London Start-up Offices Still UK’s Hottest Choice for New Businesses
Despite the noise from regional rivals, London start-up offices are still the UK’s hottest choice for new businesses according to a recent study by Startup Britain.
Among the capital’s competitors, Birmingham and Manchester were the closest rivals. But while Birmingham can claim to be home to 16,231 new start-ups in 2013 and Manchester 11,765, Greater London saw the launch of 136,939 businesses in London start-up offices last year.
It’s not just London’s status as the capital city which continues to attract start-ups in droves. Another key factor is the diversity of the business locations which it has to offer. As we’ve observed before, London start-up offices are distributed throughout the capital, with many thriving new businesses and headline-making entrepreneurs to be found outside the core start-up areas.
That said, some areas have more start-up appeal than others. Leading the way in 2013 was East London which saw 35,353 new businesses within its London start-up offices. This diverse area takes in such varied locations as the Docklands, Stratford and areas of the City Fringe including Tech City, which was home to 15,015 of the new startups registered in 2013. Other popular locations included the home of startup hub Level 39 in E14 (3,092 new startups), E15 (1,004) and E1 which includes parts of Shoreditch, along with Whitechapel and Spitalfields.
But while 35,000 startups headed east to set up base, another 21,000 headed west, to key areas including the West End, Hammersmith, Notting Hill and Shepherd’s Bush. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, of the 21,086 startup businesses newly registered in this area, 9,298 can be found in W1 – an area which incorporates Hanover Square, Marylebone and Harley Street among its many prestigious addresses.
Other strong performing areas in terms of the number of startups launched include North London (18,919 startups launched in 2013) and the south bank of the Thames including Waterloo and London Bridge (16,028).
At the other end of the scale, the City of London and the City of Westminster saw far fewer businesses attracted to their London start-up offices gaining 5,834 and 5,658 new businesses respectively. By contrast, these locations both have a strong tradition as home to well-established businesses and other organisations; a factor which is likely to limit their appeal to brand new businesses looking to be part of a startup community.
Read more on London’s startup scene and London start-up offices: