Republic Community
September 2021 looks to be a month of big change at Republic, as the universities that have taken space here during the pandemic begin to bring students on site for face-to-face teaching. In addition, businesses across the campus anticipate an increase in the number of staff in the office as employees embrace working from Republic as a productive and rewarding part of the new hybrid working week. Our forecasts, based on survey information collected from the businesses and institutions on site, predict that the number of people coming onto the campus will increase almost tenfold.
This is before we take into account increased foot traffic in the local area that results from higher numbers of pedestrians going about their business more generally. Republic is rapidly growing its reputation as a destination for leisure, and we expect to see larger numbers of casual visitors making their way here to take advantage of Republic’s high quality mix of food, drink and leisure businesses, the beautiful public spaces and initiatives like the free sand pit.
The Gentlemen Baristas’ Coffee House provides a high quality, relaxed meeting place in the Import Building
Footfall counters across the site show that visits to Republic have increased steadily since the beginning of 2021 and the upward trend is accelerating — footfall in June 2021 was 143% of what we saw in May, and the highest since the beginning of the covid pandemic.
In just six years, Republic’s public realm has been tranformed into a welcoming and comfortable space filled with biodiverse water gardens
Footfall still has some way to go to match the best pre-covid month that we have data for, February 2020, but June 2021’s numbers put us at 57% of that benchmark. By comparison, during the same period, the Centre for Cities measured footfall across Central London as a whole at 35% of pre-pandemic levels, while Shaftesbury reported that footfall on its 16 acre estate in the heart of the West End had reached 50-60%.
If all goes as predicted, the return to school in September will mark the beginning of a very different era at Republic and we’re excited to welcome a new generation of talent to the workplace of the future.
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