In 1993 , NatWest had planned a major premises relocation that would have seen the International Banking Division move from the tower and be replaced with its Domestic Banking Division , enabling the bank to terminate its lease of the Drapers Gardens tower . These plans had to be abandoned after the tower was damaged in the April 1993 Bishopsgate bombing , a Provisional Irish Republican Army truck bombing in the Bishopsgate area of the City of London . The bomb killed one person and extensively damaged the tower and many other buildings in the vicinity , causing a total of over £ 1 billion worth of damage to the area . The tower suffered severe damage and had to be entirely reclad and internally refurbished at a cost of £ 75 million . ( Demolition was considered , but would have been too difficult and expensive . ) The external re-clad was carried out by Alternative Access Logistics with the use of a multi-deck space frame system to access three floors at once with the ability to move up and down the whole building . On 17 January 1996 , during the repairs and possibly from the welding being undertaken , a fire started at the top of the building . Five hundred workmen were evacuated and smoke was seen coming out of the top of the building . A helicopter using thermal imaging equipment pinpointed the source of the fire , which was on the 45th floor in a glass-fibre cooling tower . After refurbishment , NatWest decided not to re-occupy and renamed the building the '' ' International Financial Centre ' '' , then sold it
1993 Bishopsgate bombing
1993 Bishopsgate bombing
Tower 42