The Leverhulme Trust has transformed its 4,800 sq ft workspace at EC4’s 1 Pemberton Row into a contemporary office supporting agile working and interdisciplinary collaboration.
The relationship between Peldon Rose and the Leverhulme Trust spans more than a decade. Since our original work together in 2012, we’ve completed a number of small works at 1 Pemberton Row through our client focus team. Now, it was time for some wholesale evolution, and Peldon Rose’s SME team took on the challenge.
The Leverhulme Trust is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing approximately £100 million a year. The charity was established in 1925 under the will of Lord Leverhulme, a well-known philanthropist and founder of Lever Brothers, which later became Unilever.
The Trust today consists of a team of 19 staff, specialists in grant management, communications, finance, and investment. Its new workplace continues to nurture a close-knit community and facilitates high levels of daily collaboration, as well as providing a welcoming destination for visitors, prospective grant holders, and board members.
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illuminating heritage
The library is a place for quiet focus work. Details pay tribute to the Trust's founder, Lord Leverhulme, and its roots in academia
The open plan is an assortment of desks, collaboration areas and soft seating for visitors, distinguished by semi-permeable dividers in the form of bespoke timber joinery walls and high-backed booths. These act to distinguish an area without severing it entirely from the rest of the office. Team space within the open plan is also carefully carved out, with roundtables chosen to promote collaboration, discussion, and comfortable working. This contrasts with The Trust’s previous working environment, which saw most users in individual offices.
I am delighted that our brief has now become a reality. Peldon Rose took the Leverhulme team on a journey to discover what we wanted from the design and to tease out what was important to us and the way that we worked.
Sam White, Assistant Director of Finance, The Leverhulme Trust
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Dedicated rooms, including an all-company boardroom, cluster in one corner of the office. These offer private spaces to catch up, meet with clients, and in the case of the library, put heads down and embark on quiet, focused work. The library has all the charm of the Trust’s heritage and closeness to the world of academia. Bookshelves line two of the room’s walls, acoustic panels mitigate any unwanted reverberation, and a row of brass spotlights cast a soft glow above the worktable. A brass plaque of Lord Leverhulme hangs on the wall, proudly overlooking it all. It’s a private, pensive space, blending functionality with personality.
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a versatile teapoint
Different seating areas in the kitchen ensure it can be used for multiple purposes, from lunch, to collaborative work and catch ups
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Breaking away in the teapoint
A generous kitchen offers employees a space to socialise and unwind together over lunch breaks. Without wanting to limit the capability of this space, and to maximise its uses, it also provides a number of settings to serve as a working environment throughout the day. The colour palette departs from the navy blue of the Trust’s branding, leaning instead on warm pastel pinks, greens, and greys to compliment a bright and breezy aesthetic. Natural light spills over the timber floors through several large windows, and the large counter in the middle of the space doubles as a breakfast bar and events catering facility. It is the final piece in an office interior design which is fully immersive of The Leverhulme Trust’s close-knit, collaborative culture.
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