The ugliest Reuters office I worked in

“15 of the best views from Thomson Reuters offices” (Pick of the Web) shows how far the company has gone. The ugliest Reuters office I worked in was a room in the building of the Indonesian news agency Antara in Djakarta in the 1960s. It overlooked an inner court yard where the building’s ancient power generator was situated. The generator produced more soot than power - the lights dimmed every time you turned on the air conditioner and you went home each day with soot all over your clothes. 

Our Rome office had an unusual address. It was located in the building of the Italian news agency ANSA on a street with the unflattering name of Via Propaganda. The street, near the Spanish Steps, was named not after Mussolini’s information ministry but after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) which set up its headquarters there in the 17th century. ■