'New era' as SoA moves to Bloomsbury

The Society of Authors (SoA) is moving from South Kensington back to Bloomsbury in London, “to usher in a new era”.

The organisation said there was “months of planning and development ahead”, but the move to 24 Bedford Row is expected to take place in March next year. The new offices will be a few minutes’ walk from its first office in Portugal Street, where the Society was based 79 years ago.

A spokesperson described the Society's current offices in Drayton Gardens as “outdated and inaccessible” for many of its 10,000 members and “desperately in need of modernisation”. As the membership and staff team has grown to 21-office based staff, the property had “grown increasingly unfit for purpose”. The SoA also has two employees who work outside of London.

The move and redevelopment will be funded from the sale of the properties in Drayton Gardens, which went on the market for £8.5m in November and is currently listed as "under offer". A Society spokesperson confirmed it had exchanged contracts for both Drayton Gardens and Bedford Row on Friday (23rd March).

The new office will have six storeys, and advantages include a drop-in space for members to work or meet, better facilities for remote sharing of meetings and events, improved transport links as well as full disabled access and enhanced working conditions for staff, according to a society spokesperson.

© Tim Gallagher

“The Society of Authors is a vibrant, growing organisation and to keep growing and fully supporting our members we need the right home,” the chair of the SoA management committee, David Donachie, said.

“Moving to 24 Bedford Row will be transformational for us in so many ways – giving us a chance to completely adapt the space to suit our members’ needs, as well as for the staff team.”

He described it as “a major step in 2019 will usher in a new era for the Society of Authors”.

The SoA has been based at several addresses since 1884, however 24 Bedford Row will be only the second property the organisation has owned.

Before formal incorporation the council met in Garrick Street and the Committee of Management at Queen Anne’s Gate Westminster.

The society’s first official address was 24 Salisbury Street in The Strand. Over the next 50 years it leased the following office premises in Lincoln’s Inn Fields between 1887 and 1901, Storey’s Gate in Westminster from 1901 and 1913, before moving to nearby Tothill Street until 1925. The collective was based at Gower Street in Bloomsbury for 14 years until 1939 after which it moved to 84 Drayton Gardens.