Aldgate Office Space

Those choosing to rent office space in Aldgate are opting for a location rich in history and deep cultural roots. This space where modernity meets heritage brings an eclectic range of amenities, including pop-ups, art galleries, and rooftop bars.

Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive London Wall around the City of London on its eastern side. To the east of the gate was countryside, evidenced by the 19th Aldgate Pump monument, commemorating a well that was used from the 13th century. On the monument is a statue of a wolf, which is thought to reference the location where a wolf was last killed in the City.

Today, that countryside is East London, and the vicinity between it and Aldgate is referred to as the City Fringe or Eastern Fringe.

The gate gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the originally Roman A11 road. Immediately east of Aldgate High Street, the road becomes known as Whitechapel High Street as it enters Whitechapel, which lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Today, the stretch of Whitechapel High Street that includes Aldgate East tube station is occasionally referred to as part of Aldgate.

Aldgate is one of 25 wards of the City of London, formed in the 11th century, and bounded to the east by the ancient London Wall.

Within Aldgate ward, a short distance to the north of the gate, Jews settled in 1181, and this area became known as Old Jewry. Today, Jewry Street adjoins Aldgate High Street, opposite the new public realm area of Aldgate Square.

The Jewish community established London’s oldest synagogue in the area at Bevis Marks in 1698.

Churches were also established within the ward, including St Andrew Undershaft, which was completed in 1532 and is administered from St. Helen’s in the Lime Street ward, and St. Botolph without Aldgate, which was completed in 1744 and has ‘without’ in its title because it lay outside of the London Wall.

Today, the Aldgate ward sits within the EC3 postcode district of the City of London, synonymous with the insurance industry. Its skyline is dominated by iconic office buildings occupied by those within the sector, including 30 St Mary Axe, also known as The Gherkin, the Leadenhall Building, the Lloyds of London building, and the Norman Foster-designed Willis Building.

The popular location continues to be developed. In 2025, it was announced that planning permission had been granted for a 74-storey tower that would be the City’s tallest and the second tallest in London, matching the height of The Shard (310 metres) across the river.

1 Undershaft would be located between the Leadenhall Building and the Gherkin and feature a podium above St Helen’s Square. It would deliver over 1.6 million square feet of prime office space in 2029.

The authorities, however, are sympathetic to Aldgate’s heritage. Also in 2025, the government intervened in the proposals for a 43-storey office tower next to the Bevis Marks Synagogue over concerns that such a tall tower would impact natural light levels in the temple.

Along with the brand-new developments in Aldgate, which bring best-in-class office space to the City of London, satisfying the flight to quality by prestigious companies seeking amenity office buildings for their teams and clients and ESG-considered space for the wider community, Aldgate already offers a wide range of exceptional office space and workspace options.

Office space in Aldgate is available via conventional leasing models. This route offers prime Grade A office space available on a long-term basis with a high level of autonomy over the fit-out, infrastructure, and property and facilities management of the workspace.

Aldgate also has a growing number of premium flexible office space and workspace options. These include private serviced offices that are fully furnished and available on shorter-term flexible licences that offer all-inclusive rents that cover items such as utilities, cleaning, reception services, security, enterprise-grade internet services and other overheads that would typically be managed and paid for separately if renting an office in Aldgate via a conventional lease. These serviced offices are let on agile terms, also allowing an occupying client to be nimble and efficiently modify their workspace footprint in line with changing business requirements.

Other examples of flexible workspace solutions include the high-end managed offices in Aldgate. These are somewhat of a blend between leased and serviced office space and offer workspace that can be custom-fitted and furnished with a tailored service package managed on the occupying client’s behalf.

Managed offices are available in a range of sizes and formats, from 10 desk suites to 200 desk floors, and can be fitted out with private reception areas, kitchens, bathroom facilities, meeting rooms, and other features.

The premium office buildings that offer these flexible workspace solutions in Aldgate provide a wide range of amenities such as focus rooms, quiet zones, breakout areas and enhanced wellness amenities such as gyms, meditation spaces, cafés and outdoor areas such as roof terraces.

As part of their environmental, social and governance credentials, they offer end-of-trip facilities such as bicycle racks, showers and changing facilities.

However, all office occupiers enjoy easy access to excellent public transport links. Aldgate and Aldgate East London Underground stations offer several services, and the area is just a few minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, and Tower Hill train stations.