Knight Frank Takes 72K SF Liverpool Street Headquarters As Station Plans Revised

Real estate adviser Knight Frank has agreed to take 72,400 SF of office space at Aviva Investors’ One Liverpool Street development in the City of London for its global headquarters.

Knight Frank’s 18-year lease joins global law firm Dentons, which preleased almost 68K SF at One Liverpool in 2023.

Due to complete in the first quarter of 2026, One Liverpool Street will provide 176K SF of office and retail space across 11 floors. It forms part of a development scheme that includes 101 Moorgate, which provides more than 70K SF of office and retail space across its ground and eight upper floors, plus a roof terrace.

The two buildings sit at the eastern and western entrances, respectively, to the Elizabeth Line at Liverpool Street station and are targeting a BREEAM Outstanding rating for sustainability performance and an A energy performance certificate.

A public consultation has also recently opened on Aviva Investors’ plans to redevelop 130 Fenchurch Street.

“We believe this is a development which can help the City get ready for the future by creating flagship assets that continue to attract world-leading businesses to the heart of the Square Mile,” Aviva Investors Head of Central London Ed Atterwill said in a statement.

Separately, Network Rail said it submitted revised plans to the City of London Corporation to redevelop Liverpool Street Station. Network Rail had previously worked with developer Sellar on a controversial £1.5B scheme that proposed partially demolishing the Victorian station and building a new cantilevered office tower.

The original planning application was filed in May 2023 but was revised in November last year after it received more than 2,000 objections from the public, Historic England and local authority Westminster Council. The revisions include reducing the size of the office tower above the station, realigning the building to avoid blocking sight lines of the Great Eastern Hotel, redesigning the station's entrances and improving landscaping.

Late last year, Network Rail replaced lead architect Herzog & de Meuron with Acme.

“Liverpool Street is one of London's great Victorian stations and our proposals will make the station accessible, permeable and celebrate its function as the gateway into the City of London,” Acme Founding Director Friedrich Ludewig said of the new plans. “We have embraced the challenge to design new entrances reflecting its position as the UK's busiest train station, and roof structures that speak to the original 1875 structures and the 1990s extension.”