the gardens of the Chatsworth House stately home in Derbyshire, England.

In some weird twist of fate, the (slightly) uncouth vegetable turned totally luxe when someone decided to call Norman Foster's chic Swiss Re building in the City of London "The Gherkin".

 

But now thanks to Norm and financial journalist Chris Blackhurst, the small, bitter and not actually very pleasant gurka has come of age.

Writing in real estate magazine Estates Gazette [subscription required], Blackhurst turns Foster's building in to a ready reckoner for measuring demand and supply of office space in the City of London.

Everywhere I go, should I meet any property developer with an interest in the Square Mile, the chat quickly gets on to the Gherkin.

So we've had a warning of 40,000 City job losses - or the equivalent of eight Gherkins (500,000 sq ft each, at 100 sq ft per person).

Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers analyst Mike Prew has calculated that a total of "11 Gherkins" are being built by developers.

All hail the Gherkin!

The indigestible cucumber has become as august a measure as the Roman Mile or French meridional definition.

5000 people = 1 Gherkin

30 people = a nibble on an indigestible stalk end.

Image of Whitechapel High Street, courtesy of Danny McL. Chatsworth, courtesy of  Dr Loplop.  Gherkin packers in Bangalore, courtesy of Lefranz. Foster's Gherkin, courtesy of  acampm1.