British Land is delighted to announce a year-long partnership with the internationally renowned National Theatre, bringing creative events and experiences to British Land’s Paddington Central, Regent’s Place and Broadgate campuses in London.

The partnership will see British Land and the National Theatre curate a varied series of events over the coming year, exploring the benefits of collaboration and creativity in working life and encouraging people back to work at the three London campuses. The partnership aims to provide space for in-person experiences to thrive, as well as re-building the sense of workplace community, missed by many when working from home during the pandemic. Available to over 40,000 people working at the three British Land London campuses, the events will be free to attend and will run at a range of times throughout the day to accommodate the varied schedules of occupiers.

Over the coming year, British Land and the National Theatre will host monthly workshops led by creative experts, focusing on skills used by theatrical professionals in the rehearsal room and exploring how these can be applied to enhance the working day; from movement, posture, presence, to speech and language techniques.

Separate theatre techniques sessions will demonstrate skills such as Special Effects and Prosthetics in Theatre, enabling attendees to ‘look behind the curtain’ and gain a unique creative insight into how the magic of theatre comes to life. The final strand of activity will see quarterly Thought Leadership panel discussions hosted across the campuses, focusing on topical themes relevant to British Land customers such as representation, inclusion and the re-enlivenment of cultural and corporate spaces following the pandemic.

All events will take place in person, with the majority being hosted at British Land’s flexible Storey Office spaces. Events will be bookable online through the Broadgate, Paddington Central and Regent’s Place websites.

David Lockyer, Head of Campuses at British Land, commented: “Partnering with one of the UK’s most innovating cultural organisations gives us an opportunity to offer our occupiers a series of diverse and inspiring events, which are possible at our campuses given the breadth of space and facilities available. After a challenging year for British theatre owing to the pandemic, this is also an opportunity for us to support the creative industry’s recovery, in particular the creatives and freelancers connected to the National Theatre who will be running sessions for our occupiers.

“The partnership builds on British Land’s existing offer to occupiers and makes use of our campuses’ diverse array of customer engagement features and social spaces, including those contained within our Storey flexible workspaces. Partnerships such as this highlight that the return to the office is about more than just work; it represents our belief that London’s diverse and thriving culture should be part of that experience.”

Lisa Burger, Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive at the National Theatre, comments: “We are delighted to be partnering with British Land to deliver events for their communities using theatrical techniques to demonstrate the powerful and positive effect that these skills can have on individuals and the workforce. The workshops will help promote wellbeing, collaboration, and boost confidence and in turn, we hope that those taking part can transfer these skills to their day-to-day lives, whilst re-energising British Land’s London campuses.”

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About British Land

Our portfolio of high-quality UK commercial property is focused on London Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment assets throughout the UK. We own or manage a portfolio valued at £12.7bn (British Land share: £9.1bn) as at 31 March 2021 making us one of Europe’s largest listed real estate investment companies.

We create Places People Prefer, delivering the best, most sustainable places for our customers and communities. Our strategy is to leverage our best-in-class platform and proven expertise in development, repositioning and active management, investing behind two key themes: Campuses and Retail & Fulfilment.

Our three Campuses at Broadgate, Paddington Central and Regent’s Place are dynamic neighbourhoods, attracting growth customers and sectors, and offering some of the best connected, highest quality and most sustainable space in London. We are delivering our fourth campus at Canada Water, where we have planning consent to deliver 5 million sq ft of residential, commercial, retail and community space over 53 acres. Our campuses account for 70% of our portfolio. Retail & Fulfilment accounts for 25% of the portfolio and is focused on retail parks which are aligned to the growth of convenience, online and last mile fulfilment. We are complementing this with urban logistics primarily in London, focused on development-led opportunities.

Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. In 2020, we set out our sustainability strategy which focuses on two time-critical areas where British Land can create the most benefit: making our whole portfolio net zero carbon by 2030 and partnering to grow social value and wellbeing in the communities where we operate.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

About the National Theatre

The National Theatre’s mission is to make world-class theatre, for everyone. The NT creates and shares unforgettable stories with audiences across the UK and around the world. On its own stages, on tour, in schools, on cinema screens and streaming at home, it strives to be accessible, inclusive and sustainable.

The National Theatre empowers artists and craftspeople to make world-leading work, investing in talent and developing new productions with a wide range of theatre companies at its New Work Department.

Our nation thrives on fresh talent and new ideas, so the National Theatre works with young people and teachers right across the UK through performance, writing and technical programmes to ignite the creativity of the next generation.

Together with communities, the NT creates ambitious works of participatory theatre in deep partnerships that unite theatres and local organisations – showing that nothing brings us together like theatre.

The National Theatre needs your support to shape a bright, creative future. For more information, please visit nationaltheatre.org.uk

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