St Giles Office Space

Some of the office space in St Giles is as colourful as the district’s past. The area is named after the St Giles in the Fields parish church, which stands on the site of a monastery and hospital established by St Giles the Hermit in the 12th century.

The West End district is in the London Borough of Camden and is centered on the crossroads, St Giles Circus, where Oxford Street, Charing Cross Road, and Tottenham Court Road meet.

The crossroads was the site of a gallows until the fifteenth century, and today, it is dominated by Centre Point Tower. The brutalist tower, built between 1963 and 1966, was London’s first skyscraper, standing 34 storeys tall and measuring 117 metres (385 feet). It is now a Grade II listed building.

St Giles was the site of the Rookery, once considered the worst slum in London. The 5-acre area was associated with vice and the epicentre of London’s Gin Craze – the period in the first half of the 18th century when gin consumption increased rapidly in London. The area was depicted in Thomas Hogarth’s 1751 print entitled ‘Gin Lane’.

In the 1950s, St Giles Court office development dominated the area. The Ministry of Supply occupied the extensive office development, and later, the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

This made way for the Central St Giles mixed-use development, designed to offer over 400,000 square feet of best-in-class colourful offices with sustainable credentials and a lively central piazza.

Central Saint Giles achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating due to its ability to harvest 60% of the rainwater that fell on its roof and piazza, as well as its incorporation of green roofs and roof gardens to attenuate heat buildup, among other environmentally friendly features.

It was completed in 2010 and was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, who also designed The Shard. It was his first development in the UK.

It is notable for its façades, which are covered with 134,000 glazed tiles in vivid shades of orange, red, lime green, and a warm yellow.

The building attracted several high-profile office tenants, including MindShare and NBCUniversal.

In 2022, Google acquired the development, prompting the UK Chancellor at the time, Rishi Sunak, to declare that the transaction was a “big vote of confidence in the UK as a world-leading tech hub.”

Businesses can lease office space in a range of properties in St Giles; however, many are choosing from the growing number of flexible workspace options.

Also known as flexible workspaces, these include serviced private offices, managed office spaces, and co-working spaces.

These are popular because they require short-term commitments relative to offices rented on a leasehold basis, yet offer the option to extend the tenancy period at the end of the term.

As these are office spaces let on flexible contracts, businesses can grow into larger spaces as they expand, with options available for companies requiring space for 1,000 or more desks.

Equally, the agile contracts allow a business to be nimble and contract into a smaller space as needs dictate.

Flexible offices are available on an all-inclusive rental pricing basis, meaning that the rent covers overheads that would conventionally be paid and managed separately, such as service charges, utilities, cleaning, insurance, and other items.

Private serviced offices are fully furnished, and clients enjoy access to premium amenities such as fully stocked kitchens, bookable meeting rooms, break-out areas, casual working areas, quiet zones, wellness amenities, and cafes.

Managed offices are ready-fitted, and the client leads the furnishing and fit-out process. Bespoke offices can include private reception areas, meeting and board rooms, executive suites, open-plan office space, hot desking zones, kitchens, and bathrooms.

As part of sustainable design, premium office buildings offer end-of-journey facilities for solar-powered commuters, including bicycle spaces, showers, changing facilities, lockers, and EV chargers.

However, St Giles also offers excellent public transport links with services provided by nearby Covent Garden, Holborn, Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road stations.