LONDON — Condé Nast Britain is moving home.
The publisher of British Vogue, GQ, Wired, Tatler and Condé Nast Traveler has revealed that it’s moving to the Adelphi building in London.
Condé Nast Britain currently resides in Vogue House on Hanover Square — a historic space the publisher has occupied for more than 65 years.
This is part of the company’s aim to bring all of its U.K. staff under one roof. As Condé Nast Britain has expanded in the last few years, it has taken space for new teams in the Adelphi building.
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An email from the Condé Nast People Team sent to staff members said, “Over the last six months, we looked at many options in our search to find a space that is flexible enough to grow with us, whilst also reflecting our company’s exciting evolution and transformation.
“In an attempt to best serve all our needs and ambitions, whilst also prioritizing a location that will allow the greatest creative collaboration, we are planning to expand our footprint and redesign our space at the Adelphi.”
The company revealed that the plans are still in their early stages with a potential move-in date penciled in for January 2024. Condé Nast wants to “create a space that truly reflects us, a space that is exciting and future-looking, we’ll be establishing a group of representatives across our business and editorial teams to support the design and planning.”
Vogue House has become a fashion fixture over the years. It’s where editors of British Vogue cut their teeth, including Beatrix Miller, Anna Wintour and Alexander Shulman, who was the magazine’s longest-serving editor.
But it’s also where celebrities and royalty have walked through the revolving doors.
The former long-standing managing director of Condé Nast Britain, Nicholas Coleridge, told a podcast in 2021 that Princess Diana would often visit the offices to try on clothes.
“She found it very embarrassing to go to shops in Sloane Street or in Bond Street and try on clothes by a designer and then buy nothing and not get something. Because when she came in there was such excitement and everyone working there was so thrilled so then if she didn’t buy something she felt that she caused great disappointment to everyone who worked there,” said Coleridge.
“So she had an arrangement with Vogue that if she wanted to try a new designer, the magazine would call in quite a lot of clothes from that designer for her to try them on and then the fashion editors there would look at them with her and they would say, ‘You know, we think you look great in this one, this one I don’t think works quite so well, this one is marvelous.’”
Vogue House is nearby to the chic shopping area of New Bond and Conduit streets, and around the corner from Regent Street. The Adelphi building is in Victoria Embankment, which is not exactly a center of luxury shopping and is near to The Strand and Charing Cross station. While Condé Nast Britain put a positive spin on the move, no doubt it is somewhat related to cost savings given many of the publisher’s titles are still gaining momentum in the digital world as their print operations continue to decline. The shift in the U.K. follows Condé Nast in the U.S. downsizing its operations at One World Trade for similar reasons.