The Worship Street Estate, EC2

Introduction / History

By the late 1990s, Canary Wharf was fundamentally changing London’s office market.

With vast development sites capable of delivering Manhattan-style office towers on efficient rectangular floorplates, it offered occupiers something the City of London simply couldn’t. Meanwhile, the City’s medieval street pattern and fragmented ownership meant assembling sites of any meaningful scale was becoming increasingly difficult.

Recognising the threat, the City of London Corporation appointed us to advise on how it could respond.

Our recommendation was simple: if the City couldn’t create large development sites within its historic boundaries, it should look immediately beyond them.

Working alongside the City, we identified two strategic opportunities. The first ultimately became the Blossom Street Estate, now successfully redeveloped by British Land. The second was the Worship Street Estate.

Over the following 26 years, the City patiently assembled more nearly a dozen individual buildings, creating one of the largest strategically assembled estates on the fringe of the City.

The Brief

With the estate assembly complete, Kauffmans was re-appointed to advise the City Corporation on its long-term strategy for the estate.

Our instruction was to undertake a comprehensive review of the opportunities available, assessing everything from partial disposals and estate rationalisation through to refurbishment and comprehensive redevelopment. The objective was to understand how best to unlock value whilst recognising both the commercial strength of the existing estate and its long-term development potential.

The Challenge

Unlike many development opportunities, the Worship Street Estate was never created solely for redevelopment.

Throughout its assembly, it remained a highly successful income-producing investment for the City Corporation, generating strong cash flow whilst continuing to benefit from one of London’s fastest evolving office locations.

At the same time, today’s market presents a very different set of challenges. Elevated construction costs, higher financing costs and viability pressures mean that, in many instances, existing use values now compete directly with redevelopment values. The question was therefore no longer simply what could be built, but whether redevelopment represented the optimum strategy today.

The Process

Working closely with the City Corporation, Kauffmans undertook a comprehensive review of the estate, considering a range of strategic options including phased redevelopment, subdivision, refurbishment and comprehensive masterplanning.

Our advice focused not only on development potential but also on commercial viability, investment performance and the flexibility required for future ownership. The objective was to ensure that whichever path was taken, the next custodian would inherit an estate capable of evolving alongside the market.