The plan for the office space site, near Old Street in East London, is to see it provide a creative hub for fledgling companies to develop and commercialise their ideas. Google signed a ten-year lease on the space.
Old Street is close to an area of the city dubbed ‘Silicon Roundabout’ where progress is being made towards establishing a large-scale global technology hub that could eventually rival the famously innovative Silicon Valley area of California.
Read the profiles of the Providers of Flex Space at Silicon Roundabout
Google itself emerged from Mountain View in Silicon Valley and the company clearly sees a lot of potential for office space in London to play host to significant technology-related startup companies in years to come.
“East London is already home to hundreds of innovative British startups, and has huge potential for economic growth and new jobs over the coming years,” said David Singleton, an engineering director at Google UK.
The British government is keen to see initiatives of the sort being led by Google progress and expand in London, particularly in the four-mile ‘Tech City’ zone earmarked specifically with this aim in mind.
Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the news of Google’s latest commitment to the capital as “great news”.
“It shows that we can create the right environment to attract start-ups and established high-technology businesses, supporting our programme to create new jobs, diversify the economy and create long-term economic growth,” he said.
Startup office space in East London has helped encourage the development of ideas like the micro-blogging service Tweetdeck and the online loan provider Wonga.com. Meanwhile, office space in the nearby City of London is home to some of the world’s biggest banking groups and investment businesses.
Editor’s notes: Google’s seven-story building known as Campus London opened in March 2012 on Bonhill Street.
During the pandemic lockdowns, Google made the decision not to re-open Campus London.
The company stated that it felt that founders no longer need to rely on one physical space as “today’s founders in London are part of a vibrant ecosystem of 250+ coworking spaces”.
Read the profiles of Coworking space providers in London
Google advised that it would be continuing to provide support through various virtual and other physical programmes.
As of July 2023, Google’s new London HQ is well underway – the £1 billion, 1 million square feet office development in Kings Cross is due to open in 2024.