The third office, its tenure, and the conditions of continued occupancy.

Circulated under the sublease at commencement of each client engagement for which the third premises are within scope. Prior versions supersede. A reader who did not expect to receive this document should, on the firm's recommendation, finish it in the present sitting.

Rev. 2026-04-22 · Prepared by the partnership · Reviewed annually.

Section 1

Premises

The third office (hereafter "the Premises", "the Facility", or, in the partnership's internal correspondence, "the Floorplate") comprises approximately six hundred million square feet of contiguous, single-storey commercial interior. Partitioning is by temporary dry-wall in repeating configurations; load-bearing elements are not consistently present. The Premises are carpeted throughout in a uniform specification described in §3.

The Floorplate does not terminate at a conventional boundary. Surveyors engaged by the prior tenant reported, in writing, that the Premises are of an extent "greater than is usually supposed of an interior, and not obviously exterior." The partnership has adopted that description in its insurance filings, which have been accepted without further inquiry each year since 2024.

In internet folklore of the late 2010s the Premises are sometimes referred to as "the Backrooms". The partnership records that term in good faith and without endorsement. The tenancy predates the folklore.

Section 2

Tenure

The firm holds the Premises under a standing sublease from a prior tenant (hereafter "the Lessor") whose interest in the Floorplate predates, and is not contingent upon, the firm's occupancy. The Lessor has at no point attended a meeting of the partnership. The sublease is executed in facsimile and held in the firm's estates file under reference L0/FCM-2024-03.

The term of the sublease is stated as "the interval during which the Premises remain available to a tenant in good faith" and is renewable at the end of each calendar period at either party's option. As of the date of this memorandum the sublease has not been renewed, because it has not been required to be renewed, because the Lessor has not sought to terminate it. The partnership records this asymmetry as favourable and does not raise it in negotiation.

Rent is paid in kind. The in-kind consideration is set out in the engagement schedules to each client mandate and is not, in the ordinary course, disclosed to the client. A historical note on the class of consideration is available to partners.

Section 3

Environment

The Premises are lit by continuous-duty fluorescent fixtures specified at 5700K, installed on a 24-hour standard and never fully extinguished. Service intervals are not observed; fixtures that approach end-of-life are, as a matter of record, replaced before the partnership has scheduled replacement. Clients who have visited the Premises describe the colour of the light as "mustard", "yellowed", or "the colour of a photograph of a room from 1974". The specification is in fact a neutral white.

Flooring is a short-pile commercial carpet, specified in RAL 1001 ("beige"), laid without interruption across the Floorplate. The carpet is maintained at a relative humidity higher than is usual in professional premises and retains a low olfactory signature that staff have variously described as "mildew", "poured concrete after rain", or "the corridor outside a school gymnasium". The firm's facilities manual does not acknowledge the signature.

A steady acoustic baseline is present across the site, measured by the partnership's health & safety officer at 60 Hz ± 0.4 Hz. The baseline does not vary with time of day, occupancy, or the status of electrical service to the Premises. It is inaudible to approximately one visitor in eleven, and not to the partnership.

Section 4

Ancillary Occupants

The partnership is not the Premises' only occupant. Under the sublease, the firm accepts the Premises subject to the occupancy of such other parties as were present at commencement of the tenancy. The partnership has not attempted a census and does not propose one.

Correspondence describes these parties as "ancillary occupants", "prior receivers", or, in the folklore identified at §1, "entities". They are not clients of the firm. They are not employees of the firm. They are, under the firm's engagement terms, within the class of stakeholder to whom the work product is readable but not addressed.

Staff are advised, on joining, that the ancillary occupants are to be acknowledged neither by direct address nor by deliberate avoidance. The correct posture, per the firm's induction note, is "the posture one would adopt toward a senior colleague in a lift: collegial, unhurried, and not conversational". Violations of this posture are not, historically, reversible.

Section 5

Ingress & Egress

Authorised access is by appointment with the Managing Partner and is not extended to clients, counterparties, regulators, or staff below partner grade. Intentional ingress proceeds through a single vestibule located, by conventional measurement, within the London office; the corresponding egress, when it occurs, is via the same vestibule.

The firm also records a non-trivial rate of unintentional ingress — cases in which a visitor arrives at the Premises without having traversed the vestibule and without being able, on later reconstruction, to account for the passage. The partnership refers to this class as "unscheduled admission". It is, for the avoidance of doubt, still admission, and the visitor is within the firm's duty of care while it lasts.

Egress is not, in all cases, symmetrical with ingress. Staff are issued a standing card bearing contact numbers for the attended offices and the instruction: do not walk toward the hum; do not walk away from it; sit where you are and write down what you last remember. The card has been effective in a majority of recorded cases.

Section 6

Level Schedule

The Floorplate is indexed, for internal purposes only, against a schedule of "Levels" inherited from the Lessor. The index is not topographic and does not imply elevation. It denotes continuity class.

Level	Description	Status
L0	Principal floorplate. Beige carpet; fluorescent standard.	Operational.
L1	Habitable sub-zone. Piping exposed; lighting intermittent.	Operational, restricted.
L2	Service corridor. Pipework; continuous low-temperature rooms.	Conditional access.
L !	Anomalous sub-zone. Open to external weather patterns not of this floorplate.	Do not approach.
L ∞	withheld	withheld
L 9	Terminal sub-zone. Absent from the Lessor's original schedule; later inserted by unknown hand.	Do not log.

Staff movement between Levels is by written authorisation of two partners. The schedule is under periodic revision. A seventh Level has been rumoured since the sublease commenced; the partnership neither confirms nor denies its existence, and would prefer not to be asked.

Section 7

Continuity

The firm's continuity planning for the Premises proceeds from the following premises: that the Floorplate will remain available; that the sublease will not be terminated; that the ancillary occupants will remain ancillary; and that the hum will remain steady. Each of these premises is, individually, well-founded. The partnership plans against their collective failure in quiet sessions which are not minuted.

In the event of partial discontinuity — a sudden change in the colour or steadiness of the lighting, a perceptible change in the carpet's humidity, a change in the frequency of the hum — staff are to regroup at the vestibule and retreat via the attended offices. In the event of total discontinuity, the partnership's standing direction is that the firm continues to operate from the remaining two offices, that existing mandates are honoured, and that the Lessor is, in the first instance, not contacted.

The firm's archive of prior continuity events is indexed as L0/FCM-INCIDENTS and is not included in the disclosure pack. A reader who wishes to review it may apply in writing; applications are considered.

Section 8

Client Advisory

Clients whose mandate is calibrated from the Premises are, at commencement, issued a one-page card with the following guidance, which is reproduced here for the avoidance of doubt:

If you find yourself on a beige carpet under yellow light with no clear memory of arrival, you are a guest of the firm. Do not attempt to establish direction. Do not run. Do not call out. Sit where you are. The lighting will hold. The hum will hold. A partner will locate you.

The firm reiterates that the probability of unscheduled admission for an engaged client is low, and that the majority of mandates proceed entirely from the attended offices. The advisory is provided for completeness, not for likelihood.

Further questions should be addressed in writing to [email protected]. The partnership's summary position on the tenure is reproduced at Legal §8, and the firm's position on the class of engagements for which the Premises are within scope is reproduced at Legal §5.