Broadgate is a large, mainly pedestrianised, 32-acre office and retail estate located in the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London, next to Liverpool Street Station. In the early 1990s, it was actually the largest office development in London, until the development of Canary Wharf.
Several different companies, including British Rail, have participated in the development of the estate in recent history. Between 2003 and 2009 the whole estate was owned by British Land, which has been involved since 1984. In October 2009, British Land sold a 50% share of the estate to the Blackstone Group, which was then purchased by GIC in 2014.
The creative vision of British Land and their design and delivery partners has produced a mixed use estate where retail, leisure, hospitality, corporate and SME all happily complement the overall offering.
This week, Bishopsgate’s Alderman and Councillors were pleased to attend our latest site visit to see the progress on 1 Broadgate and 2 Finsbury Avenue.
We begun our visit at British Land’s marketing suite (known as 3 Broadgate) where Broadgate’s Head of Development Matt Secker talked us through the overall site plan, using their fantastic scale model.
We pulled on our steel toe-capped boots, donned our hard hats and protective eyewear and headed off into 1 Broadgate.
This building offers three basement levels, covered retail units at lower and upper ground floor and office space for twelve floors above. In addition, new pedestrian routes through the Broadgate campus will offer improve accessibility and connectivity to Liverpool Street Station and will open up a new entrance onto Eldon Street.
This building offers some stunning views across London (including private terraces) and is due to complete in Summer 2025. It was 100% pre-let and we look forward to welcoming anchor tenants like Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) and Ralph Lauren.
Interestingly, the flecks in the stone flooring of the new building was created from the stone exterior of the previous building.
We then moved on to 2 Finsbury Avenue, which is British Land’s largest project to date. The building will be a mix of office and retail space with 3 basement levels, followed by a podium of 13 storeys (including 2 wintergardens), followed by a west tower of 23 storeys and an east tower of 38 storeys. Completion is expected by October 2027.
The project will include flexible workspace suitable for a range of occupiers, including incubators, start-ups and medium sized businesses, but it will also house an open learning hub on the ground level to provide local communities with access to formal learning programmes, informal networks and talks from institutions, etc.
Getting up in the hoist and seeing the flooring being laid on the 9th floor was great. The logistical planning and care taken to avoid disruptions to the wider site was impressive too.
We completed our visit with a stroll through the 1.5 acre green space at Exchange Square and up onto the new rooftop of Exchange House for a well-earned drink. The views are even more impressive from this vantage point, as you can see all of Canary Wharf and all of the City and Westminster’s landmarks on a sunny day.
I’ve enclosed below some of the other photos from our visit for those interested, but it’s great to see such high-quality construction delivering on so many fronts – environmental targets, urban greening, improved accessibility, world-class latest tech, and shared community spaces.
With the Liverpool Street Station redevelopment planning application likely to be considered in Q4 2025, Bishopsgate is well placed to retain its crown as the commercial heart of the City of London.
Our thanks to all the team at British Land for their continued engagement and support.
