Forum Topic

GSK moving out of Brentford

Reported in The he Evening Standard that they are splitting the £80 billion can many into two distinct trading entities with the majority of staff relocating to Weybridge.What's app he betting on GSK House Becoming flats?

N V Brooks ● 1795d18 Comments

Not before adding another 12 floors to the building!

Sarah Felstead ● 1795d

The glorious Leader must be rubbing his hands at the thought!

Vanessa Smith ● 1795d

Housing sounds likely. In Staines Debenhams is becoming housing and it looks likely M & S is going the same way. Terrible situation! I have read in these conversions there can be problems with drainage. EG there are many baths and showers so where does the waste go as the buildings were not designed for habitation. I dont know if this is true however. I expect one of our well informed correspondents will.

Nicholas Beard ● 1795d

The GSK building was built in 2002. It would be an expensive business to bring it up to modern habitation standards, though not impossible of course.The sell off has been on the cards since last year. Staff were told that work from home would be the norm rather than being office based. With a 5,000 capacity in the building it was never going to be cost effective long term.But who will buy a flat there? Who could afford it?

Simon Hayes ● 1795d

Who will buy a flat there? Plenty of worse locations, with exit onto the park and the canal and the Great West Road nearby to take you in and out of town.

Susan Kelly ● 1795d

Depends on the price though. Won’t be for the hoi poloi!

Simon Hayes ● 1795d

The question is what else would anyone do with it other than convert it into flats ?.  I don't see how the numbers would stack up for any other option, particularly given how it took covid to finally makes companies realise that having their entire workforce all under one roof isn't cost effective.

Adam Beamish ● 1795d

Another opportunity for corporate/foreign landlords and for the rich to get richer.There should be a huge tax on any corporate landlord who leaves their properties empty as they are often just bought as an investment and are now let to pesky tenants.

Keith Iddon ● 1795d

'not let to pesky tenants'

Keith Iddon ● 1795d

Goes back to John Prescott blocking the car parking capacity of the site which was less than the old Beecham House site had.  Vast majority of GSK employees live over a wide geographic spread and not all in the commutable routes that exist.Add to that the increase in delays and restrictions to get to Brentford from the A316 and from the Northerly routes and it's made for an unhappy and less productive workforce many of whom are high skills and  not so easy to keep hold of.If the other rumours turn out to be as spot on as this one then there will be a few more following.

Raymond Havelock ● 1794d

Oh! Yippee! Just what Brentford could do with - more flats! At least they'll be near Boston Manor Park.

Vanessa Smith ● 1794d

They’ll get a first class listen when the electro music festival returns!

Simon Hayes ● 1793d

And where will all those who will buy flats there (and other new developments - there are so many of them being built nowadays) work?

Alex Shpinkov ● 1791d

I wonder this but they will sell.

Nicholas Beard ● 1791d

There are still enough empty and part occupied (i.e. housekeeper) apartments across London to house those without homes. But it's also the same as a motorway. Keep building cheap pile them high developments and you keep attracting more and more to fill them.But hardly ideal for the human factor.

Raymond Havelock ● 1791d

Perhaps not interesting as a conversion project for more housing, but could it be an interesting possibility for West London University? Sell off the Ealing campus to a developer for knocking down and putting up housing, and resite all departments so that they are in the same area.

Sue Rowe ● 1784d

Maybe part of the building would be converted to a hotel where the trees and avenue are situated

Jean Harrison ● 1782d

Rather ironically the Hotels in Brentford were on the back of the GSK development.Sky and GSK were their weekday bread and butter.Without these companies with a large international and national workforce, it won't be plain sailing for these either.So much has been placed on large corporates that all the little business which featured particularly in Brentford, almost unknown but employed people with long term employment have been squeezed out by the likes of 'Regeneration Offices with the blessing of Local authorities.Now the chickens will come home too roost as more and more people will find proper quality local jobs diminishing further and less and less affordable sites for any businesses to flourish.Any small artisan business or manufacturing business has had it in London and the hinterland.

Raymond Havelock ● 1781d