The Spaces That Shape Us
Clare Kelly - Director, Glandore
Glandore
In the southwest of Ireland, about 10 kilometers east of Skibbereen, lies Glandore, a one-street village nestled on the east side of a harbour that shares its name.
When I was child, my family visited Glandore regularly on our summer holidays in West Cork. It’s a charming place, home to stunning views, a handful of pubs, a coastguard unit and a pier. We would wander the village and stop at the Glandore Inn. There, my siblings and I spent many happy hours eating scampi and chips (with a fizzy drink “if we were good”) and watching the boats bob in the harbour while the sun warmed our backs.
Memory is funny that way. In a county where it rains an average of 47 days each summer, our trips to Glandore couldn’t have all been blessed with blue skies. Yet when I think of Glandore, my memories are warm and sunny.
Spaces are shaped by the people who fill them, just as people are shaped by the spaces where they find themselves. The warmth and hospitality my family experienced in Glandore and West Cork left a lasting impression on us, so much so that my father Michael, when shaping our own family business, knew exactly how he wanted our members to feel— welcomed, looked after and part of a community—and the name choice was clear.
A building of community
Today, Glandore has 10 locations across the island of Ireland in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, but we began in 2001 in a single Georgian townhouse. That summer, the whole family played a part in helping prepare Dublin’s 33 Fitzwilliam Square for our first clients. We dusted chandeliers, cleaned bathrooms and set up furniture.
Four years later, we opened our second location just a short walk away at Fitzwilliam Hall. It’s a beautiful building that I’ve admired since childhood when I passed it every day on our drive to and from school. I loved how it reflected the changing seasons—the bright green ivy of the summer turning crimson in the autumn before giving way to bare roots in the winter.
The opening of Fitzwilliam Hall significantly shaped my life and career: it led to my sister Fiona joining the business and subsequently created the opportunity for me and my sister Rebecca to do the same. What started as a career break from occupational therapy 18 years ago led to an exciting journey working alongside my father and siblings.
From the outset, Fitzwilliam Hall has been our headquarters and our family’s home away from home. What many people don’t know about Fitzwilliam Hall is that behind its Georgian façade is a very modern building. Built originally in 1980, it offers the best features of a Georgian property, including high ceilings and large windows, without the restrictions of a listed building. Expanding our business to Fitzwilliam Hall meant that we were able to offer a greater range of office sizes and onsite amenities to suit companies’ individual requirements and growth.
Following an extensive refurbishment and thanks to its scale and flexibility, Fitzwilliam Hall has become the preferred landing space for numerous fast growing international firms setting up operations in Ireland throughout the past 20 years. The opportunity to work under the same roof as these incredible companies has been hugely inspiring and has shaped Glandore into the business it is today. As a team, we have also had the privilege of forming lasting relationships with the amazing site leads and individuals who have fueled the growth of these companies. Over the years, our alumni have returned to Glandore with their own start ups or as site leads of new firms, and they have referred other businesses to us, which is the highest compliment.
A company’s first office is a meaningful space, and our members often experience nostalgia when they recall their time in Glandore. Whilst many of these individuals now work in different companies, they still feel connected to Glandore and think of it as the space that shaped their friendships with each other. For instance, the original in-country team for a member company that launched back in 2008 still holds regular “first 30 employees” gatherings in our on-site restaurant Suesey Street. Another former member named one of the meeting rooms in their new office “Glandore” as a reminder of the good times they had where it all began.
Inspired by stories like these, we decided to host our first annual Alumni Dinner in 2017. This special event gives our alumni the chance to reconnect in a space they once shared while providing current members with the opportunity to make new connections. Being a part of this network impacts participants in meaningful ways, including mentorships between alumni and current members, career opportunities such as non-executive directorships, and, of course, friendships.
Designing spaces that foster community
The sense of community and hospitality we built at Fitzwilliam Hall has become a template for our other locations. By providing beautiful, functional spaces alongside world-class support and genuine care, we hope to set our member companies on a path to success. A supportive environment and friendly community can make all the difference in facilitating growth, especially during the early days of setting up a business, so we focus on creating opportunities for people to form connections with colleagues, other teams and the broader business communities.
We have found that nothing brings people together like food. We have comfortable seating areas throughout our buildings, like our new clubroom in Arthur Place Belfast, where we host regular members’ breakfast and lunches. We also have coffee stations on every floor which help facilitate spontaneous discussions. For many, however, stepping out of the office to grab a coffee can provide a needed break. The launch of our new coffee kiosk Sister Suesey, located in the grounds of Fitzwilliam Hall, allows people to converse in a more casual environment. No matter the weather, there’s a crowd outside, enjoying their coffees and engaging in conversations that might not have happened within the walls of the office. This space outside the building has become an extension of the Glandore community. It’s a reminder that the spaces don’t stop at office walls—what surrounds those walls can be just as important.
The idea of creating spaces outside the traditional office wasn’t new to us. We first saw its power when we developed Suesey Street, our on-site restaurant at Fitzwilliam Hall. Originally offering in-house catering for members only, it evolved into a full-service restaurant that offers a relaxed atmosphere for having lunch and dinner, catching up with colleagues or hosting business meetings in instances where a meeting room feels too formal.
As a family that’s deeply involved in the day-to-day running of our business, these additions have been especially meaningful to us. We love having a busy building where we can feel the buzz of the community we’ve worked to create. On days when the family is working in the office, we inevitably find ourselves in Suesey Street, pulling up chairs one-by-one in the bar area. It’s a perfect spot to catch up on the week and have impromptu chats with both our members and friends from the local business community.
Coming full circle
That sense of community—of building relationships in the spaces that matter—came full circle for us in 2018 when we opened our Cork location. To mark the occasion, we brought the whole team, both the Dublin and Belfast cohorts, down to Glandore. It had been 20-odd years since our family had last been there together.
The entire team participated in a scavenger hunt, searching for clues hidden around the village and visiting its landmarks. Then, we had a gorgeous lunch at the Glandore Inn.
Expanding to Cork was a lovely milestone for us and we achieved it together with the support of an incredible team, many of whom had been with us for more than 10 years.
As a family, it meant a lot to us to take our team back to Glandore, to share a little piece of our history and let them experience firsthand a space that shaped us.
Read more about Glandore’s Flexible Workspaces