Airbnb has taken up residence in Clerkenwell, breaking from the recent tradition of growing startups setting up home at Silicon Roundabout - that's Old Street to everyone else.
Airbnb has used the opportunity to expand its UK business, seven years after it launched to provide travellers with private accomodation for their voyages around the world.
The company, which has so far racked up 35 million customers and 190 locations listings, was founded in the US in 2008 and is growing fast, with more than 30 job vacancies currently open in the UK and Ireland.
It first set up shop in the UK in 2011 in Shoreditch, but now it has decided to bypass Old Street and head to straight to Clerkenwell.
"The unique courtyard space and stunning loft-style office accommodation made Compton Courtyard the perfect place for Airbnb's new home," Daniel Cohen, of Richard Susskind & Company, which let the space, said. "This pocket of the area is proving extremely desirable to high profile tenants, with Okini, Zaha Hadid and now Airbnb here. I think the area around Compton Courtyard in particular represents the true essence of quintessential Clerkenwell."
