It was with a tinge of nostalgia that I passed a construction site in central London this week that formerly housed the offices of legal directory publishers, Chambers & Partners.
Now a mass of rubble and cranes, the old Chambers building has been demolished to make way for a new rail link, Cross Rail, which will connect the West and East sides of London.
Thousands of people in the legal community have passed through the Saville House building over the years.
Such is Chambers’ continuous recruitment, there’s a constant flow of new blood into the company.
Ex-Chambers employees are now scattered far and wide, and the diaspora is heavily represented in legal London – from solicitors, barristers and attorneys to legal recruiters, consultants, journalists, editors and in-house marketing and PR folks.
Outside the legal sector, others have gone into business, the voluntary sector, politics, public policy and the arts.
The first photos show the building back in 2000.
Located in the historic Smithfield Meat Market area, it was situated next to a tripe dresser, an old English butcher that prepares animal stomachs for sale.
A few years later, the office was painted in an Art Deco/South Beach style with colorful upper stories – one of few such office buildings in London.
And then the final shots, taken this week, show the construction site, and the company’s slick new premises a mile or so further west in London’s “midtown” Holborn district.
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