Commercial property players love to brand areas as districts for certain industries. We’ve had the square mile, tech belt, engineering arena and media land. One of these I’ve completely made up but could plausibly be the next name for the new property regeneration frontier (where do I send my invoice?). It’s something we’re all too familiar with as an agency, and even our very own Ben Everest came up with the “Coffee Quarter” to promote a pocket in Fitzrovia known for its premium and ever-expanding coffee shops such as Kaffeine and The Attendent.
One such name is the Knowledge Quarter which supposedly covers Kings Cross, Euston and Bloomsbury according to KQ – a consortium of partner organisations. The suggestion for the name is that this pocket of London is home to science, innovation, medical and the educational sectors, fostering the rich heritage Bloomsbury has with education and university institutions such as UCL and its neighbouring teaching hospital UCLH.
Yet, despite attempts to define its borders, realistically the lines are a lot more blurred, with neighbourhoods such as Clerkenwell and Fitzrovia easily claiming a stake as a centre for knowledge.
Like that annoying friend who always manages to shoehorn their pet into the conversation, I’ll concentrate without apology on our core patch, Fitzrovia.
Fitzrovia has a rich history of embracing the knowledge sectors with a number of universities occupying the area, from UCL’s Institute of Prion Diseases on Riding House Street to Portland Hall on Little Titchfield Street which is home to the University of Westminster’s law department. Birkbeck University also has a campus on the corner of Cleveland Street and Euston Road, which is moments from the Royal College of Physicians which is located just off Regent’s Park.
Moreover, Fitzrovia is fast becoming a champion for the medical sector, seeking modern, amenity rich accommodation more suitable for their needs. This, compared to the dated and restrictive period buildings found around Harley Street, which also come at a premium cost, given the area’s “prestige” as the medical hub in Central London.
Given its close proximity to Marylebone and Harley Street, and with excellent transport links, Fitzrovia is a natural location for the medical sector to increase their presence, so it is unsurprising that since the change in planning laws, that we have seen operators such as Randox Health open multiple sites in Fitzrovia including a health centre on Great Portland Street and purchasing Boston House on Fitzroy Square for the intended use of a laboratory for educational purposes.
For those not yet in the know, historically medical and educational uses required D1 planning. In 2020, planning laws changed, absorbing multiple planning uses to create a brand-new class-e planning use. This has provided more freedom for the knowledge sectors to occupy office, showroom, or retail spaces without seeking planning permissions.
It is not just the education and medical sectors which help cement Fitzrovia’s knowledgeable prowess. Meta Group have an entire office building dedicated to innovation on Rathbone Square, and Charlotte Street is the home of the Boston Consulting Group, one of the “big three” management consultancy firms who have gained significant recognition in recent years for innovation, especially within the robotics industry.
With all this knowledge packed into Fitzrovia’s past and present, as well as other areas of Central London, is it time to expand the Knowledge Quarter and rebrand London as the Knowledge Capital.
