A band of property investors, developers and agents have teamed up to map out a new vision for London’s Fleet Street and the surrounding area.
Several big corporate tenants are leaving offices in the area, which was once home to much of the UK’s national newspaper industry. The recent and upcoming departures have opened an opportunity to rethink how to promote the neighbourhood and draw in new tenants, says Alistair Subba Row, senior partner at agency Farebrother, one of the Fleet Street Partnership’s founding members.
Members of the partnership have met twice since forming earlier this year to discuss plans to revamp and promote the area. The organisation aims eventually to oversee a Fleet Street business improvement district, or BID, an area in which businesses pay an additional levy to fund services like security or extra street cleaning.
The partnership is chaired by Tom Sleigh, chair of the City of London Corporation’s property investment board, which oversees real estate management, acquisitions and disposals by the local authority that governs the Square Mile.
Sleigh says the property investment board has committed £20,000 to the BID process. “Like much of the City of London, Fleet Street is a vibrant and bustling hub with a unique and rich history,” he says. “But it is also an area that is in need of a coherent look and feel at street level, and one which we are keen to breathe life into.”
Sleigh adds that the partnership will focus on “innovative urban planning, landscaping and some new development”.
Alongside Farebrother, other property owners and agents involved in the partnership include Landsec, DWS, CBRE, Co-Re and Greycoat.
Primera, a regeneration consultancy led by Ruth Duston, who has worked on BID projects in London’s Cheapside, Baker Street, Victoria and Northbank, is working on the partnership’s planned BID status.
Duston says there is “significant opportunity for Fleet Street to take advantage of the investment and area enhancements made possible by this sort of public/private partnership”.
She adds: “The voluntary partnership is the first step towards the area possibly establishing a BID, and in the coming months and years the partners will be working to identify area priorities and putting together a series of demonstration projects.”
Jack Knivett, director for investor office leasing at CBRE, says: “The improvement of Fleet Street is hugely important to the continued success of the City of London and the Midtown sub-market, both for business and the population of London.”
Fleet Street is still synonymous with the UK’s national newspapers, many of which were based there until the industry shifted in the 1980s. Since that time, banks, accountancy firms and other business services firms have moved in. Peterborough Court, Goldman Sachs’ main Fleet Street office, was once home to the Daily Telegraph, for example.
High profile moves
Now a new set of moves means that a huge amount of office space in the area is likely to come to market at around the same time. Subba Row estimates that 3m sq ft of the total 9m sq ft of office space across Fleet Street and St Paul’s will be up for lease.
One of the most high-profile moves is Goldman Sachs’s exit from River Court, Peterborough Court and other nearby offices, as the US bank moves to a single, new office, Plumtree Court, on Farringdon Street. Co-working company WeWork has been rumoured to be eyeing Goldman’s former premises.
Law firm Freshfields is preparing to leave its office on Fleet Street and move to 100 Bishopsgate, while fellow law firm Withers and accountancy firm Deloitte have relocated from local offices.
The eventual opening of the Crossrail train line, which will have a station in nearby Farringdon, is likely to bring more investment to the area.
Fleet Street will also be home to a new City court to tackle fraud and cybercrime cases. Eric Parry Architects is designing the new court, as well as a new headquarters for the City of London Police.
Subba Row says: “While the Fleet Street area will see many of its iconic buildings vacated over the next two years, these are also exciting times for this part of London, given the combination of ridiculously low vacancy rates and Thameslink and Crossrail connections just minutes away.”
