Social media titan Facebook will open a new office in London on Monday that is set to be its biggest engineering hub outside America, the company has announced.

The investment in the office, near Oxford Street in the heart of the city's West End district, will also lead to the creation of 800 jobs, more than half of which will be in engineering.

The company, which opened its first office in the British capital ten years ago, said the new site would allow its local workforce to reach 2,300 by the end of next year, a sign that it "is more committed than ever to the UK".

The country "has been a huge part of Facebook's story over the past decade", Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Asia, told Britain's Press Association.