Oh-so Soho
LONG before loft dwelling became fashionable, estate agent David Rosen was selling loft offices to creative companies that saw the merits of a designer workspace. By bringing together developers and occupiers, he has been a pivotal player in the rise of such places as Camden and Clerkenwell, Shepherd’s Bush and Shoreditch. But Rosen’s heart remains in Soho.

It’s partly to do with his age. One of the Sixties mod generation who knew Carnaby Street in the good old days, he’s a West End boy through and through. Contemporary architecture is another of his passions, and when he was recommended to developer Derwent Valley, which was planning a new speculative office building in Soho, Rosen was soon on the phone to his old friend Richard Rogers: “I said, ‘You’ve done a building (Lloyd’s) in the commercial heart of London, why don’t you do one in the soul of London?’ He instinctively understood what I meant.” The scaffolding on the Broadwick Street building recently came down to reveal a trademark glass and steel structure that could almost be a pint size Pompidou Centre, with glass lifts whizzing up and down and an art gallery, which will be open to the public later this year.

As Soho’s first building by a top flight, internationally acclaimed architectural practice, it brings a refreshing new face to the area’s cramped Georgian streets and signals a new era of modern design to satisfy the local workforce. Last month, Westminster Council lost a planning appeal to keep a Victorian building in Great Marlborough Street, part of the local conservation area. Architects Michael Squire and Partners have been given the go ahead for a new 25,000sq ft building that relates to the character and rhythm of the surrounding streetscape, but is clearly contemporary.

Contemporary architecture is  a passion for estate agents David Rosen, left, and David Jackson.

IT IS not just the physical appearance of Soho that is changing, there is a shift in the type of company taking space there. Corporate creatives (multinationals with pockets deep enough to pay higher and higher rents) are targeting the area. Broadwick House, the Rogers designed building, was pre let to Ford Design, a division of the car giant, at a record rent for Soho of £55 per sq ft. “It’s the first time that the automotive industry has taken space to compete directly with established ad agencies and film companies in the area,” says Rosen. “If the offices were coming to the market today, we would probably achieve £60 per sq ft.” Mondeo jokes aside, Ford has a track record of its own in industrial design, and its move to central London is significant. In the past, the design team was shut away in dull, suburban factories. Now, Ford wants them to be part of a vibrant city scene and expose them to new trends.

It is all about the crossover between architecture, work, culture and lifestyle.

And, fittingly, the public will be invited into the world of a normally secret global organisation.

Film screenings, seminars and lectures will be staged at Broadwick House, while the ground floor will be a design shop and the basement will be a restaurant. David Jackson, of estate agent Pilcher Hershman, points to the Football Association’s move from Lancaster Gate to Soho Square as another example of Soho’s fresh appeal. “In the past, such companies would probably have relocated to Mayfair or St James’s Park, which are traditional and more expensive. Soho is now seen as a better fit. “The FA wanted to make a statement about itself and be in the heart of television land. It’s a sign of the times.”

Architects Michael Squire and Partners are building a new 25,000sq ft complex in Great Marlborough Street

Yet some of Soho’s niche creative businesses are leaving the area. Cost is one factor. Image is another. Architects Damond, Lock and Grabowski recently moved to Spitalfields, where office rents are about half the price of Soho. Some of the younger architects in the practice believed “happening” east London was a more suitable location for the company. There has also been a drift of the capital’s media companies into the old rag trade district of Noho (north of Oxford Street). Here, too, rents are rising fast: up from an average of £27.50 per sq ft about a year ago to £37.50 per sq ft today. “It is no longer a forgotten quarter of W1,” says Colin Becker, of chartered surveyor Ross Jaye Vellerman. Openings such as the Purple Bar, in Ian Schrager’s Sanderson Hotel, and Mash, Oliver Peyton’s restaurant, are attracting a trendy crowd. PR celebrity Matthew Freud has offices in Noho.”

As with Clerkenwell, the new office population has triggered demand for both residential and retail, and the area has the makings of a desirable new neighbourhood. London is certainly becoming wider in terms of acceptable locations for creative companies. Areas such as Clerkenwell and Shoreditch have acquired an identity in a remarkably short period of time. There is continuing strong demand for designer offices. The preference is for stylish warehouses with contemporary finishes. A similar trend is happening in other fringe locations, such as “South Central”, which takes in Bankside, Borough and Bermondsey. Another less hyped location is King’s Cross, especially on the border with Bloomsbury.

The attractive little warehouse buildings tucked away down cobbled streets are proving a magnet for media companies, and there has been huge rental growth, from about £15 per sq ft to more than £30 per sq ft for the best refurbished accommodation. In effect, a media triangle is forming between Soho, King’s Cross and Clerkenwell. The rent differential is narrowing, but Rosen insists that Soho will never be knocked off its perch as the true home of the creative sector.


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