Picture this: you walk through the doors, and the first thing you see is a full-sized model of a humpback whale hanging from the ceiling. No, I’m not kidding. They have a whale. Because apparently, when you’re Google, your lobby needs to look like the Natural History Museum had a wild party. And if that doesn’t wow you, there’s a red, three-story slide that employees use to zip between floors. Yes, adults slide to meetings. Try doing that at your cubicle farm.
But here’s the kicker: the whale isn’t just for show. It’s actually a tribute to the building’s nickname, “the Landscraper.” Because it’s so long (330 metres, to be exact) that it had to be approved by the Queen. No, literally—the building sits on a Royal Mail sorting office site, and Her Majesty had to sign off on it. I imagine she said, “A slide? Fine, but no clown cars.”
