So when and where was the first office building developed and what if anything, can we learn from it and the examples that followed?
In this three-part series, I am going to explain the history of the office so we can better understand its role in our past, present and future.
Part 1 – Where did it all start?
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (Sept 2020), an office is ‘a room or a part of a building where people work usually sitting at desks.’ One could therefore argue that offices have existed since humans began writing because doing so effectively has involved sitting at a table or as we might refer to it, a desk.
This is an example of a ‘Cuneiform’ which was a system of writing developed by the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia c. 3,500-3,000 BC.
A blunt reed or stylus was used to create wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets.
It follows that an office of some description probably existed in Mesopotamia as early as 3,500 BC. That is when, as far as we know, one of the first “writing” systems was developed.
However, it is unlikely that offices in the ancient world were constructed as a purpose-built building. Instead, most would probably have comprised a room within a house or a palace. Some would have been contained within a military garrison or castle. Others would have been located within a cathedral or monastery.
To my knowledge, no one has proved the existence of a purpose-built office building in any of the ancient cities of Egypt, Greece or China. Not even ancient Rome can lay claim to the invention of the office building. So where can?
The answer is closer than you might think namely, London. Or to be more precise, Leadenhall Street in the City of London.
Designed by Richard Rogers and completed in 1986, the Lloyds Building in The City of London is Grade I Listed and a leading example of ‘Bowellism’ architecture. It is also built on the site of what many believe was the world’s first commercial office building
The date was 1729 and the building in question was the re-built East India House.
The East India Company was a trading company that was established in London in 1600. At that time, like many businesses it was managed from rooms within a merchant’s home. It was common for the proprietor of a trading company to live above the shop, as it were. He would employ clerks who also lived on-site. The employees were often treated like domestic servants. This meant that there was no need to commute. However, the flipside was that they felt captive. Sound familiar at all?
East India House was the London headquarters of the East India Company
The first incarnation of East India House was an Elizabethan mansion, previously known as Craven House, which the Company first occupied in 1648. This was completely rebuilt in 1726–29; and further remodelled and extended in 1796–1800. It is the 1729 version which is regarded by many architectural historians as the first purpose built commercial office building. It was demolished in 1861 and today, the site is occupied by the Lloyd's building, headquarters of Lloyd's of London.
The East India Company was governing much of India in the 18th century. This created a huge administrative task reflected in the design and management of its new headquarters which was located thousands of miles away in London. The enterprise generated enormous quantities of paperwork which in turn, required hundreds of clerks to process the information, often at great speed. The reason being that mail from India took anything from five to eight months to arrive. When the ship docked, it was imperative to process the information as quickly as possible so considered instructions could be sent back without undue delay. This meant that the administrative processes and command-and-control systems had to be well organised. However, many of the day-to-day management challenges sound all too familiar, even two hundred years later!
Here is an extract from the writings of an East India employee, Charles Lamb (1775-1834) who worked at East India House from 1792 to his retirement:
"On Friday I was at office from 10 in the morning (two hours dinner except) to 11 at night - last night till 9." There was much about Lamb's working life that sounds incredibly familiar. Like the way his employers granted perks one minute, only to take them away again as soon as times got hard. In 1817 for example, the holiday allowance of £10 a year was cut for new members of staff, Saturday became a full working day and the equivalent of the Christmas office party, the "yearly turtle feast", was scrapped.
It is interesting to note that back in the 17th and 18th Century most transactional business in the insurance, banking and shipping sectors was carried out in a coffee house. Maybe agile working is not that old a concept after all!
So there you have it. The first modern commercial office building was built in London three hundred years ago.
To discover how the office building evolved and what the future of the office might look like, look out for future posts.
If you would like advice on your future office requirements either in the North West or elsewhere in the UK, please call Martyn Markland on 0161 457 1422 or email him at mm@tenantag.co.uk .