Historic London office reimagined with communal spaces inspired by metalworker's legacy
SODA Studio has transformed a 1920s Art Deco building into a minimalist workspace that draws conceptual inspiration from Thomas Elsley, a local metalwork fabricator known for fireplace designs. The office centers around a tea point kitchen and communal seating area arranged as the social heart of the space, featuring blue-stained timber tables and soft furnishings. The design blends calming colors, natural materials, and bespoke details to create a contemporary, tailored working environment.
The workspace occupies a 1920s Art Deco building on Great Titchfield Street in London's West End, designed by SODA for property company Great Portland Estates. The naming of the building after Thomas Elsley, a late 19th and early 20th-century metalwork fabricator whose decorative tiles commonly featured in fireplace installations, provided the historical narrative foundation for the design approach. This connection to the building's local heritage informed the architectural team's decision to structure the office around gathering and social interaction.
The project incorporates wellness amenities alongside its communal workplace areas, including a basement gym with dedicated yoga space featuring warm, peachy-toned curtains. An outdoor courtyard provides additional respite space with decorative tilework, plantings, and soft seating. The design vocabulary references the building's original Art Deco geometry throughout, creating visual continuity between the restored exterior facade and contemporary interior surfaces.
The project may influence how commercial real estate developers approach historic building conversions, suggesting that embedding local heritage narratives into workplace design could differentiate London office spaces in a competitive market. This approach to creating "hospitality-forward" workspaces through communal gathering points could shape tenant expectations and working culture standards. However, such design-intensive conversions typically require significant capital investment, potentially limiting application to premium properties and raising questions about accessibility across the broader office market.