Long before it was fashionable or even, let’s face it, socially acceptable, freelance workers had grown used to being on the move. Whether it was using the free wi-fi at a local coffee shop, or cadging desk space from a colleague or client, “anywhere, anytime” working was not so much a slogan for people who peck at keyboards for a living, as a way of life.
These days some work from places like Second Home, a sumptuous co-working space in East London, sharing foliage-filled corridors, space-age meeting rooms and “silent roaming areas” with a variety of tech-related businesses and the odd lone gun. Yet while it may sound exotic to those with fixed desks and labelled staplers, they are hardly outliers. Not only are co-working spaces now commonplace in most large cities around the world, WeWork, the best-known of the new players in the market, which has just opened its 100th site in Berlin, recently raised $430 million (£345 million) from investors giving it a valuation of $16 billion (£12.8 billion).