Old Duffer & Beags,
The requirement for singlies and married unaccompanied personnel to live in messes went some time ago (but I agree Woolwich is a dump). In my two tours I benefitted from very comfortable waterfront apartments (big enough for the family to squeeze into on a regular basis) and made the most of my Mon-Thurs evenings attending (mostly free) lectures, concerts and events all across the city...and the occasional trip to the pub or the Belgrano.
I also got on the distro for the GBP2 tickets for stage shows and musicals. I went to some great shows that I otherwise would not have attended. Moreover I also was hauled in from time to time to make up numbers for drinks and dinner parties amongst the allied defence attache community.
I also learned to cook reasonably well and (as stated earlier) kept fit through cycling, running, gym and rowing - unconstrained as I was by family duties during the week. Where in the world could you go for a lunch time run across the Thames and past the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, St James's Park, Buckingham Palace and back through Horse Guards (well, of course, only in London). Office hours could be long, but in both tours I was treated as a grown-up - do the work, manange your own hours. Accordingly, I was able to be one of the 1300 flood out of MB on a Friday and was back home in time for a late tea with the family. Most of my Geographical Bachelor colleagues (all Gp Capts & SO1s) shared similar experiences.
The MB working environment is pretty comparable with major banks, albeit the recent strigency on offering tea/coffee and God forbid! biscuits to visitors makes us look silly. And the gossip that you can pick up in the Speer influenced FuehrersHalles (sorry, Pillared Hall), as well as the opportunity of running in to long-lost colleagues. Gone are the days of mankey kettles and stained mugs perched precariously on a bedside table next to your desk. (instead they are hidden away in the break-out areas!)
I was also fortunate to have 2 intrinsically interesting jobs which also involved overseas travel and liasion across Whitehall, so I'm sure that this influenced my experience there.
There were down sides as well. Domestic issues had to be resolved almost solely by my wife in my absence and until my last tour, my children never knew me at home during the week - consequently I missed out on a lot of school things - parents evenings etc. Moreover, when a theft of government material occured from my desk space, I was treated as a Pariah and escorted from the building and suspended pending a specialist police investigation. Not a nice expereince and eventually I was (partly) exonerated when a cleaner was arrested. Luckily it was at the end of my tour and I moved back overseas.
Back to the OP: is there spare capacity in MB? Not now.
WP