The news is the confluence of many current real estate trends and themes: how to repurpose offices while people work from home, mindfulness, biophilic design, indoor farming, the future of city centres.

Police have found a cannabis farm set up in the basement of a commercial property in the heart of London’s financial district while workers were absent.

City of London police said on Wednesday that they had made two arrests following a raid on a property on Throgmorton Street, where 826 cannabis plants were found.

“This is the first cannabis factory in the City, no doubt being set up in response to fewer people being out and about during the pandemic who might have noticed any unusual activity,” City of London Police Temporary Detective Inspector Andy Spooner said.

The raid took place on 14 January, after police received reports of a strong smell of cannabis coming from the unnamed building the day before.

Throgmorton Street is at the absolute centre of London’s financial district — the small, narrow street leads out on to the Bank of England. It was named after Nicholas Throckmorton, a 16th century English politician who was an ambassador on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I.

The London Stock Exchange once stood on the street, and it was also once home to Thomas Cromwell, politician and right-hand man to Henry VIII.