黑洞社区

Any discussion of 22 Bishopsgate invariably moves quickly to its most obvious external feature: by City of London standards the building is massive. A wall of glass frames the view on the approach from Threadneedle Street or travelling north up Bishopsgate. From a distance, at 62 storeys the building towers above the Cheesegrater, Tower 42 and the Gherkin, which are mere booths by comparison. 

To be fair to architect PLP, it has tried to lessen the apparent bulk of the thing with two vertical steps running up the height of the building terminating in two horizontal steps at the top. The corners have been chamfered to soften it, too. The glass cliff effect will diminish because of later and adjacent developments; next door 8 Bishopsgate, which is under construction, is so close that the two buildings almost touch. In time, the top of 22 Bishopsgate will resemble the centrepiece of an overdressed dining-room table.

Essentially, 22 Bishopsgate is a reaction to a building cancelled in 2012 when the money for construction dried up after the financial crash. The ill-fated Pinnacle was too expensive for the post-financial crash world and the site sat abandoned until 2015, when fund manager Axa bought the site and appointed Lipton Rogers as developer.

With PLP, Lipton Rogers reinvented the site for a more austere era by pushing the building to the site boundaries and increasing the amount of lettable space by 30%. The building reached practical completion in December 2020 in a world that had changed dramatically yet again. The pandemic had a profound effect on the way people worked, with many spending a much greater proportion of their time at a home desk. 

This begs the question, did London really need another 118,500m² of office space at a time when people were rowing back from office working? Nearly two years after it was finished, 黑洞社区 toured the building with Lipton Rogers founder Peter Rogers to find out.

A wellness building

Despite being conceived well before the pandemic, making the office attractive to workers was still a priority for Lipton Rogers. 鈥淭he whole idea of the building was about wellness and was something we locked into early on to try and encourage people to come to the office,鈥� explains Rogers. 鈥淒o you enjoy coming to the office, or is it a drudge and you are looking forward to your retirement because that is what you are working for? Or is it fun to come to the office? We are trying to make the office compete with the home, so a lot of the facilities here are supporting that.鈥� 

Wellness is a key part of this. Early on, Lipton Rogers decided to integrate WELL building standard features 鈥� which include plenty of natural light, good ventilation and facilities such as a gym and access to healthy food 鈥� into the shell and core so that tenants could achieve WELL certification, although this depends on their specific fit-out.

Up close, the first impression of 22 Bishopsgate is that this is indeed a building with a difference. A row of round, external structural columns give an imposing, formal first impression but this is brightened up with multicoloured glass canopies over the street. 

Once inside, the double-height lobby features two mezzanines with plain white walls enlivened by colourful artworks from a variety of artists, and a sprinkling of curvaceous wooden furniture rather than sofas. There are no reception desks; rather like the so-called geniuses in Apple stores, there are reception-come-security staff floating around to guide visitors. 

Facial recognition at the entrance to lift lobbies will negate the need for a physical pass once these are up and running. 鈥淭he idea is 鈥� if you are known and it鈥檚 your building 鈥� you walk straight in, up to your lift and go up to your floor uninterrupted. Nice, easy, and very human,鈥� Rogers says. The approach is in direct contrast with 100 Bishopsgate just up the road. Completed a year earlier than 22 Bishopsgate, it features a huge, white marble-clad reception area with a long bank of reception desks. Although elegant and imposing, this is exactly the type of traditional reception Rogers wanted to avoid.

Workers are transported to their floors in high-speed, double-deck lifts adorned with artwork by artist Bruce McClean. Some of the lifts extend right to the top of the building, alleviating the need for sky lobbies. 

Once outside the lifts, workers will be very much in their employer鈥檚 domain. The lift lobbies feature plain white walls with timber reveals around the lifts, the idea being that tenants can put their own stamp on these areas.

Stepping out onto the office floors reveals the two key attractions of 22 Bishopsgate. The floorplates are huge, measuring 87.5m x 38.8m below level 48. And the view is breathtaking. Second only in height to the Shard, the building鈥檚 upper floors offer a bird鈥檚-eye view of the City, including down onto Tower 42 and the Gherkin and well beyond. The low-iron glass used for the glazing is very clear compared with ordinary glass, further enhancing views.

The floors are fitted out to Category A standard, an agent requirement at the time of the building鈥檚 conception. 鈥淭he floors are boring, really simple so the tenants can modify them as they want,鈥� explains Rogers, adding that he hopes this does not extend to wastefully ripping out the ceilings which are an innocuous plain white.

Nearly every tenant with multiple floors has punched through the composite metal deck floors to add internal stairs. 鈥淚t is very simple metal deck and steel frame,鈥� Rogers says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy: get a tin-opener and open up a hole where you want. The whole idea was to make it flexible so tenants can do what they want.鈥�

The views are not just restricted to the bankers, lawyers and insurance brokers in the building. Level 58 is a dedicated viewing gallery which will be open to the public and 鈥� unlike the Shard鈥檚 拢25 entrance fee 鈥� is free. There will also be three floors of space for restaurants and bars above the viewing galley which will be open to the public, too. This area is served by a dedicated entrance and lift to avoid queues of people clogging up the tenant lobby on the ground floor.

The phrase 鈥渧ertical village鈥� repeatedly pops up as a description of the range of facilities inside the building. Given the building is designed to accommodate 12,000 people, 鈥渧ertical town鈥� might have been a more accurate description. 

For starters there is space in the basement for 1,700 bicycles, a space so vast that different areas are colour-coded so people can find their bike more easily when leaving. There are lockers, showers and changing rooms on this level, and tenants get clean towels. There are Brompton folding bikes for hire too.

Called the Market, level two is dedicated to food and drink and features a restaurant, a bar with an outdoor terrace, more informal pop-up type eateries and a catered events space. The 25th floor includes a gym with a climbing wall, and there is an area called the Retreat on the 41st floor. Very much part of the wellness narrative, there will be yoga classes and mental health therapies on offer here once this area is up and running.

Co-working spaces

Recognising that small businesses do not want to take long leases on big floors, the so-called Exchange on level seven is 22 Bishopsgate鈥檚 equivalent of co-working provider WeWork. Offering a variety of spaces, people can sign up to a range of packages and can rent a single desk or desks, a large meeting-room type desk in the middle of the space, or more private meeting rooms. There are even radio podcast facilities and soundproof recording studios. 

The space was originally going to be a plant room, but efficient plant packaging liberated it for other uses. A double-height space, this includes an auditorium.

A more radical departure from the co-working norm is an area called Convene on levels three and four. Run by an external company of that name, it is the events equivalent of co-working as the floor features several large meeting-room and conference-type spaces. The biggest holds more than 400 people, and a further four spaces hold in the region of 200. 

Full catering services are provided, there is a barista, and there are more informal work areas where groups of people can meet around desks. Like Exchange, Convene is membership based.

For Rogers, Convene is an example of how office space has evolved in recent years, with the building designed to easily adapt to those changes. 鈥淭he building is as loose-fit as possible,鈥� he says. 鈥淎s tenants come in and you start to understand what they would like, you can make the building reflect those needs. One thing we don鈥檛 want to do is pre-impose a whole pile of things and find no one uses them.鈥�

Levels three to seven, where Convene and Exchange are located, are served by a dedicated bank of lifts. Rogers says Lipton Rogers originally assumed this 200,000ft² space would appeal to a company that wanted an HQ type of office with independent access. Rogers says talks with Convene are ongoing to take the two remaining floors in this part of the building.

Rogers adds that, although Convene and Exchange are available to people who do not have space in the building, it enhances the appeal of the building for occupiers. 

鈥淗istorically, what firms tended to do is to take a floor, and let half a floor off for expansion and have half for themselves. Now what they are tending to do is use these sorts of spaces, so you don鈥檛 necessarily need meeting rooms because you鈥檝e got them here,鈥� he says. 鈥淔or some situations you don鈥檛 even need to rent office space because you can rent it here.鈥�

In answer to the original question 鈥� did London need another huge office building? 鈥� the answer seems to be yes, as the building is now 90% let. Given the building was just 66% let in November 2021 鈥� when for many working from home was the norm 鈥� the Lipton Rogers approach has been vindicated.