As hybrid working changes what people expect from the office, the arrival of Maslow’s Kensington is adding momentum to a growing workspace cluster around High Street Kensington – where flexible workspaces are being matched by a neighbourhood offering of green space, culture, food, hospitality and wellness.
More than ever, the London office is having to earn its place in the working week. With hybrid working now the norm, the question for businesses is increasingly not simply how to get people into the office, but what makes coming in worthwhile.
Kensington is emerging as a strong example of how a neighbourhood can help make the commute worthwhile. This summer’s opening of Maslow’s Kensington – with its private studios, shared workspaces, stylish lounges and meeting rooms, plus a strong in-house fitness and wellness including a café – is a welcome addition to the existing offer. This also includes Huckletree Kensington, which has a focus on flexible coworking plus a members’ lounge, café and rooftop terrace and the Pavilion Club, an established members’ club and workspace for meetings and networking. Together, they’re giving freelancers, small businesses and importantly entrepreneurs a place where they can thrive as a community – with more choice in how and where they work, while reflecting a broader change in what they are their immediate teams expect from the workplace.
“The workplace is changing, and so is what people expect from the place they work from,” says Maya Mroue of Opportunity Kensington, the Business Improvement District centred around Kensington High Street. “Kensington already has the connectivity and business infrastructure, but it also has the things that make people want to spend time here – culture, green space, hospitality, food and wellness. The arrival of this new generation of workspaces adds another reason to come into the neighbourhood and makes the area around the office part of the working day.”
As well as being very commutable – High Street Kensington is served by the District and Circle lines, providing direct connections across central and west London – Kensington Gardens and Holland Park offer green space within easy reach too. Kensington is also becoming a hub for wellness, with gyms, fitness studios and wellbeing businesses making it possible to build exercise and wellbeing into the working day.
Alongside this, Kensington offers world-leading cultural institutions, restaurants, cafés, hotels and retail – giving businesses and their teams the opportunity to combine work with the rest of the working day.
Kensington isn’t trying to compete with the City or Canary Wharf on scale, but what is does offer is quality workspaces in a quality neighbourhood that makes the working day extend beyond the office and worth the commute.