Principal Place is a 15-storey office block in

Shoreditch Shoreditch is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Hackney alongside neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets, which are also perceived as part of the area due to historic ecclesiastical links. Shoreditch lies just north ...

, London, designed by

Foster and Partners Foster and Partners (also Foster + Partners) is a British international architecture firm with its headquarters in London, England. It was founded in 1967 by British architect and designer Norman Foster. The firm has been involved in the desig ...

and completed in 2016. Since 2018, it has been occupied by the internet retailer

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

as its UK headquarters. It is situated at the eastern end of Worship Street, with the main entrance approached across a pedestrian

piazza A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...

from

Shoreditch High Street Shoreditch High Street is the old main street of Shoreditch, London. It is part of the A10 road and connects Norton Folgate to the south with Kingsland Road to the north. It constitutes a segment of the Roman Ermine Street, which ran direct ...

. Alongside Principal Place, and built as part of the same development, stands a 50-storey residential block named Principal Tower. Immediately to the south of Principal Place, on the opposite side of Worship Street (and therefore within the boundaries of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

), stands

Broadgate Tower The Broadgate Tower is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London. It was constructed between 2005 and 2008. History The developer for the site was British Land. In February 2005 Broadgate Plaza Ltd, a subsidiary of Br ...

Development

In July 2014, it was reported that Amazon was close to signing a lease to move its UK headquarters to Principal Place. The project had been on hold since January 2012, when the anchor tenant, the law firm

CMS Cameron McKenna CMS is an international law firm that offers legal and tax advisory services. It provides companies and organisations with advice on a full range of legal issues. CMS consists of 18 independent law firms, with about 80 offices worldwide, and i ...

, pulled out. Soon after, the developer

Hammerson Hammerson PLC is a major British property development and investment company. The firm switched to real estate investment trust (REIT) status when they were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is listed on the London Stock Excha ...

sold its interest in the scheme to Brookfield. Amazon moved into the block in 2018.

Archaeology

The development stands on part of the site of the extramural northern cemetery of Roman

Londinium Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. Most twenty-first century historians think that it was originally a settlement established shortly after the Roman conquest of Brit ...

, and adjacent to Roman

Ermine Street Ermine Street is a major Roman road in England that ran from London (''Londinium'') to Lincoln ('' Lindum Colonia'') and York ('' Eboracum''). The Old English name was ''Earninga Strǣt'' (1012), named after a tribe called the ''Earninga ...

. An archaeological excavation undertaken in 2012, prior to the commencement of building work, discovered a hoard of 133 Roman coins (19 gold

solidi The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; : ''solidi'') or ''nomisma'' () was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. It was introduced in the early 4th century, replacing the aureus, and its weight of about 4 ...

and 114 silver

siliqua The siliqua (. siliquas or siliquae) is the modern namegiven without any ancient evidence to confirm the designationto small, thin, Roman silver coins produced in the 4th century and later. When the coins were in circulation, the Latin word wa ...

e; roughly equivalent to some 12 years' earnings for a late 4th-century

legionary The Roman legionary (in Latin ''legionarius''; : ''legionarii'') was a citizen soldier of the Roman army. These soldiers would conquer and defend the territories of ancient Rome during the Republic and Principate eras, alongside auxiliary and c ...

). The latest coin was dated to AD 397–402, and the hoard is thought to have been buried at the end of the first decade of the fifth century. Another investigation in 2015 discovered a group of four pits containing an assemblage of

Early Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wi ...

pottery and struck flint.

References

External links

* Amazon (company) facilities Information technology company headquarters in the United Kingdom Office buildings in London Shoreditch Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hackney Foster and Partners buildings Office buildings completed in 2016 {{London-struct-stub

Development

Archaeology

See also

References

External links