Murdoch set to sell infamous Wapping headquarters
Rupert Murdoch’s News International is set to sell its Wapping headquarters in London, the scene of the bitter conflicts during Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s industrial relations reform era, when Murdoch broke the printing unions.
News International has not used the famous Wapping printing presses since 2008, when it moved printing operations to Hertfordshire, but it had planned that journalists and other staff working for its titles would return to the east London site after a major refurbishment.
Management has now decided to keep News International staff working in offices elsewhere in the area and to abandon plans to house its UK operations under one roof at the six-hectare site.
The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal reported the company had originally planned to redevelop the Wapping site but said that "in light of current market conditions, News International has decided not to proceed with re-modelling the site".
News International took out a 10-year lease on offices at Thomas More Square in 2009, and has taken extra space in the past year.
Wapping will now be put on the market for £150 million. It was almost sold in 2008 just before the property market crashed for £200 million.
Last night, Rupert Murdoch’s son James, who heads News Corporations in the UK, said: “Wapping is not only important as a physical site, but also it is a symbol of how bold individuals, working together, can advance the world of media and thereby contribute to life in Britain.”
Rupert Murdoch, encouraged by Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, built modern printing presses in Wapping before moving all of his operation from Fleet Street in one move in 1986.
Some 5,000 printers in Fleet Street were sacked and replaced by 400 with nightly battles between police and pickets at Wapping who failed to stop lorries distributing newspapers.
