The British Council of Offices has named the best workplaces in the UK and for staff who do not work in any of them, the details make hard reading.

Superlatives for the winning offices, at Kings Place in North London, include praise for its 'exquisite design and clever construction' and for being an 'open-hearted' building that is 'immersed in culture and life-giving'.

The best newly developed office blocks come with 'break-out spaces' for impromptu meetings; open-plan benches instead of desks and environmentally friendly biomass wood-chip boilers. They are awash with “consistent natural light” that filters into vast atriums, propped up with 'beautiful slender concrete columns'.

The Times