The halls of plenty

I went into Apple for a meeting today in their new offices in Battersea Power Station.  I wasn’t allowed to Blip there (I asked) as I would have been told to delete and, being Apple they know how to truly delete. So here’s a picture of the shopping lobby in the complex outside.  It seemed empty but the woman who guided me to my meeting said that it’s  full at weekends. 

So if you want the undivided attention of a Cartier salesperson, go to Battersea on a Thursday.  

Apple’s offices are about 8 floors high, two lifts, round an open atrium with large walkways and seating nooks and pairs of soft armchairs upholstered in mushroom coloured leather separated by low oak coffee tables.   The layout wasn’t massively dissimilar to BBC New Broadcasting House but whereas there you are lucky if you can find a place to sit and people clutching laptops search high and low for somewhere, anywhere to work, here all is open and calm.  And empty.  It reminded me of a mediaeval Abbey, a few monk-like employees crossing the end of your sightline and an occasional group in a glass walled meeting room.  Beautiful but slightly eerie. 

My meeting with an ex colleague went well and he’s going to read our project.  We had a nice general chat.  

Home by 8.  Vik away for the evening so I started finally watching Apple’s Severance, a workplace drama that takes place in an eerie empty office……