Pharmaceuticals giant GSK is to move its global headquarters back to central London in 2024 in a major boost for the West End economy.
The company will relocate from its current base - the high profile glass facade campus on the Great West Road in Brentford where it has been since 2002 - to new offices on New Oxford Street close to Tottenham Court Road.
The ten storey building, currently known as the Earnshaw, but likely to be renamed, is under construction and due to be completed next year,.
Around 3000 people will work there on a hybrid basis including the GSK global leadership team headed by CEO Emma Walmsley.
GSK said the new HQ would allow it to be closer to London’s so called Knowledge Quarter and key partners such as the Francis Crick Institute and King’s College.
It also gives easier access to the company’s AI hub at Kings Cross and its global R&D hub in Stevenage.
The move marks a return for GSK to central London, which can trace its origins to the Plough Court Pharmacy founded in the City of London, in 1715.
The development hopes to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding rating for energy use, the highest accreditation available.
Ms Walmsley said: “Our new headquarters represents an important next step for GSK. As a global biopharma company, we are proud to call London our home and look forward to the opportunities for even closer collaboration with the city’s world-class science, academic and healthcare institutions. Our new headquarters will provide a fantastic new focal point for GSK people to meet, collaborate and ultimately deliver solutions for the urgent healthcare challenges facing the world.”
