November 2015 City Fringe living Emerging as a prime location 2–3 Introduction The once under appreciated City Fringe is now an in-demand location in London, both for business and as a place to live. Its transformation was originally set in motion in the 1980s when a pioneer population of artists and other creatives established themselves in Shoreditch, Hoxton and Clerkenwell. This creative demographic created the eclectic neighbourhoods we know today and precipitated a general and continued eastward migration across London. More recently, the enhanced aesthetic of the Fringe, combined with a constrained supply of new homes in the City, has seen a huge number of City workers move into the area. Driven by a desire to live close to their place of work, and the relative affluence of a city career, this influx has cemented the rise of the City Fringe. With employment in the City forecast to grow by a further 50,000 by 2026, demand for homes in the City Fringe will become even higher. The movement of people into the City Fringe was also mirrored by businesses that saw it as an increasingly viable office location. In fact, some Fringe locations, such as Shoreditch and Clerkenwell, are now firmly established and in many cases now considered core office markets. Recently, the increasing employment base in the City Fringe has been further expanded by the development of Tech City in Shoreditch. What began as a cluster of digital companies around Old Street roundabout has resulted in huge growth of the technology sector throughout the City Fringe, and many companies have seen employment grow at six times the national average. This has brought a new population of enterprising creatives and techies to the area. Amazon will also join the fray from 2017. Its new headquarters in Shoreditch will have capacity for 5,000 employees. Retail outlets, restaurants, cafes, bars and pop-ups have flooded into the area to capitalise on the new demand. In the last six months alone more than 30 restaurants have opened in the area. And the strong demand for retail floorspace has led to rents increasing by 22% in the last year. All these factors have enhanced the desirability of the City Fringe, thereby boosting its residential market. Since 2008 average house prices have increased by 62%; this is broadly the same rate of growth as traditional Prime Central London and a significant outperformance of the wider London average, where prices grew by 36% over the same period. 4–5 The evolution of the City Fringe Once abandoned warehouses Over the past decade the core office market The industry’s epicentre is Tech City, the Recent business moves to the City Fringe and surrounding areas has expanded into the fringe areas of cluster of technology firms that radiate and print works, signals of Clerkenwell, Old Street, Shoreditch, from Old Street roundabout, which has a previous economic life, Spitalfields, Aldgate and Whitechapel with been supported at a local and national have now been converted into new Grade A office developments replacing government level since 2010. The area 01. CBS Interactive/Farfetch/Allegis much of the older stock. As a result, although now hosts 3,200 tech firms per square 02. Mind Candy still referred to as City Fringe, it is very much kilometre. This compares with the London 20 living and working spaces 03. Comparethemarket.com that epitomise the trendy considered a ‘core’ market. average of 58. 14 Hoxton 04. OpenTable lifestyle of the City Fringe. The popularity of the City Fringe has seen The impact of Tech City has rippled out 19 05. Amazon office take-up increase significantly. So far and led to the development of new 08 06. Bloomberg this year, over 2m sq ft of space has been let, clusters of digital and creative companies an increase of 35% from 2009. Strong in areas including Clerkenwell, Angel 07. Publicis Old Street demand has obviously fed through to prices and King’s Cross. 01 08. Expedia 03 Shoreditch High St. with the average rent achieved in the Fringe 09. Ashurst now £48psf, up from £25psf in 2009. However, while the technical industry has 02 05 07 04 10. Uber played a role in the growth of the City Fringe, 15 06 More workers has led to more amenities. we must remember that many of the districts 11. Easynet Farringdon 09 The area now hosts critically acclaimed within the Fringe are now firmly established 12. M&G restaurants such as the Tramshed, members and attract a range of business sectors. Liverpool St. 10 13. ING Bank clubs like Shoreditch House and retail It is this broad reaching appeal, combined 18 16 13 14. Guardian Media Group pop-ups such as Boxpark. Retailers also with the demographic shift and population have a strong appetite for a City Fringe growth of East London that is helping drive 15. Blinkbox 12 outlet, particularly in the trendy submarkets the overall growth of the area. Bank 16. Deloitte of Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and Spitalfields. Tower Hill 17. Ogilvy & Mather New high-end names including J.Crew, 17 11 Club Monaco, Versace and Anthropologie 18. Facebook are now establishing themselves in these City Fringe, office take-up by 19. Google markets. As a result, average retail rents floorspace 2014/15 20. Havas have increased by 22% over the last year. In particular, Shoreditch and Spitalfields % Creative / tech industries 32 Tech City have seen annual growth of 36% and Business services 23 43% respectively. Professional 18 Banking and finance 12 Perhaps one of the largest drivers of this Consumer services & leisure 8 The significance of the tech industry expansion has been the growth of the Public sector / regulatory body 4 Manufacturing, industrial & energy 3 technology industry. Across London the Insurance 1 45,000 number of companies has increased by 21% over the past year, with the City and its Fringes proving to be the location of choice; 40,000 this area now hosts more than 10,000 City of London 35,000 technology businesses that employ 70,000 £6.8bn people and generate £12.5bn of revenue. Amazon is also set to join the ranks in 2017, 30,000 as it prepares to move its UK headquarters to Shoreditch. Last year, creative and 25,000 technology companies accounted for almost Camden 32% of office take up in the City Fringe. This 20,000 £2.6bn compares with only 12% ten years ago. 15,000 Number of employees of Number 10,000 Hackney Islington £500m Tower Hamlets £1.5bn 5,000 £1.1bn 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 Size of bubble = annual revenue (£) Number of companies 6–7 Tech City and emerging tech clusters Angel Tech City Angel is Islington’s most Emerging tech clusters significant town centre. Many small businesses Tech City have been attracted to the The government formally area, which is increasingly announced its support to growing in significance as develop Tech City in 2010. a business cluster. Today the area hosts more than 3,200 technology firms per square kilometre and is fuelling the emergence of new Angel tech clusters. Kings Cross Clerkenwell Tech City Kings Cross Shoreditch £550m of regeneration means Kings Cross is now home to leading businesses, academic Canary Wharf institutions and a plethora of Canary Wharf is home to organisations well positioned to Europe’s largest financial-tech develop London’s digital (fintech) and retail start-up economy. Overall the area will Clerkenwell accelerator space situated on receive £4.5bn of investment Clerkenwell is a well- levels 24, 39 and 42 of One and up to 30,000 people will be established cluster with a high Canada Tower. The area now living, working and studying in concentration of advertising, accommodates 170 fintech the area by 2016. It will also marketing, communications start-ups spanning 80,000 sq ft become home to Google in and branding agencies. of office space. 2017, bringing a further 4,500 Farringdon station will also employees. Typically, office open to Crossrail in 2018 and it rents in Kings Cross have will further benefit from the traded at a discount to the City £6.5bn Thameslink core. However, average rents improvement programme. Canary Wharf have now overtaken the core and are currently priced at a 20% premium, illustrating the level of demand for office space in the area. London Bridge/ Bermondsey London Bridge / Bermondsey The area is experiencing increasingly significant levels of startup activity, particularly in the tech and creative industries. 8–9 Age profile of high earners The City Fringe Who lives here? The area’s commercial The trendy neighbourhoods and location of In addition, many of London’s top revival has boosted its the City Fringe mean it attracts a relatively universities are close to the Fringe. This, young and affluent cohort of workers. coupled with the area’s desirability, means it liveability. Not only does it As well as its resident employees, who can is increasingly popular with university attract young, relatively range from lawyers and accountants to students, particularly those from overseas. marketers and advertisers, the Fringe also The student population was further boosted affluent workers, the absorbs workers from the employment hubs in 2011, when Central Saint Martin’s College residential base is more of The City, Canary Wharf, and the West End (part of the University of the Arts) moved into where annual salaries average between Kings Cross. In the 2013/14 academic year, eclectic, with a high share of £50,000 and £80,000. As a result, the area is there were 16,350 students residing in the Prime Central London City City Fringe now dominated by the socio-economic City Fringe.