Workspace Arvostelua 90

All the 1 stars on here are 1000000000% true and no accountability.

Fantastic team and amazing space. We had a charity exhibition there and it went better than well. All thanks to the great team at Workspace.

Zero stars.
Worked for Workspace a few years ago, some decent professional managers, but found that most of them were arrogant and 3 of them to be aggressive. HR department was of no help, didn’t care or take complaints from staff seriously, it doesn’t help when they’re drinking buddies with the managers you’re complaining about. An extreme drinking culture exists across the organisation. Sexism was rife and casual racism was the norm, with persistent references to tenants as being of less importance due to their ethnicity. A very unpleasant company to work for.

Needs restructuring from the top.
Workspace have failed to invoice or take direct debit payments. Their accounts department is a shambles, the management incompetent.

I have had a credit note from workspace in early December minus restoration works for end of tenancy however, have yet to have received my deposit. I have sent several emails over recent weeks however I have yet to have a reply. Disappointed and would like this rectified as soon as possible or I will take further.

We took a unit on within Workspace around 3 months ago and throughout the whole process of onboarding, moving in and operating from, Oriella and Bethany have been nothing short of fantastic. Both are an asset to Workspace and have helped us every single time we have had questions or requests.

The communal areas are clean and tidy. Our unit was redecorated prior to us moving in. Someone is always available to speak to when needed. Everyone is helpful and friendly. I can’t fault anything.

Our company looked at multiple options and I’m very glad we went with Workspace.

The office itself was lovely, but my experience with the team left me feeling misled and ripped off.

I only rented the space for a few months and never touched the walls. When I moved in, the previous tenants had done a patch repaint, which I accepted without issue. However, when I gave notice to leave, the team dishonestly claimed I was responsible for the slightly uneven paint finish. They even took photos at exaggerated angles to highlight contrasts that had nothing to do with me. The same applied to the floors—rather than documenting the same views as the move-in report, their exit photos were taken at angles that exaggerated flaws and made fair comparison impossible.

They had also assured me that they would aim to replace tenants before the end of a contract. In reality, they relisted the unit with a 7% rent increase—well above the modest annual increase set out in my agreement which would have been valid for well over a year.

Overall, I found their approach unfair, misleading, and deeply disappointing.

****

Update: Their answer below is totally disingenuous. The issue is that the photos on check in, and the photos you have taken at check out are from totally different angels. The check in ones all you can see if glare, hiding the very very slight unevenness on the paint. When I left it was in the same condition.

But the answer below is just pure PR. I asked on 5 different occasions to raise this as a complaint, and CC-ed in everyone involved.

My favourite building to work in so far. The Record Hall Workspace is full of life and vibrancy. The team managing this building are amazing also- very helpful and resourceful. They are a SUPER team.

I love the Archive cafe they have on the ground floor as well as the small rooftop accessible by tenants- it's perfect for a little break from a busy schedule. Thank you for making my time here run smooth!

I’m a startup founder who began renting a unit at The Pill Box with Workspace in January 2024. When I first enquired, I was clear about my business needs – including the requirement for a quiet, professional environment to conduct interviews and meetings. At no point was I told that major building works were due to commence just a few months later after signing my contract. Yet, that’s exactly what happened and I was walking dust into my office daily. Not only that but the loud noises, drilling etc with no ‘heads up’ really effected someone I employ who happens to be neurodivergent. Again, no consideration at all. Furthermore, I had plans to add another person to the team but all rejected the jobs due to the ‘poor work conditions’ after viewing what only looked like a building site.

Access to even a basic meeting room became impossible, and I was forced to spend additional money renting offsite spaces. This disruption lasted for months and significantly impacted my operations. It caused unnecessary stress and added financial burden during what should have been a period of growth for my business.

Then winter arrived, and from November onwards there was no heating in the building. I was told this was due to a ‘faulty pump’, yet the issue persisted well into the new year – and, to my knowledge, still hasn’t been resolved.

Shockingly, reception staff were often unable to even provide portable heaters as they would run out.

Speaking to other tenants, I learned this is a recurring issue every winter, with some having had to purchase their own heaters in the past. This simply isn’t acceptable in any commercial premises.

I start work at 7am, and had no issues accessing the building pre construction but post-construction, found myself regularly locked out of the building with cleaners trying to call security to let us in. Security told me it was “out of hours” and acted as if I was trying to gain unauthorised access. It made absolutely no sense. They then said they found it impossible that I ever had access to the building prior to 8:30am accusing me of being dishonest. This is sold as a 24/7 access building, so when did ‘out of hours’ even become a thing?

To top it off, I was overcharged in January. My concerns were repeatedly dismissed with copy-and-paste responses from the accounts team, who couldn’t even be bothered to do the maths. I had to escalate this issue 13 times and eventually stop my direct debit before anyone took it seriously. Only then did they admit I had indeed been overcharged – by May.

Now I’m towards the end of my six-month notice period and attempting to vacate the unit professionally. I arranged childcare, travelled 80 minutes, and booked a van to begin moving out – only to be told upon arrival that my fob had been deactivated. Despite having paid rent until 31st July and always being told I had 24-hour access, security told me the best they could do was have a key holder come to the building – but they would only escort me once to my office, which wouldn’t allow me to actually move my belongings. They couldn’t even give me an ETA for when this person might arrive. I’m due to go on holiday and have been refused access to the unit I pay for, which was already agreed on Friday and now cannot collect my belongings and incurred yet another huge cost because of it.

This entire experience has caused me immense stress and a great deal of unnecessary cost. I’ve spent time, money and energy that I simply can’t get back – and I’m now being told it could take up to three months to get my deposit back, despite using their own contractors to return the space to its original condition. I can only imagine the kind of arbitrary deductions I’d be up against otherwise, if I weren’t to used their overpriced serviced which they stated is the only way it would meet ‘workspace standards’ automatically.

In short:
I wouldn’t recommend workspace for an established business and certainly not for a start up.

I’ve found the company to be disorganised, dismissive, and completely disconnected from the needs of real businesses. They take your money, waste your time, and offer little more than frustration in return.

Although the initial lower cost seems attractive, it isn’t. They still up your rent 5% each year for the joy of building works, no heating and less service than the year prior and since moving to a different provider, I cannot tell you how incomparable it is. It’s worth the extra £70 per month in gold!

For the issues I had to deal with and am still dealing with I could write a 2 part book and still would have room for a 3rd. Stay tune….

Rented a workspace at the Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey for 2 years.

During our stay we experiences quite a bit of neglect as paying customers. During our stay they started construction on the venue which eventually made the workspace unpleasant and noisy. We lost many perks that drew us to the space when we first joined (food trucks, bike storage etc.) and not only this, but it became increasingly difficult to get large deliveries made due to the restricted access. Several emails to management were ignored about things we brought to their attention. There was a couple of weeks where toilets or heating wasn't working, so we couldn't come into to office to use the space. When the heating finally worked it was terrible at heating up the room and in the summers there was no air con in the building which made working in the office unbearable. I would also note the whole time we were at workspace, we were never provided with communal washing up liquid in the communal kitchen. We had to supply this ourselves and eventually had to store soap in our offices to avoid paying for bottles of it for multiple companies that rented on our floor.

With all this in mind we wanted to negotiate a sufficient discount on our rent if we were to sign up for another 2 year lease. They sent us a deal which in the first 6 months looked great, but the rest of the term the rent would be raised which basically cancelled out any discount in the long run. For those doing the same, I advice you check the numbers before you agree, as they could just be wiggling numbers around to make it look like you are getting a good deal. After we pointed this out, they revisited their numbers and sent us such a disproportionate discount to the loss of value we described that we decided to leave and find a new office space.

This is when things got really bad..

We were sent a very specific list of instructions on how to leave the office in the same condition as we entered. One of the things on the list was to repaint the floors. We were told we could either use our own contractors or we could get a quote from their contractors, however when they sent us the quote it was over £1k. With the list they sent us we naturally decided to work with external contractors to reduce costs as we are s small start-up business and the price felt very inflated for a paint job. However once they reviewed the space they reported that the floors were not done properly due to a patch of flaked flooring which was visible through the paintwork. They couldn't accept the condition of the space and it needed to be corrected and plastered over.

There was no mention of plastering over surface floor damages with the initial list they sent us. The blemish they described was also the exact same blemishes we found when we first entered the office and we even had photographic evidence to prove this which we sent to them. They avoided referring to the photographs in our appeals and took days to reply to our messages. Their slow responses meant we were no longer legally allowed to have our own contractors rectify the situation and without any further communications on the matter they brought in their own contractors to fix the problem and a total of £900 was taken out of our deposit. We were basically set up to fail when we got in our own contractors in the first place, due to the lack of communication up front and the slow response time.

Having worked at previous workspaces offices in my career, I have witnessed these floors countlessly be destroyed by standard office chairs, creating horrid erosion to floors and leaking flakes of paint all over the studio which had to be regularly cleaned up. They grey paint they use is not fit for purpose and this would have been a consistent issue that workspace would know about, yet it wasn't mentioned in their instructions.

Knowing this, the fact that our disputes were completely ignored and that they didn't rectify the floors for us after the previous tenant left them in the same conditions makes me feel like Workspace is just after your money and will find any excuse to cut corners whilst you rent or whittle down your deposit when you leave. As a small business, this made our move cost 3 times as more than it should have, which has really punched a hole in our finances.

The other very unusual thing about a huge enterprise like Workspace, is that they withhold deposits themselves and the deposits are not protected by deposit scheme.

They reached out to us to try and investigate the situation despite all the email threads and comms being available to to them. They even wanted more information, but we had lost faith the in system.

Listen to all the bad reviews and avoid renting at Workspace.

*clearly the reply below is lying as my details are hidden apart from my username. Also the office we rented was under my colleagues name.

Working at the Leroy House location and it is such a lovely new building. Honor, the center manager, is lovely and incredibly helpful :)

We rented a unit in the Fleet Street building. Part way through our lease, they commenced extensive building works which wasn’t communicated before we signed the lease. No compensation, daily disruption, dirty communal areas. Disgusting kitchen. Almost 3 months from leaving we haven’t received what’s left of our deposit (after outrageous deductions). We’re now taking legal action to recover the deposit.

Emma, who works at the china works branch has done an amazing job since arriving. She always makes you feel extremely welcome when you arrive and always goes that extra mile when you need assistance.

The company I work for lease an office space in Gray's Inn Road, which is managed for Workspace by Vihra and Beata. I would just like to say that the reception team is extremely helpful and nothing is too much trouble. We have had no problems with the serviced office and facilities provided. The event organized are shared with the Workspace around the corner, The Records Hall where some of my team enjoyed a fabulous wine tasting last week. Well done to Vihra and Beata @ 60 Gray's Inn Road for organizing and making the experience such a success.

The Record Hall staff, specifically Oriella and Beata, have always gone above and beyond to help us when needed, and always respond quickly and in a friendly manner. The cafe staff are friendly and welcoming. The facilities in the building are always clean and available.

We feel incredibly well looked after by Workspace here at Goswell Road. The staff are fantastic. A special Mention to Caoimhe who is always so polite, friendly and helpful. Thank you!

We are extremely happy with our Landlord, Workspace. Our office at Morie St perfectly fits our requirements and the rental charges were better than anything else available at the time and gave us an opportunity to expand our business when it outgrew a home office.
We are comfortable in the knowledge that if we are lucky enough to outgrow our current office, we can move to another office or location within the Workspace portfolio without waiting until the lease is up which is a great option for growing businesses.

The Workspace building management team in the Fleet Street office are great. They are efficient, always get back to you straight away, always providing updates as to what is happening in the building eg events or the work that is happening to the building (and providing alternatives if needed for when it gets noisy). They have created a nice environment in the building.

I’ve been at Pill Box for almost two years now, and it’s been a really great experience. I love the community here, and the management team is amazing, especially Kayleigh—she’s always been so caring and kind.