New office

3 Thomas More Square, London. The home of the "IT Crowd".

I'm on the move, changing offices.

My current employer, News International, is moving to a new office block just across the road from their current site at Wapping in East London.

The new office may look familiar to avid viewers of "The IT Crowd", Channel 4's brilliant comedy. A picture of the office is shown as a continuity link between scenes in the show and is supposed to be the office of the fictional company in the sitcom. The "IT Crowd" are the IT support staff and their initial response to any PC problem is "Have you turned it off and on again?". This reminds me of my first encounter with IT support when I worked for a large computer company in the 1990s, in those days PCs were too large for the desktop and stood on the floor. Then the response from the support guys was "Have you tried kicking it?"

The "IT Crowd" production team go to great lengths to set the right atmosphere for the geeky characters in the cast and have managed to find lots of old computer equipment and artifacts to set just the right atmosphere. I remember one episode where one of the characters wore a T-shirt sporting the acronym "RTFM", which was the first acronym I learned when I started my IT career.

Wapping -  heading for a make over.

News International are moving from their current office at Wapping so that it can be redeveloped over the next ten years. It will emerge completely rebuilt and with the largest roof garden in Europe.

The Wapping office is a very large site and was the home of News International's UK titles, "The Times", "Sunday Times", "Sun" and the "News of the World". I've been working on a new version of the "News of the World" website and I've also done some updates to the "Sun" website.

The News of the World clock, a bit
of UK newspaper history
hanging on the wall at Wapping.

I'm really proud to be part of the web development team at the "News of the World" as, technically, this is one of the best sites I've ever worked on. There's still some work to do so I'll be at News International for a little longer.

However, as a contractor in the IT business I will eventually move on to pastures new, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to take a look at some of the other places where I've worked during the past few years (in no particular order). 


Other interesting offices in my career

Team Disney, Orlando, Florida - really amazing!

Team Disney in Orlando, Florida is without doubt the most interesting and unusual office I've ever worked in.  I did a stint there when I was employed by ioko, a UK-based Internet company.

This is cutting edge architecture. At first glance it looks like Didcot Power Station meets Micky Mouse closely followed by  an explosion in a paint factory. It was designed by Japanese architect Aarata Iozaki and completed in 1990. The large circular tower is actually a sun dial, the largest in America.

In contrast to the colourful exterior, the interior layout is very conventional, four open-plan levels inside a vast atrium. Very modern, very clean. There was only one thing I found a little puzzling and that was in the loo where there was always one urinal set very low down. Whenever I used the facilities I got a little nervous thinking that any moment a cast member from "Snow White" would walk through the door - Hi-ho!

Channel 4, Television

Channel 4 Television HQ, Horseferry Road, London

I worked at Channel 4 in 2007 on their 4oD (Channel 4 on Demand) download site. The building was designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and completed in 1994. I took this photo just after the company had erected a large temporary sculpture, in the shape of a figure 4, in the forecourt (perhaps I should say fourcourt).

What I liked about Channel 4 was all the cultural activities that went on. In the basement of the building is a large area known as "The Drum", which contains a cinema and a large reception area. It featured in the film "Bridget Jones's Diary".  (I loved walking down the stairs to the reception area in the footsteps of Hugh Grant. )

"The Drum" is used as a venue for lunchtime lectures and also for previewing new Channel 4 films. It was great to spend a lunch hour munching a sandwich and listening to some really interesting and talented people.

The Point

The Point, Paddington Basin, London

The Point is a large office designed by Terry Farrell and Partners. It is home to Orange and Marks & Spencer. I worked there in 2009 for Orange as a member of a team developing their iPhone website. The Orange office area is in the basement. Consequently, I was sitting below the water line of the adjacent canal basin. Had the canal wall given way I would have been flushed through Little Venice.

From a commuting point of view working at The Point was a dream, it is just behind Paddington station so I could walk off the station platform and be at my desk within ten minutes of my train arriving in London.

LBi Brick Lane

LBi, Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London

I was very pleased to get a contract at LBi, it's one of the top Advertising and Creative agencies in Europe. The office is an old brewery and is probably the oldest office building I've ever worked in.

The interior is a cavern, designed to hold large vats of beer. The beer has almost disappeared from the brewery apart from Friday afternoons when, as a treat, the office bar is opened for free drinks all round.

My first day was in the middle of December and it was really cold, as the building takes a long time to warm up I was still freezing at lunch time so I went over to the nearby Spitalfields Market and bought some extra clothes. I eventually got used to the climate in the office but LBi sent me off to work at a client's office in Cheshire, a long way north of London, which was rather depressing during the bleak Arctic winter of 2010.

Working at LBi was very stimulating, I love being around creative people and I really enjoyed my time there.  LBi are very innovative, for example, in the reception area is a large mobile, which is made from dozens of old mobile phones, all working. You can log in to the mobile and play a tune on the phones - brilliant.

The future

As I said before, I'll probably be looking for a new contract soon, but where? As part of the celebrations for launching the "News of the World" website, the development team ended up at the "Captain Kidd" pub in Wapping, right on the river.

After a few pints of "Samuel Smiths", the lights across the river at Canary Wharf looked really inviting, so I think that's my next target (dream on).

After all, when working in London the world is your Oyster card.