Office Fit-Out Paddington

Office fit-out in Paddington means two kinds of space: floors in the late Victorian and early 20th century buildings around the station, and suites in newer buildings towards Paddington Basin. Westminster's CAZ Class MA Article 4 Direction covers the Paddington Opportunity Area, which keeps its offices out of the office-to-home permitted development route. For a business taking, renewing or reshaping space here, the work is strip out, partitions, ceilings, lighting and power, meeting rooms, tea points and washrooms, carried out under the landlord's licence and Westminster's rules for non-domestic building work.

For Paddington, the construction part of an office fit-out is published at £70 to £120 per sq ft as a UK guide, and an all-in London office fit-out at £148 to £359 per sq ft (Oktra and Cushman and Wakefield, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Paddington: we build the office partitions, ceilings, lighting and finishes as one contract and coordinate the IT supplier and specialist trades around them.

Paddington offices: station buildings and Basin suites

The office floors in Paddington sit in two very different buildings. Westminster's Bayswater conservation area takes in the streets around Paddington Station, which the council describes as more commercial, with late Victorian and early 20th century buildings. Offices there tend to be upper floors and small suites with original walls, uneven floors, shallow ceiling voids and one shared stair. Cabling and ductwork have to find a route through the structure rather than above a grid ceiling.

In a newer building, such as those towards Paddington Basin, an office is usually delivered as a landlord's shell with raised floors, a ceiling grid and base building services. There the fit-out follows the landlord's tenant guide, which sets drawing approvals, contractor induction, loading bay slots and when noisy work may happen. We read that guide before pricing and build its requirements into the programme, because a missed approval step can stop work on site for days.

Cat A and Cat B in a Paddington office

Cat A is the landlord's base finish: a raised floor, a suspended ceiling, general lighting, heating and cooling, and working washrooms, with no partitions or furniture. Cat B is the tenant's layout on top of it: meeting rooms, glazed screens, a tea point, reception, small power to the desks and decoration. On a Paddington lease, check which of the two you are taking before you budget, because a Cat A floor still needs a full Cat B fit-out before your staff can move in.

In an older Paddington building the words fit less neatly. A floor near the station may come with neither a grid nor a raised floor, so the first stage is to create a base: overhaul the heating, rewire lighting and power, and form a ceiling void or dado trunking for cables. Your IT supplier specifies and terminates the data cabling, and we build the containment, the power and the comms room so their installers can work to the programme.

Building control and duties for a Paddington office refit

Westminster building control defines a fit out as alterations to an existing office or shop with no structural alterations. An office floor is covered by the Fire Safety Order, and Westminster allows a building notice only where the work is not affected by that order and does not change the layout, so a Paddington office refit goes as full plans. Westminster aims to reply on a full plans application within 5 weeks, so build that wait into the programme, because starting before approval risks rework if the plans change.

The drawings are checked against Part B for fire compartments, escape routes and alarm, Part M for accessible routes and WCs, and Part L for lighting and controls. Painting and decorating are not notifiable and come out of the estimated cost of works on which the fee is based. As a commercial client you also carry duties under the CDM Regulations, such as allowing enough time and resources, and we plan the site and paperwork so those duties can be met.

Why Paddington office space stays office space

Within the Paddington Opportunity Area, office floors cannot become homes under permitted development, which is the context for a fit-out here. Westminster's CAZ Class MA Article 4 Direction was made on 14 July 2021 and modified on 22 July 2022, and as modified it covers the Victoria, Paddington and Tottenham Court Road Opportunity Areas. The London Plan asks boroughs to use such directions so that the CAZ and other office clusters are not undermined by office to residential conversions.

For a tenant this is background rather than a hurdle: your fit-out keeps the floor in office use, which is what the direction protects. It matters more to a landlord deciding whether to refurbish a vacant floor in Paddington or seek another use. At the end of a lease the landlord's dilapidations schedule may require partitions, cabling and signage to be stripped out and the floor reinstated. We can price that reinstatement at the start, so the cost of leaving is known.

• Cat B office layouts built onto a landlord's Cat A floor
• Internal office signage and manifestation on glazed screens
• Tea points and kitchenettes on the existing risers

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Paddington & St George's Fields and Bayswater East. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If this is your first project in Paddington, these are worth a look: commercial fit-out in Paddington, office fit-out across Westminster, what a main building contractor does, how building control works in London, our London office fit-out page and Painting and Decorating Cost.

Trusted Office Fit-Out in Paddington

An office fit-out in Paddington has a landlord's rules, a fixed move-in date and a team that must keep working elsewhere until it is done. We read the lease and the tenant guide with you, prepare the programme and method statements that the landlord's licence needs, work to your designer's approved drawings, and coordinate our trades with your IT supplier and furniture installers. In an occupied building we keep noisy work to Westminster's normal hours and run quiet work after hours where the landlord agrees. We collect the fire alarm, emergency lighting and electrical certificates from the specialists who issue them.

• Lease reinstatement clauses read before any partition is fixed to the structure
• Fire alarm, emergency lighting and air conditioning specialists on one programme
• Itemised pricing, so you can see what every stage costs

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).