The Economist to take up a new riverside home

The Adelphi Building on Victoria Embankment. Photograph: The Economist

The Economist has chosen its new home. It is to move next year into the Adelphi Building on London’s Victoria Embankment.

Zanny Minton Beddoes, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, points out that the new headquarters will be “just steps from where The Economist’s first offices were in 1843.”

She said the “wonderful location” overlooking the Thames “will give us more space for our digital ambitions and the needs of a 21st century media company. We are looking forward to embarking on a new chapter in our history.”

The Economist’s current building. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

The move away from its current office, known as the Economist Plaza in St James’s, was the result of the magazine’s change of ownership. In August 2015, Pearson sold its 50% stake to existing shareholders for £469m.

The deal meant that the investment company, Exor, became the single largest shareholder with 43% and the Rothschild family inceased its stake to 25%.

Part-funding of the share buyback from Pearson also necessitated the sale of the Economist complex, which was realised in February this year with the sale for a reported £130m to the US-based property company Tishman Speyer.

The Economist, which has been in St James’s since 1964, expects to move to the Adelphi building in the summer of 2017.