Waterloo Office Space

Waterloo office space is associated with a district representing military tradition, capitalism and British persistence.

Today, the district sits in Central London and forms part of the Waterloo and South Bank ward of the London Borough of Lambeth, as well as sections of the London Borough of Southwark.

The origin story of its railway station reveals much of Waterloo’s wider history.

In 1838, to attract wealthy tourists from Southampton to the capital, the London and Southwestern Railway company opened a train station in the area, claiming that the terminal station, Central Station, was the centre of London.

It was south of the River Thames in Nine Elms, but the company persisted in its efforts. Over the next 50 years, the station expanded with the addition of further stations, including Cyprus Station, Khartoum Station, Necropolis Station, and Windsor Station, as the site grew closer to the banks of the Thames. The system was disorganised, and the stations were interconnected via a series of corridors.

In 1869, the rival Southeastern Railway company created a station nearby and called it Waterloo Junction.

These companies merged, and in 1899, the London and Southwestern was awarded its long-fought-for underground line across the river to Charing Cross, named the Waterloo & City line.

Central Station was then completely remodelled and became Waterloo Station, and Waterloo Junction became Waterloo East Station.

The name Waterloo was taken from the bridge across the river, commemorating the Battle of Waterloo, which was fought in June 1815 near Waterloo. At the time of the battle, Waterloo was part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now Belgium.

Its name came from the Middle Dutch for a watery marsh, which coincidentally was how its London counterpart would have been described before it was developed.

Waterloo remains a popular destination for entertainment for tourists and Londoners alike. It is home to the London Eye, museums, theatres and a wide range of bars and restaurants.

It is also a popular business district and is home to a wide range of businesses from various sectors, of different sizes, including household-name companies. The multinational oil and gas company, Shell has been based its London headquarters on the South Bank area of Waterloo since 1962 and, in 2025, it was announced that digital payments giant, Paypal had agreed to rent 40,000 square feet of office space on the top floor of 76 Southbank, a 300,000 square feet redevelopment of a grade II-listed building with 50,000 square feet of terraces.

The Waterloo office space market offers a wide range of business accommodation options, including brand-new Grade A office buildings with cutting-edge amenities and period buildings that have been elegantly renovated and retrofitted to provide contemporary, high-end workspace solutions.

Businesses can choose to rent office space via conventional leases, which offer ready-to-fit office space with full autonomy over fit-out, furnishing, and management.

Waterloo also has a growing number of premium flex space solutions that provide best-in-class workspace with excellent hospitality, all-inclusive pricing, high amenity and the flexibility to grow. These include premium managed office spaces and first-class serviced offices.

The five-star managed office spaces in Waterloo are ready-fitted, and the client directs the furnishing and fit-out process with the assistance of the managed office landlord or provider’s design and technical teams.

Tailored offices can include private reception areas, meeting rooms, executive suites, open-plan workspaces, hot-desking areas, kitchens, and bathrooms. The client also works with the customer service and business support teams to create a bespoke service level pack that best suits their needs.

The self-contained managed offices can be a suite, a cluster of suites, a floor, several floors or a building with its own front door.

The private serviced offices in Waterloo are fully furnished, fitted, and equipped with state-of-the-art business technologies. Clients enjoy premium communal amenities, including bookable meeting and boardrooms, breakout spaces, lounges, quiet zones, fully stocked kitchens, fitness and wellness facilities, cafes, and outdoor spaces.

These options offer all-inclusive rental packages, so the monthly rental fee covers utilities, cleaning and other overheads that would be paid for and managed separately if renting an office in Waterloo.

The premium office buildings are designed and managed sustainably, meeting high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards for their occupants.

Waterloo’s luxury, environmentally friendly office buildings also offer end-of-trip facilities, including bicycle storage, showers, lockers, and changing rooms, for self-powered commuters.

However, the district offers excellent public transport links from Waterloo and Waterloo East stations. Lambeth North and Southwark stations are also close by.