The future of 55 Broadway

The building is as I understand it a Grade 1 Listed Building, so I would bet it will stay empty for the forseeable future as it's status imposes severe restrictions on changes to the fabric and look of the building both internal and external


XF

Absolutely

well depends what delevoplers - maybe a hotel or flats OR just offices but if no one decides what do - its will be fallen in disused HQ - but maybe ideal for apartments to rent out

It'll be expensive to maintain and TfL will be able to lease a lot cheaper in cheaper areas such as North Greenwich (Pier Walk) and Southwark (Palestra)

Yes of course it does. I wonder how long it will be before TfL decide to follow the BT example and sell off all the property (stations, substations etc) and then lease it back.

It's madness of course but it is a creative accounting exercise which makes the 'books' appear better than they are, basically it's done to blind the taxpayer with science. The government does it too, anything to paint a rosier picture even though in the long run it simply wastes public money!

The comments I heard were that 55 Broadway was not "fit for purpose" in terms of providing a modern working environment and being able to cater for new technology. The delights of Pier Walk at North Greenwich were cited as providing a suitable working environment. There is, of course, a whole vacant block at NOG beside Pier Walk.

There is pressure on any organisation that is part of the GLA or is funded by the GLA to rationalise their estates and get out of expensive property arrangements. The Met Police is the latest to be in that firing line. London Travelwatch have had to move offices 2 or 3 times in the last few years because of funding cuts by the London Assembly. TfL will undoubtedly be under the same pressure to get costs down as headcount falls and to sell off all surplus property / land to raise money.

I predict that the building will remain empty for years, fall into a state of serious disrepair and then the only option will be demolition despite it being a listed building!


XF

.........as headcount falls........

What? LU has to be one of the biggest empire builders ever, efficiency is something that can only really occur at the sharp end although that was severely diluted with devolvement in the early 1990s. 55, Broadway has not really been that prominent in the management organisation since LBL was split from the 'combine' in the 1980s and it's been downhill ever since as management, admin and other support has felt the need to expand to many offices across the capital
Back in the day I recall managers acquiring secretaries and then secretaries acquiring assistants, we spent lots of time on installation 'T' Orders installing extensions on existing telephone lines in many of LU's office sites as departments grew to consume the available space and increased budgets. Of course replacing the Strowger telephone system with MD110 digital enabled a whole raft of new fax and data services to be provided anywhere requiring additional office staff who could be located anywhere at or close to the end of a fibre optic link.

As yet it still is not a reality that new technology reduces office paperwork and leads to the paperless office, if anything at LUL it multiplied it.

Well I went through 3 reorganisations in 3 years before I left. You can only take so much. Each time we lost people, some with long services others not. I do understand why you recount tales of assistants and secretaries but I've never had a secretary or a personal assistant. Any semblance of that sort of support went years ago in the bits of LU where I worked except for the very highest grades where I think you can justify it. I would not expect Directors or General Managers to be arranging meetings or doing their own filing. I can also understand that managers with large headcounts, such as GSMs and some engineering teams, will need some admin support to keep on top of the dreaded SAP so sickness, overtime, attendance etc are all processed properly.

It is pretty to clear to me that TfL's headcount is on a downward trajectory and the financial pressures will continue for the foreseeable future. If / when Mr Hendy leaves then the nature of his successor will be key. If we get someone in the shape of Tim Parker (who only lasted weeks) then the job reductions will accelerate sharply. If there is no funding for further line upgrades then considerable numbers of people will leave the Projects part of LU. Maintenance staff will go from those lines that have been upgraded once reliability is established. It is also pretty clear that there is a long held wish to get staff numbers down on the Ops side of the business. There is also some political and public support for staff reductions in order to reduce the risk of strikes. It remains to be seen if these larger scale reductions happen.

I had to smile. Daniel Moylan was still a TfL board member when Boris wanted to sell 55 off to developers, he didn't voice any criticism back then but now Khan is mayor and Moylan is no longer on the board it seems he's against the idea. I wonder what on earth could have made him change his mind?

This reminds me of my Work Experience last year where I spent a week at Endeavour Square. The whole building is open-plan. On my first day, the lady from facilities stressed that ES had 'no such thing as assigned desks' and that anyone could sit wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, as long as somebody wasn't logged on already. Due to this, each employee had separate lockers which could be locked/unlocked with their ID card. I never saw any 'battles' as such, in fact the building was fairly empty! If I'm honest I quite liked the building, very futuristic and modern. The views didn't leave much to be desired either. Something I really liked was the original D Stock moquette they used in the cafe on the top floor, although I'm beginning to feel that this is starting to be a bit overused...


(if mods feel that I've gone into too much detail feel free to edit)