Office Space in Holborn: What Businesses Need to Know

Working in Holborn

Holborn’s defining quality has to be its position. It’s located on the northern edge of the City of London, with the West End to the west and Farringdon and Clerkenwell immediately to the north. The result is a submarket that’s genuinely central without the premium that comes with a Mayfair or EC2 postcode.

As for the working environment, it’s quieter and more varied than the City to the east. The streets around Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane and New Street Square have a character shaped by smaller buildings. With historic courts and passages, the professional community values discretion and substance over spectacle. That suits certain occupiers well. Think law firms, advisory businesses, specialist finance practices and established media organisations that don’t need to project the scale of a Bishopsgate tower.

High Holborn itself is a busy road with a different energy. Retail occupies the ground level with a mix of building ages and specifications above, and the Tube running directly beneath. Moving north from High Holborn into the WC1 and WC2 postcodes, the streets become noticeably quieter. You’ll also enjoy open space that’s rare in this part of London, with Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the gardens of the Inns of Court.

Types of office space in Holborn

Holborn offers a balanced office market that combines modern workspace with the character of one of central London’s most established business districts. Alongside high-quality Grade A developments, you’ll find refurbished commercial buildings, flexible workspace and period offices that appeal to a broad range of occupiers.

Whether your priority is securing the latest workplace amenities, maintaining flexibility or finding a prestigious address with character, Holborn provides a diverse mix of office space to suit different business needs.

5 key office buildings in Holborn

Holborn’s office market is defined by practicality, quality and value. While it lacks the skyline of the City or the creative profile of Soho, it offers an impressive mix of modern Grade A developments, refurbished headquarters buildings and well-connected business campuses.

The buildings below showcase the breadth of the market, illustrating why Holborn continues to attract organisations looking for high-quality workspace with strong transport links and a more competitive cost base than neighbouring submarkets.

The appeal of MidCity Place

• The largest floorplates in the Holborn submarket at just over 31,000 sq ft, suited to businesses consolidating significant headcount in a single location
• Equidistant from Holborn and Chancery Lane Underground stations, with Farringdon’s Elizabeth line connection a 15-minute walk away
• A KPF-designed building with an atrium, bicycle storage, shower facilities and on-site property management. Comprehensive specification at Holborn rents
• Available space spanning the 1st to 3rd floors offers a range of options, with asking rents from £63.68 to £110/sq ft (depending on floor and configuration)

Occupiers

MidCity Place’s tenant mix reflects the diversity of the Holborn submarket. Yahoo occupies 83,885 sq ft on a lease to 2027, representing one of the larger technology tenancies in this part of London. Mitsubishi Corporation (52,134 sq ft), Atos (50,563 sq ft) and Playtech (38,527 sq ft) make up a technology and corporate services base that sits alongside Zoom’s 18,745 sq ft. Technology businesses keep choosing it because Holborn’s location and rents make more sense for them than paying City or West End prices.

Features

The availability of space across multiple floors makes MidCity Place one of the more flexible options in Holborn for growing businesses. With asking rents reaching £110/sq ft on the second floor and £63.68/sq ft on the third, the building offers genuine choice depending on how a business wants to balance cost against floor position. The building’s atrium is visible from the street and creates an arrival experience that feels more substantial than many similar-aged buildings in the submarket.

The appeal of The Cursitor Building

• A Chancery Lane address at the heart of London’s legal district, directly adjacent to the Inns of Court and seconds from Chancery Lane Underground station
• Wired Certified Platinum for best-in-class digital connectivity infrastructure, suited to businesses with demanding technology requirements
• Typical floorplates of 9,200 sq ft offer a full floor for teams of 55-75 people, with a roof terrace available to occupiers

Occupiers

The Cursitor Building’s tenant profile is anchored by Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s largest communications and media groups. Preventicum and InHealth Group bring a health and wellbeing thread to the tenant mix that sits alongside the building’s legal district address. This unusual combination shows how broadly Chancery Lane now draws. As a specialist criminal law practice, Corker Binning is more typical of the neighbourhood.

The average asking rent of £82.56/sq ft is well above the Holborn submarket average of £66.28/sq ft, reflecting the building’s quality and location premium.

Features

The Cursitor Building’s renovation in 2017 was thorough enough to effectively create a new building within the existing structure. The Wired Certified Platinum rating is particularly meaningful. It represents a formal assessment of connectivity infrastructure across power redundancy, ISP quality, wireless capability and installation capacity. If you’re in financial services, legal technology or any sector where connectivity reliability is operationally critical, that certification is a verifiable baseline rather than just a marketing claim.

The appeal of 3 New Street Square

• Part of the New Street Square estate, with a pedestrianised shared courtyard that creates a campus-like environment unusual for buildings of this size in EC4
• Myo operates managed workspace within the building, providing flexible options alongside traditional leases for businesses that want quality without a long commitment
• City Thameslink station is 0.3 miles away, Chancery Lane Underground is 0.4 miles and Blackfriars is 0.4 miles. They give you strong transport options across Thameslink, Central and District/Circle lines
• High ceilings and accent lighting in partitioned offices are ideal for professional services occupiers who value a refined working environment

Occupiers

3 New Street Square is 100% leased, with Myo’s flexible workspace accounting for 7,612 sq ft and restaurant operator Yolk at ground level. Learning Technologies Group and Bonaia complete a tenant mix that spans professional development, technology and hospitality. The building’s average asking rent of £80.33/sq ft is above the Holborn submarket average, reflecting the estate setting and the quality of the managed offer within the building.

Features

The New Street Square estate setting is the most distinctive feature. Shared between the estate’s buildings, the pedestrianised courtyard creates a working environment that feels calmer and more considered than a standard street-facing office building. If client visitors and daily culture matter for your business, arriving at a courtyard rather than a pavement makes a practical difference to how the workplace is experienced. That’s certainly the case for professional services firms and advisory practices as well as creative organisations. The Myo offer also means that businesses can start with managed space and transition to a traditional lease within the same building as they grow.

The appeal of Edenica

• BREEAM Outstanding (the highest sustainability rating) in a new-build delivered in 2025, making it the strongest ESG credential available in the Holborn submarket
• Fletcher Priest’s masonry-clad design gives the building a distinctive presence on Fetter Lane that stands apart from the glass curtain wall towers common across EC2 and EC3
• 72% leased since completing in 2025, with five floors still available. It’s one of the few new-build opportunities currently accessible in this part of London
• Roof terrace and natural light throughout with a service charge of £12.50/sq ft and achieved rents of £85/sq ft, representing strong value for a BREEAM Outstanding building

Occupiers

Edenica’s early tenant list reflects its position at the intersection of legal, professional services and energy sectors. Technip Energies, a global engineering and technology business, takes the largest floor at 19,437 sq ft. Fletcher Priest Architects occupies 15,112 sq ft. As the building’s own architect, that’s a genuine statement of confidence in the design. Elsewhere, US law firm Boies Schiller Flexner (11,743 sq ft), MacFarlanes (10,753 sq ft) and Blake Morgan (10,745 sq ft) complete a legal and professional services core that reflects the Fetter Lane neighbourhood’s enduring appeal to the legal community.

Features

Edenica’s masonry construction is unusual for a new-build office building in central London. The choice of brick and terracotta over a glass curtain wall reflects a proper design philosophy. It engages with Fetter Lane’s existing character rather than imposing a generic tower on it.

For occupiers, the practical benefit is a building that retains heat better and reduces solar gain. In short, the working environment has different acoustic and thermal qualities compared to a full-glass structure. For businesses thinking about how their workspace reflects their values, the design and BREEAM Outstanding rating together make a coherent statement. That’s especially important if you have genuine sustainability commitments rather than just ESG reporting requirements.

The appeal of 110 High Holborn

• The most competitively priced building in this selection, with asking rents starting at £30/sq ft and reaching £69.50/sq ft on the upper floors
• Plug-and-play fitted space available on the third floor alongside Cat A availability on the first floor, giving businesses a choice between immediate occupation and a bespoke fit-out
• Fitness centre, roof terrace, shower facilities and bike racks already in place, reducing the ancillary fit-out burden for incoming tenants
• 34.9% current vacancy across six available floors provides genuine flexibility on size and floor position, with options from 2,464 sq ft upwards

Occupiers

Keywords Studios, a global video game services business, is the largest tenant at 19,081 sq ft on a lease to September 2032. Gymbox occupies 15,187 sq ft of ground-floor and basement space, creating a fitness anchor that benefits the building’s occupiers. Tradewind Recruitment, Volterra Fietta and Benchmark complete a tenant mix that spans technology services, specialist law and consulting. The current vacancy rate of 34.9% is above the submarket average. But it reflects a building where the discount to neighbouring stock is the primary draw rather than specification.

Features

The fitted third-floor suite is the building’s most practical differentiator for businesses that need to move quickly. Plug-and-play space at £69.50/sq ft with a High Holborn address allows a business to be operational without a fit-out programme or capital commitment beyond the lease. That combination of speed and cost is a genuine alternative to the managed office operators elsewhere in the submarket. Ideal for growing companies, startups or businesses relocating from a serviced office model.  The building’s visible street presence on High Holborn also provides a recognisable address without the premium of the newer buildings to the east.

Key considerations

Holborn occupies a distinctive position between the City and the West End, making it an attractive choice for businesses that want excellent connectivity without the highest occupancy costs. However, as with any office search, there are practical considerations beyond headline rent. Understanding the area’s character, building stock and evolving transport links will help you identify the right location and avoid compromises as your business grows.

Holborn offers City-adjacent value

Headline rents across the Holborn submarket typically run from £60 to £90/sq ft for Grade A space, with service charges generally lower than equivalent City stock. If you want to be close to the City but don’t need a Bishopsgate address, the value case is straightforward.

The legal community defines the character

Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane and the streets around the Inns of Court have been shaped by the legal profession for centuries. That influences the working environment and the amenity offer, plus the way the streets feel. It’s a serious, professional address that suits certain businesses very well and may feel quieter than some occupiers expect.