In October 2006, we moved into our flagship office at Bishops Square. Our main London office is located in the historic Spitalfields area, near Liverpool Street station and was designed and built specifically for Allen & Overy by leading architects, Foster and Partners. Around 300 people from our Banking and International Capital Markets departments are based in our second London office, 40 Bank Street, in Canary Wharf. This is a great way for us to maintain close contact with many of our key clients who are based in that area. A shuttle bus service operates between our London offices, cutting the travel time between the locations.
Our state-of-the-art building, Bishops Square has amazing facilities for staff and clients including a bar, subsidised coffee bar and restaurants, two rooftop gardens, a fitness centre and a fully equipped lecture theatre and knowledge centre. We also focused on our environmental responsibilities: our solar panels (one of the largest photovoltaic installations in Europe) save 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide and our three green roof terraces encourage biodiversity – and are a great space in which to relax. We are proud to have been awarded a rating of 'Very Good' by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), the world's leading system for assessing the range of environmental aspects associated with buildings.
We operate an extensive recycling programme, providing facilities for the recycling of normal office items as well as more unusual items such as CDs, glasses and mobile phones. We even have our own 'fiction library' where you can borrow and donate books.
One Bishops Square has free parking for around 300 bicycles, we also provide shower and locker facilities to encourage our partners and staff to cycle to work. Facilities are also provided for charging electric cars.
Not only are our new offices a huge investment in the future of Allen & Overy and our people, they are also an investment in the local community. We have forged strong relationships with schools, community organisations and local businesses in Tower Hamlets through our pro bono activities.