The King’s godson the Duke of Westminster has launched a new co-working space to help charities keep their offices in central London.
Fivefields, a 30,000 sq ft flexible space in Victoria, has been set up specifically for charities and social impact organisations that share a common interest in improving the lives of children and young people, mirroring the mission of the Duke’s Westminster Foundation.
The Grosvenor development, that will operated and managed by flexible workspace specialist x+why, will bring like-minded charities under one roof enabling them to collaborate, network and grow together.
The Westminster Foundation will offer grant funding of up to 50 per cent of the membership costs.
The Duke of Westminster said: “Following the pandemic, too many of the brilliant charities that we work with were facing the horrendous conundrum of maintaining office space that they could ill afford, or being forced to work from home further away from their beneficiaries, with the inevitable negative impact on their operations. Fivefields is an opportunity for us to be more innovative with our resources and put the organisations that arguably do the most valuable work in the whole of society right at the heart of our property portfolio.”
Action Tutoring, the London Wildlife Trust and Doorstep Library are among the first charities to join the new workspace.
Two thirds of the building in Grosvenor Gardens, with a grade II Listed facade, is set aside for charities and social impact organisations, with the other third a mixture of private offices and enterprise suites for the open market, prioritising those whose work is complementary to that of the charity members.
Susannah Hardyman, CEO, Action Tutoring said: "Finding good office space in London can be extremely challenging on charity budgets, yet being in a great space can make such a difference to team morale, productivity and retention, ultimately benefiting the young people we exist to serve.”
