New office, new views

As of the end of April our office has moved again - to the fifth address is less than five years. From ul. Fabryczna in Powiśle we moved in November 2011 to Śródmieście - first to ul. Nowogrodzka, from where we moved to Al. Szucha in November 2012; thence to ul. Marszałkowska in November 2013. Now we are at ul. Zielna (lit. 'Herbal Street'), entrance to the office from the charmingly named ul. Bagno (lit. 'Bog Street'). It's a shame to leave the plushness of the British Polish Business Centre, set up thanks to the generosity of HSBC Polska, not only splendid offices but a superb - and superbly located - events venue, which has played host to several British and Polish ministers and many more VIPs.

Below: the outside of the old British Polish Business Centre. The front door's open - we're about to hold the very last event, before moving up the road to the new office

Below: 15 tons of letters on my desk no more. Desks no more. On the road again. Not far... one tram stop further north.

While the new office is neither as big nor as prestigious, it is modern, spacious and well-located, right by the entrance of Metro Świętokrzyska, the interchange station for the two Metro lines. For me it's a 1,200-paces walk from W-wa Śródmieście station rather than 600 paces so a chance to get a bit more walking in each day. Below: view looking towards the new office from the entrance of Śródmieście station - marked in with a circle of red.

Past Plac Defilad, where the communist bigwigs took the salute from the march-pasts, now a bus terminus. This area is under-utilised; it should be stacked high with 60-story skyscrapers that block out views of Stalin's Palace of Darkness.

One block northward, across ul. Świętokrzyska, the next road parallel to Al. Jerozolimskie. To the right, the PASTA building, with the Polska Walcząca logo on the roof, the site of the some of the fiercest fighting of the Warsaw Uprising. The building was situated over the main telephone links between Berlin and the Eastern Front. We're in the new building to the south of PASTA, up on the ninth floor.

And from the office - what a view, below (click to enlarge). The vastness of Plac Defilad is evident in this photo. Before the road, this area would have been occupied by ul. Złota and ul. Chmielna, both dissected by the land upon which sits the Palace of Culture. Something in the sky...

Looking across from my desk to the east, there's the old Prudential building to the left - Warsaw's highest building before the war, featured in iconic photos of the Uprising as it's being bombed. It survived to become the Hotel Warszawa after the war; a remont of the hotel started in 2010 has stalled; the crane on top has been standing idle a while. Note to the right of the pic, the empty plot where the old Sezam used to stand until recently - gone is the communist world's first Scottish restaurant.

I hope we'll stay here for a while to come; packing one's things every year and a bit gets a bit tiresome!

This time last year:
Workhorse of the Free World's Air Forces over Jeziorki

This time two years ago:
Looking for The Zone, in and around Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
I awake to snow, on 4 May

This time eight years ago:
This is not America. No?