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Lawrence Higgins Associate Editor
Austerity and glitz A
good few years ago I was given a tour of Lansdowne House, the old Glaxo Welcome HQ in London’s Berkeley Square. It
was being refurbished to be put on the market following the merger of two companies. I was confronted by a sight that must
have been akin to watching the British troops looting of the great Mandarin Palaces at the end of the 19th century. But whilst there it was Red Coats filling their boots and tall helmets with jade jewels and Ming porcelain pieces – here it was builders in luminous green vests and hard hats taking crowbars to solid oak panels and using sledge hammers to smash great hulks of marble. The pharmaceutical
giant was set on rationalising its buildings and Lansdowne House was the jewel in the crown in one of the world’s most desirable locations which would bring a lucrative return. But whilst the building was in an area where corporations such as Cadbury Schweppes were happy to pay rents of £100 per sq ft rent, it was not the done thing to fit your office out in the decadent style with the opulent fittings that was on display there. To attract a new tenant the vastly expensive wall fittings, the marble washrooms, the velvet drapes and the plush carpets all had to be taken out. Some of the fixtures such as the gold taps were salvaged and shipped out to Dubai but most ended up on a skip.
www.thenegotiator.co.uk The ostentatious fit out and fittings were
as relevant to the post-recession market of the mid 1990s as the brick-sized mobile phones and double breasted Hugo Boss suits worn with stripy shirts and braces of a previous decade. It doesn’t look good to visitors or staff if you are happy to display your annual profits on the walls of your office rather than investing it in taking the company forward. The company had learnt an expensive
lesson. It is likely that the experts in this month’s shopfitting feature, who have worked on many offices in the area around Berkeley Square and this month
“You are designing your offices for the next few years, for your customers and staff – so get it right.”
talk about the type of high end budget that Glaxo Welcome would have had, would have come up with some more practical and successful solutions. Had these experts been asked, they
would have said you are not designing your offices for today but for the next few years, you are not fitting out your offices for you, but your customers and staff and, above all – get it right from the start. In this month’s feature there is no
mention of bling or extravagance but quality and elegance. The budgets being used may only be attainable to specific sections of the market but the significance of the advice is relevant to all.
The Negotiator Magazine PO Box 624, Epsom, Surrey KT17 9JX tel: 0844 745 3001 email:
mail@thenegotiator.co.uk
Editorial Director Sheila Manchester email:
sheila@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3101
Associate Editor Lawrence Higgins email:
lawrence@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3103
Publisher Grant Leonard email:
grant@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3100
Art Director Karen Bates
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rich@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3102
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© Propertydrum Ltd 2012
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TheNegotiator l October 2012 l 3
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