Birkin Group partners with Wake the Tiger for landmark London attraction

We’re delighted to announce a new partnership with Wake the Tiger, providing facilities services for its new 80,000 sq ft London attraction, Absurd City.

Opening on 15 October 2026, Wake the Tiger London represents an exciting addition to the capital’s visitor attraction landscape and, as Europe’s largest immersive art experience, it requires an approach to facilities management that is anything but conventional.

For Birkin, that is exactly what makes this partnership so exciting. As we continue to grow our presence within the leisure and visitor attraction sector, Wake the Tiger gives us an opportunity to demonstrate how our evolving Birkin+ offering can adapt to highly creative, experience-led environments, delivering services that work around the venue, its people and, crucially, its visitors.

A different environment demands a different approach

Visitor attractions present a unique facilities challenge.

The environment itself is part of what people have come to experience. Every interaction, every space and every member of the team can contribute to a visitor’s overall impression.

At an immersive attraction such as Wake the Tiger, that becomes even more important.

Our teams will become part of the wider operation, understanding the environment they are working in and delivering their roles in a way that complements the creative world around them.

It means moving beyond a traditional cleaning specification and developing an approach specifically around the needs, character and ambitions of the venue.

Nathan Nicholas, Chief Growth Officer at Birkin Group, explains: "For a venue like Wake the Tiger, a traditional facilities management approach simply wouldn’t work. Absurd City demands something as individual as the experience itself, so we’ve adapted our Birkin+ model around the venue while keeping the ‘brilliant basics’ - consistent, high-quality services and proactive management - firmly at its core.”

“Our people are central to that. When recruiting we’ve looked for individuals with the personality, empathy and adaptability to contribute beyond the technical requirements of their roles, supported by safeguarding and bespoke customer service training to ensure our people are equipped to interact confidently with visitors, helping to maintain the atmosphere and integrity of this remarkable, immersive world.”

“Wake the Tiger has been incredibly collaborative throughout the process, involving our teams at every level and making them feel part of the wider operation from the outset. That shared sense of ownership is important to us, and our people are genuinely invested in making Absurd City a success."

More than cleaning

Our partnership with Wake the Tiger will see Birkin provide cleaning and pest control services across the new London attraction, alongside hard services delivered in partnership with ARH Group.

Bringing these disciplines together allows us to support Wake the Tiger with a more joined-up facilities solution, while maintaining the specialist expertise required across different areas of the operation.

But the Birkin approach goes further than the services themselves. We believe that the people delivering those services matter just as much. Our operatives will receive BICSc training alongside bespoke customer service and Safeguarding training designed around the requirements of the attraction.

For an environment welcoming members of the public, families and a wide range of visitors, technical capability needs to sit alongside excellent communication, awareness and customer service.

The aim is simple: our teams should understand not only what they need to deliver, but also the environment they are delivering it in and the part they play within the overall visitor experience.

Becoming part of the visitor experience

At Wake the Tiger London, our teams won’t only be maintaining the environment around the visitor experience – they’ll be a core part of it.

In an immersive attraction, the usual boundaries between front-of-house, operations and facilities can look very different. The people working within the space contribute to the atmosphere visitors encounter, which means our approach needs to reflect the creative world Wake the Tiger is building.

Our operatives will be immersed in the environment and encouraged to embrace the character and spirit of the attraction as they carry out their roles. It’s a very different proposition from traditional cleaning and facilities management, and one that requires the right people, training and mindset.

That is why our preparation goes beyond technical cleaning skills. Alongside BICSc training, our teams will receive bespoke customer service and Safeguarding training, helping them understand how to interact confidently and appropriately with visitors while becoming part of the wider Wake the Tiger operation.

For Birkin, this is an exciting example of what a genuinely tailored service can look like. We’re not taking an existing facilities model and simply applying it to a different building. We’re developing the operation around the venue, its identity and the experience Wake the Tiger wants to create.

It’s facilities management with a very different kind of stage, and our people have an important part to play on it.

Growing our presence in the visitor attraction sector

Securing Wake the Tiger London is an important milestone for Birkin as we look to expand our work across the leisure and visitor attraction sector.

These environments play to many of our strengths: managing complex, high-footfall spaces; developing and training engaged frontline teams; tailoring operations around individual client requirements; and bringing together cleaning with wider facilities services.

They also challenge us to keep evolving. No two visitor attractions are the same, and increasingly, facilities partners need to understand the experience their clients are trying to create rather than simply the buildings they occupy.

That is where we see a significant role for Birkin+. Our ambition is to combine the operational expertise and high standards Birkin has built its reputation on with a more flexible, integrated and experience-led approach to facilities management.

That shared understanding has helped shape the partnership throughout mobilisation. Steve Masters, Director of Operations at Wake the Tiger, reflects on the experience so far: “Birkin have been really easy to work with throughout the mobilisation of Wake The Tiger London. From the outset, they’ve understood the challenges that come with opening a completely new and unusual site and have approached these with flexibility and a real willingness to work alongside our team.”

“It was really important for us to find a facilities partner that understood they’re not just looking after a building,  they’re helping us deliver the overall visitor experience. Wake The Tiger is not a conventional environment, and Birkin have taken the time to understand how we operate rather than trying to apply a standard facilities model.” 

“Their approach has been practical, responsive and solutions-focused, which fits well with the way we work as a fast-moving and collaborative business. Throughout mobilisation, they’ve felt like an extension of our team rather than simply an external contractor.” 

“I’m looking forward to seeing the partnership move into day-to-day operations and having a dedicated Birkin team on site who understand both the building and what we’re trying to achieve. Ultimately, good facilities management should sit seamlessly behind the visitor experience, allowing our teams and visitors to focus on the experience itself.” 

A partnership we’re proud to be part of

Wake the Tiger London is a fantastic opportunity for our teams and an important partnership for Birkin.

Being trusted to support the operation of Europe’s largest immersive art experience demonstrates how far our service offering continues to evolve, and the kinds of environments in which we believe Birkin can make a real difference.

As Absurd City prepares to welcome its first visitors, we’re looking forward to seeing our teams become part of the experience and bringing the Birkin+ approach to a visitor attraction unlike any other.

We’re excited to bring the Birkin+ approach to Absurd City, working closely with Wake the Tiger to make our teams and services a genuine part of the world they’re creating for visitors.