A West End office built around the hearth

SODA’s Elsley House starts with an unusual office idea: the hearth. Inside a 1920s building on Great Titchfield Street in London’s West End, the practice has made that old point of gathering the organising principle for a new workspace for Great Portland Estates. The name comes from Thomas Elsley, a local metalworker whose tiles often appeared on fireplaces, giving the project a historical thread as well as a social one.

In place of a literal fire, the centre of the plan is the tea point. SODA turns it into a shared kitchen with communal seating and blue-stained timber tables, making the middle of the office the place for conversation rather than circulation. Around that, the interiors are pared back and calm, with natural materials, Crittall banding, bespoke storage and shelving, custom rugs, and a careful mix of soft cushions and sharper frames.

There is more to the project than desks and joinery. A basement gym includes a yoga room wrapped in an orangey-peach Maharam curtain, while the courtyard picks up the building’s art deco geometry in patterned tiles, planting and softer outdoor seating. Worth reading for anyone interested in how workplace design is borrowing from hospitality without losing its own purpose.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 3 October 2026. Read the original