Twitter welcomed news.com.au for an exclusive look inside its San Francisco headquarters

LOCATED in one of San Francisco’s roughest areas, this tech giant’s office is a dreamland of free food and fun zones. We took a look inside.

The offices are not where you would expect.

SAN Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin district is the kind of place tourists are warned about.

The stench of weed fills the air as hustlers crowd outside empty shopfronts, smoking the product and offering it (and many other drugs) for sale.

I’m looking for Twitter HQ. Google Maps assured me I was on the right path, but I had to wonder if someone was having a laugh.

You know the area is dodgy when it has signs like this. Picture: Justin Hall

The open-air drug markets seemed brazen and this was confirmed minutes later when I passed two police officers interrogating some dubious looking characters.

The streets were also filled with homeless people begging for change/hurling abuse when people didn’t acknowledge them.

A common sight walking down Market Street. Pictured Franco Folini

I admit, I breathed a sigh of relief as I spotted a large Twitter sign hanging at the end of the block.

The Twitter sign was a sight for sore eyes.

Outside 1355 Market Street might be urban grit but behind the golden doors is a whole other world.

Huge pillars and a beautiful highset ceiling are the first things you see inside the iconic 1937 Art Deco building, which was originally home to a wholesale furniture mart. It stood empty for 50 years until Twitter decided to set up shop in 2012 - breathing new life into the old building and promising to kick-start urban renewal for the neighbourhood.

This beautiful building made me feel a lot more safe than I did outside.

Since then it’s been hailed as a sign of the company’s success and requests to see inside are limited.

FIRST STOP

Step out of the elevator on level nine and the first thing you see is a large wooden wall with the familiar blue bird. After being greeted by my host takes me into the inner sanctum of Twitter HQ.

Cool, looks like I am in the right place.

We head to the rooftop - a huge area of grass, beautifully maintained gardens and chairs and tables.

I have to agree this would be awesome in the summer sun.

Unfortunatly, miserable grey skies, a cold breeze and heavy fog meant the area wasn’t hugely popular during my visit.

However, my host assured me said it was often used by people seeking a lunchtime workout in the summer sun.

Obviously, this wasn’t the day I visited.

Back inside, the tour continues through the five floors that house 2,300 of the company’s 4,100 employees.

Twitter occupies level five to nine of the building.

Each floor had closed-off office areas where employees sat in desks with a similar layout to what you would find in a call centre, which was pretty surprising.

Although, my host informed me they are not bound to their desks and staff are encouraged to use common areas for work.

Instead of sitting at the desks in the background, staff are encouraged to lounge.

The rustic wooden theme seen in the lobby continued throughout all of these common areas.

Every office should come standard with log cabins.

When the staff weren’t busy working in log cabins and rooftop havens, they were able to grab a feed from one of the many eateries inside the building with names like @birdfeeder.

#meatzone and #sando are two of the places staff can get food on this floor.

With 2,214 litres of coffee consumed each week by staff, baristas are also available.

Everyone needs good coffee. Right?

Staff are also able to help themselves to soft drink machines, which have of course been branded with the Twitter logo.

Just in case people forgot where they worked.

And what good is branded drink machines without branded cups?

There is no escaping the Twitter bird.

On each of the floors, artwork lines the walls and as you can imagine, it keeps with the theme of self promotion.

I feel like there may be some subtle brainwashing going on here.

This includes an oil painting of Ellen’s famous Oscars selfie - a gift from an artist who has reinterpreted some of the most popular tweets on the social media platform.

When someone gifts you something like this, you can’t not hang it.

And while I didn’t actually get to see this awesome room, Twitter HQ has a mini arcade for taking your mind off things.

This is probably the best reason to get a job with Twitter.

After visiting the offices, I can say it was much larger than I expected and, yes, it looks like a totally awesome place to earn a crust.

I just hoped I wouldn’t get mugged making my way back to the hotel.