{"id":102294,"date":"2016-05-12T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/clerkenwell-is-the-new-black-friars-a-brief-look-back-at-our-time-in-the-city\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:40:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:40:37","slug":"clerkenwell-is-the-new-black-friars-a-brief-look-back-at-our-time-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/strategy\/clerkenwell-is-the-new-black-friars-a-brief-look-back-at-our-time-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Clerkenwell is the new Black\u2026. friars: A brief look back at our time in the city."},"content":{"rendered":"

While we still had our fun and fancy office on Sekforde Street back in 2014, despite the counterintuitive prospect of gaining nearly\u00a0three whole days each\u00a0year thanks to the shorter commute, moving to Blackfriars didn\u2019t immediately resonate with me. <\/span>\u00a0It has to be said that after the open spaces, friendliness and stylish food markets of Farringdon, for many of us, Blackfriars summed up a picture of concrete building blocks brimming with bombastic city slickers and unimaginative caf\u00e9 chains. We needn\u2019t have worried, however.<\/span> Nestled on the third\u00a0floor of the Mermaid Centre at 2 Puddle Dock, our office overlooked the Thames, giving us an inspiring view of small passenger boats chugging past (even more entertaining during one of the many Tube strikes) and the famous London mudlarkers who, at low tide, could be seen rummaging through the silt on the opposite bank. \u00a0With only a short walk from the Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre and with St Paul\u2019s Cathedral on our doorstep, it soon became apparent that our new Blackfriars pad definitely had a lot to offer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Food and fun<\/h2>\n

The more we explored, the more food options popped up. \u00a0<\/span>Grace<\/span><\/a>\u2019s, a small family-run coffee shop hailed by the Evening Standard as having \u2018London\u2019s Best sausage rolls \u2018 saw to it that several team members piled on the pounds. I myself at one stage last year had a shameful \u00a330-a-week sausage roll habit. No wonder the lifts at the Mermaid Centre were always out of order.<\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0Ty, our Lead Designer, went so many times that even Google took note! Here we can see him, waddling down the street, calorific snack in hand. \u00a0Perpetuated by Maps. \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 It would be remiss of me not to mention some of our other favourite lunch spots. If you were to examine the financial\u00a0records of <\/span>local Asian kitchen, Katsu Curry, it would quickly become apparent that the business was almost single handedly propped up by two particular members of the\u00a0creative team. With Borough Market just across the river, we were spoiled for choice<\/a>. \u00a0GBK, Birley Sandwiches<\/a>, Burrito Mama and the Bilingsgate Porter\u00a0also deserve a mention. \u00a0The <\/span>Happenstance<\/span><\/a>\u00a0does not.<\/span> \u00a0On occasion, we brought the food to us. Whether during our new \u2018Monday Breakfast Club\u2019 or our Friday communal lunch debates, our Blackfriars office definitely saw more team meals than our previous one. But it didn\u2019t stop there. In an effort to bond with our neighbouring offices (\u2018accountants eat cake, right?\u2019) we threw together a charity bake sale last year. \u00a0With a spread ranging from banana bread and crumble to chocolate brownies and quiche, we were pretty pleased with our efforts. \u00a0Paul Hollywood would have been proud.<\/p>\n

Drinks and dresses<\/h2>\n

Geeks with Personality<\/span><\/a> we may be, but relatively few of us, I imagine, would claim to be bookish. Despite this, it would not be unusual on a Thursday or Friday night to find many of us at the Blackfriars Booksellers. For the uninitiated, yes the <\/span>Bookseller<\/span><\/a>\u2019s is a pub. \u00a0\u00a0And a great one at that.<\/span> It is rare to find a bar or eatery that satisfies the motley palate of a mad-hat multi-national outfit such as ourselves – but the Booksellers\u2019 staff managed it with a smile. \u00a0With the option of spilling out into the evening sunshine when the interior became too heaving, we enjoyed many a pint and shared many a story at that place. \u00a0We\u2019ll be back for more, no doubt. The pubs around Clerkenwell have some big shoes to fill. When I asked around the office for stand-out memories from our time in Blackfriars, there was one that came up more frequently than any others: last year\u2019s summer party.<\/span> Organised with the diligence and precision of General Ludendorff by PPC manager and resident rogue Joyce Havemeier, the afternoon revolved \u00a0around a number of games, activities and embarrassing ordeals.<\/span> The afternoon was pitched to us (or me anyway) as \u2018team building exercises.\u2019 \u00a0It soon became clear, however, that team building was far from the agenda and the day had simply been designed to humiliate and deflate. \u00a0Whether stitching together bin bags and newspapers into a wedding dress to be modelled by our Technical Analyst or pleading with nearby tourists to pose for a photo with us while wearing the dilapidated remains of said garments, the afternoon\u00a0was not for the faint-hearted.<\/span> It should be said, that while there aren\u2019t many activities as painful as, with a mouth full of water, desperately gargling the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody to a sea of blank faces, the day was filled with laughter and bonding. \u00a0We later piled out to a local restaurant and bar where the evening and our collective memory faded until home time.<\/p>\n

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