Google to build new London HQ worth £1bn

It was reported on Tuesday that Google is planning to consolidate its United Kingdom offices in a brand new development near London’s King’s Cross Station.

The new development is worth a reported £1 billion.

The Internet search giant will move to the one-million-square-foot, 11-storey building on a 2.4-acre plot at the soon-to-be bustling Kings Cross Central site, which is behind the recently redeveloped Kings Cross Station and adjacent to St Pancras International rail station.

The area behind and between the two North London rail stations has been undergoing a massive regeneration since the opening of the London-to-Paris Eurostar terminal at St Pancras in 2007.

Other organisations recently moving to the area include IDG, The Guardian, BNP Paribas and fashionable art college Central St Martin’s.

Matt Brittin, Vice-President for Northern and Central Europe, Google, commented that the move is “a big investment by Google. We’re committing further to the U.K. – where computing and the web were invented. It’s good news for Google, for London and for the U.K.”

Google currently has offices split across London – two are on Buckingham Palace Road in Victoria, and another is between Holborn and Tottenham Court Road. Google’s lease for the Victoria offices ends in 2016, when Google hopes the AHMM-designed new Google headquarters will be ready at King’s Cross.

Google also has Campus, a large space in London’s Shoreditch that offers offices for technology and media start-ups as part of London’s Tech City project.

 Simon Allford, Director, AHMM, said, “Working with Google is a special opportunity to create an innovative new headquarters of scale and significance that both builds on King’s Cross’ rich tradition of heroic construction and contributes to the fulfilment of the development’s visionary masterplan.”