Not so long ago, post-pandemic, it felt like the office age was over. The morning commute disappeared, dining tables became desks and London’s tallest buildings stood half empty.
The story was simple: no one would return, and the old way of working was gone for good.
Yet here we are in 2025, watching cranes swing back into action over the capital. Global giants are laying down serious roots again. And instead of shrinking, London’s office footprint is expanding in ways that would have been hard to imagine during lockdown.
A surprising comeback for the office
The clearest sign of this shift came with JP Morgan Chase’s announcement of a new three million square foot tower in Canary Wharf. When completed, it will be twice the size of The Shard and home to 12,000 employees. The bank estimates it will generate almost ten billion pounds of economic activity during the build alone.
Across town, Amazon is opening two new offices in Shoreditch as part of its forty billion pound UK investment plan. The first has already opened its doors and the second follows in 2026, adding hundreds of new workspaces, meeting rooms and event spaces to the area.
These decisions are not coincidences. They reflect a nationwide change in workplace behaviour. According to the British Chambers of Commerce, 41% of businesses have asked staff to spend more time working on site over the past year. The return to the office is no longer only a trend. It is a reality.
Offices look different now
What has changed is the role the office plays. Employees are not coming back just for a desk. They are coming back for comfort, connection and an experience they cannot get at home. That shift has sparked a new wave of creativity in workplace design.
Architects are now thinking outside the box. Some companies are experimenting with new ways to reduce stress. Others are redesigning acoustics so conversations feel natural without being intrusive. Some even test entire colour schemes, offering employees a change in environment to help with productivity.
It may sound indulgent, but this focus reflects a simple truth. If the commute is long and expensive, the office needs to be worth the journey.
The hidden teams building tomorrow’s workspaces
While glossy renderings make headlines, the real transformation is happening behind the scenes. Before a single employee sits down, an entire network of specialists has already shaped the building.
Furniture installers assemble thousands of desks and workstations. Technology teams load equipment, configure meeting rooms and prepare entire floors of IT. Warehouse crews store assets while buildings are still under construction. Sustainability experts sort and recycle old furniture.
And threading all these roles together are the project managers and logistics teams who choreograph moves that often take place overnight or across weekends so day-to-day operations are never disrupted.
This work is complex and mostly invisible, yet absolutely essential.
An SFI Logistics spokesperson puts it simply:
“People see the final office and think it arrived fully formed. They never see the months of planning, the 2am installations, the IT loading, the equipment checks or the thousands of items being delivered and carefully put together. Every single part of an office has a reason and a story, and teams like ours exist to help bring that story to life.”
Their message is simple: The future of the office is not only created on design software, it is created by people in high vis jackets, lifting, installing and building spaces that feel good to walk into.
A growing sector with growing expectations
Workspace creation is now one of the fastest growing areas within the wider real estate world. Companies are investing more in design and user experience because they know the office is no longer a default. It is a choice. And when it becomes a choice, it has to earn its place.
Consultants say companies are more data driven than ever. They track how people use space, how noise affects focus and which layouts help teams collaborate. They study lighting, colour, temperature and movement. Everything is under review and everything can be redesigned.
That means the teams who physically assemble these spaces are more important than ever.
A single design change can define entire floors, and someone has to bring those changes to life.
The future is being built right now
JP Morgan’s tower will rise over Canary Wharf for the next six years. Amazon’s new offices will welcome teams in Shoreditch long before that. Across London, countless other businesses are upgrading, relocating or rebuilding their spaces.
The city may not return to the offices of 2019, and it probably should not. What is coming out is something more intentional and more human. Spaces are being redesigned to bring people together, not simply to hold people in place.
London’s office sector is not dying. It is reinventing itself with the help of an enormous community of designers, consultants, installers and logistics teams working quietly in the background. Their work means that when an employee walks into a new workspace for the first time, it feels natural, seamless and ready.
The new office era is not about nostalgia. It is about possibility. And London has become one of the clearest examples of how workplaces can change when the world around them does.
