Zone’s London office is based in the heart of King’s Cross. Our marketing executive Martha Green tells us 11 reasons why the vibrant area is a great place to work.
Some people think the most exciting thing about King’s Cross is platform 9 and 3/4. This might be true for Harry Potter fans, but I am here to tell you another 11 reasons why King’s Cross is a great place to work — and play! Not only is it in the heart of central London with great transport links, there is loads to do within 10 minutes of our office.
Where to eat
Dishoom: Let’s start with the obvious one. At 6pm a line of at least 30 people forms outside Dishoom and runs down the street until around 9pm. They even give out chai to the patient queue. This happens every single day — because the food is that good. Our office, which happens to be located a few doors up, means we have easy access and can avoid queues at (almost) all times. A luxury.
Beer + Burger: It is just beer and burgers. Really good beer and burgers. They host a Bottle Club (like a book club but with beer) and even have a monthly Beer and Burger Running Club, where you get a well-deserved free pint after your 10k run.
Happy Face Pizza: Opened by the owners of Spiritland (another good bar/restaurant), Happy Face serves an array of pizza that will certainly make your face happy. If you go downstairs, it’s like stepping into a time machine., and ending up in a secret 70s cocktail bar called Supermax.
Where to drink
Star of Kings: At Zone we like pubs, so much so that we have named all of our meeting rooms after them. Our Star of Kings comfortably fits 12 people. Luckily the Star of Kings round the corner fits a lot more. Enough to host a sensational karaoke night every last Friday of the month and a couple of pub quizzes.
Little Creatures: Another venue with a Zone meeting room in its honour. Little Creatures is an Aussie bar with Aussie beer, which you can see being brewed in the glass chamber of its front window. It also serves really good food and is situated in front of a large green where you can watch doggos play (sometimes Instagram-famous ones — check out @chowcalledbao) or healthy people exercising with their personal trainers.
The Fellow: We have all the majority of our staff get-togethers here. Because it’s a great pub. It also has a nice terrace and being able to see the sky in London is important.
The Big Chill: Another bar, but with an even better terrace. Why else do we go here? Mostly to dance, it’s open late and they play disco and R&B. Be careful of the big queue on a Friday night though.
Simmons: Imagine a tea party, in your nan’s tiny front room, with a disco ball, DJ and instead of tea in the teapots, it’s a cocktail. That’s Simmons. It’s fun.
Things to do
Coal Drops Yard: CDY has been open just over a year and it gets better and better. Thomas Heatherwick designed it so it’s very pretty but there are also lots of nice places to eat, drink and shop. There is a concept COS store, a boutique charity shop, a Wolf and Badger department store (go and have a look at their plants) and lots of swanky shops and nice places to eat.
The most recent addition is the Samsung Digital Playground, an experience-led store in the penthouse of CDY. You can try virtual spray painting, coffee workshops, VR car racing, photography workshops and play on a very expensive fridge. It’s very impressive.
Other events have included Mass Karaoke for youth homelessness, a New Balance X Aries pop up, a Botanical Boys workshop and exhibition and a wine car boot sale (it was classy, I promise). During last winter they placed half a dozen adult-size seesaws in the centre. They’re sorely missed.
Redemption Coffee: Zone runs on coffee. Our coffee machine is good, but there is nothing like a non-fat-oat-milk-dairy-free-extra-shot-mocha-latte-cino from a proper barista. The most popular with Zoners and opposite our office. It’s the UK’s first behind bars roastery and is based inside Aylesbury prison, reducing reoffending through coffee. It’s good coffee with a good cause.
The Steps: The steps by the canal are my favourite place in King’s Cross. If you don’t know them, you might have seen a picture of them in articles about the hottest day of the year. You know, the picture of some very large and very (fake) grassy steps, littered with perspiring people drinking Aperol Spritz. That’s the steps.
In the warmer months the steps are a lovely place to be. You can lie on some astroturf or a bean bag and enjoy your lunch or soak up the sun with proper London views. Everyman cinema also put a pop-up screen on the other side of the canal so you can enjoy Wimbledon tennis and an array of films at lunchtime and after work. The steps are often the place for after-work drinks for Zoners who stock up on snacks and drinks from possibly the poshest Waitrose in London (it has a live band AND a wine bar).
Or you can just go there and people-watch. You won’t hate it, I promise.
Check out our video below to see what some of our Zoners in London get up to in the office.
