Des res for Jersey’s new ‘window’ in London

Friday 24 January 2014

Jersey has a swanky new refurbished and air-conditioned office in London with an exclusive SW1 postcode.

The Minister for External Relations, Sir Phillip Bailhache, this week authorised the lease of an office suite in 2 Queen Anne’s Gate, Cockpit Steps, in Dartmouth Street. The Grade II listed, four-storey early 19th century town house was sold last year to an undisclosed overseas buyer for £13 million.

Dartmouth Street is located at the heart of the seat of government, a couple of blocks away from the Houses of Parliament and a short stroll to the Cabinet War Rooms, Westminster Abbey and St James’s Park. The historic Reform Club from where both Phileas Fogg and Michael Palin set off on the respective epic 80-day trips around the world, is eight-minutes away on foot.

In November 2012, the States agreed to allocate £600,000 a year from 2014 for an office in London to promote and protect the Island’s interests with the UK.  In July last year, the Chief Minister, Ian Gorst, approved a further £432,300 to establish the office.

Jersey has acquired a lease on one of two office suites, recently advertised as having been ‘refurbished to a high standard’ in a ‘prominent office building with a traditional façade which has been substantially modernised internally’. The establishment of the London office follows the creation of a joint office for Jersey and Guernsey in Brussels, and is part of a major effort to increase the islands' international standing and to get better representation in the UK and further afield.