Nokia UK HQ makes a move for Central London!

As part of the continuing cuts, The Independent reports that Nokia are apparently moving out of their Farnborough Head Office and into the middle of London.

Well, my first thought was why weren’t they in London in the first place? Farnborough (if you know England) is not actually that far away though – maybe 30 miles from the centre? So not that far away but still a trek.

I’m thinking it would now be slightly more convenient for Nokians as they’re going to be based near Paddington station in some 60,000 sq-ft office. Kingdom Street, Paddington, is also supposedly home to major mobile phone networks, Vodafone and Orange as well as Marks & Spencer and Kingfisher. Some nice neighbours to know.

Nokia’s design team is apparently already in SoHo and of course the Nokia Connects team is at Piccadilly.  Being in London though, the new space is of course, more expensive. The 60,000 sq ft is reportedly meant for 400 people, and is just 1/4 of the size of the current Farnborough office.

Nokia had been looking at offices near Heathrow but felt they could attract a higher calibre of people in central London. The Tech City at east London was apparently snubbed (Google are there btw), just like Telefonica that preferred a central London location (and those others mentioned above).

A spokesman from Nokia said:

“Our choice is dictated by the design of the building, the surrounding area and facilities and good transport links.”

Source:   The Independent

Cheers Kaizer Allen for the tip!

Category: Nokia