As Vodafone announces the sale of its famous Newbury HQ – and long-term leaseback of several of the buildings there – we look back at the history of the campus.
This year marks 20 years since Vodafone’s UK headquarters opened in Newbury, Berkshire. Consisting of seven different buildings across 30 acres, it’s home to some of the company’s most vital functions, including the highly secure Network Operations Centre, its device testing and approval facility, a designated “war room” for business-critical events, and much else besides.
The HQ remains just as impressive today as it was when it opened in 2003 – a significant step up from its previous headquarters, which was a dark and dingy office space above a curry house in Newbury’s town centre.
While Newbury might just be a humble market town to most, there is a compelling argument to be made for it being the birthplace of UK telecoms.
It’s where the founders of Vodafone decided to set up shop back in 1985 – the only mobile network in the UK at the time – and also where the first ever mobile phone call was received over its network (by former Vodafone Chairman Sir Ernest Harrison, whose son Michael called him on New Year’s Day that same year).
Visitors to the Newbury HQ are often taken aback by the size and scale of the development. As you walk through the bustling Vodafone House – the largest of the seven buildings – and head outside towards the central lake, it feels more like a bustling university campus than a “traditional” workplace, boasting restaurants, a gym, a video production studio, a hairdresser’s, and even a dance studio.
Well before the rest of the competition, Vodafone led the way in embracing flexible working by introducing ‘hot desks’ and shared tables across all seven buildings, encouraging employees to sit where they like and get chatting to people they might never have met before – even the CEO didn’t have a dedicated office.
These ideas have since been embraced across the telecoms industry and beyond.
Maintaining such a large site in a semi-rural setting obviously comes with its challenges. In July 2007, a flood ripped through the site after the nearby Lambourn river burst its banks, causing significant damage and forcing staff to evacuate. Employees were able to return safely after a few days, but there was plenty of restoration work required to return the HQ to its former state.
It was this restoration work that the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh came to see on 14 November, 2008, the Queen dressed in ‘on brand’ red especially for the occasion. She and the Duke were given a tour of the HQ and shown the extensive repair work carried out after the flood, followed by a quick crash course in the latest mobile technology. One lucky employee even got to show Her Majesty how to log in to Facebook on a mobile phone.
