Inside the Best Office on Earth

Deep in the back streets of east London, a revolution in the way we work is taking place. Cosmopolitan’s Amy Grier spends a week in start-up central to see what all the fuss is about.

- Amy Grier

In the slate-grey 7am half-light, the building glows like a tumescent orange spaceship, throbbing with energy and unreleased power. At first, I was worried I wouldn’t find it, looking anxiously down at my phone maps, and up again at the rows of clothes, coffee and curry shops that line the street. The minute I happen upon it, the idea that I would have to hunt for it seems ludicrous, laughable, almost. Walking past Second Home would be like walking past a fire-pit on a glacier.

Three stories high, and covered entirely in transparent plastic that curves into and away from the façade like a wave, the ethereal glimmer comes from the thousand-odd Bauhaus lamps inside. Even at this unholy time of day, the place is a hive of industry: one guy in a suit talks quietly but firmly into a hands-free mouthpiece while pouring himself a coffee in the café. On the next floor up, two men (one still in full Lycralout cycling clobber) type frantically on MacBooks, while three women convene in a pod, sitting on midcentury chairs, surrounded by 6fthigh climbing plants, to practise a pitch. A curtain is drawn around the middle of the main working space on the ground floor – Tuesday morning yoga begins in an hour.