London's music studios and creative spaces face eviction as homes plan expands

Martin Ashton and Paul Garfoot met years ago on London’s music circuit and in 2002 they decided to set up a by-musicians-for-musicians rehearsal studio. In 2014 they moved their business to a former clothing warehouse in Kentish Town and have worked hard to establish themselves. Today K-Town Studios employs six people and works with everyone from local bands to international artists. Ashton told the London Standard: “The studio is full everyday with thousands of bands and is an essential creative hub for the area and beyond.”But after 12 years in NW5, Ashton, 59, and Garfoot, 54, fear they will soon be back on the road. Ashton (pictured) and Paul Garfoot met years ago on London’s music circuitSuppliedThe reason, ironically, is the proposed new Camden Film Quarter (CFQ), which will include almost 500 new homes, film and production studios, and a cinema. It is being billed as a “new creative neighbourhood” for London, but the undoubtedly creative Ashton and Garfoot won’t be a part of the £1 billion project, approved by Camden council over the summer because their space is earmarked for demolition when work begins in around 2028.“Our future is uncertain at the moment,” said Ashton. “We would love to stay in the same location but it may not be practical. Personally, it would be a huge disappointment if a business we have put all our own money into and spent years building were to close and we’re sure the multitude of our clients would be devastated.”Everybody knows that London needs new homes. Housing consultant Molior calculates the precise need at 88,000 per year. The question is, where they should go, and at what cost?One option backed by both local and national government is to repurpose industrial spaces, which currently cover about eight square miles of the capital.To ease the transition from sheds to beds, the government now allows developers to convert light industrial units into homes without need for specific permission to change their use (regular planning permission is still required). Read MoreAnd the Greater London Authority’s draft new London Plan, which will govern development in the city for years to come, will for the first time encourage under-utilised or badly performing industrial estates to be reused as housing.“Your studio is really connected to your creative identity. I felt very unsettled”Over the past two decades the Centre for London calculates that London has lost almost a quarter of its industrial space. This has pushed up rental costs, squeezing out businesses and costing the capital jobs. “London cannot afford to lose any more industrial land,” it concluded.“Jobs in traditional industrial activities such as manufacturing, repair and warehousing are worth more than £78 billion to the city’s economy — but the true figure is likely to be even higher as this excludes creative industries.”After he graduated from art school Paul Cocksedge did what young creatives used to do. He moved to Hackney, renting a Victorian stable block-turned-carpentry workshop in 2004 and turning it into his studio. Over the next decade his work, designing everything from furniture to installations, started to attract first national and then international acclaim.Then shortly before the pandemic his landlord knocked on the door and informed him the building was to be converted into luxury flats and he would need to leave. “It was a real head spin,” said Cocksedge, now 48. “Your studio is really connected to your creative identity. I felt very unsettled.”To make sense of his eviction Cocksedge decided to turn it into art, excavating three tons of concrete out of the studio floor and using the pieces to create a range of furniture, titled Excavation: evicted which was shown at Milan Fashion Week in 2017.Cocksedge, now based in Bethnal Green, is still upset by the memory of his unceremonious eviction, and is deeply worried about how creative spaces are being eaten up by developers. The proposed new Camden Film Quarter includes almost 500 new homes, film and production studios, and a cinemaSupplied“There is no big thinking or understanding of what a creative city does for the economy — it is crazy,” he said. “What London has that other places don’t is its creativity.”Younger generations, said Cocksedge, often can’t dream of having their own studio space. Their choices are stark. Either they leave the capital or work from cafes on their laptops. “It takes away the idea of making, building, throwing paint on a canvas,” he said. “London is going to become just a bit bland.”Back in Kentish Town, Ashton is scouting for new sites, without any joy so far. He hopes that Camden council or the developer, Yoo Capital, might step up to help him find another space. Otherwise the business could fold. “We understand housing is needed but hope it is not at the expense of small businesses in the area and that the film quarter does bring film industry to the area and not just a giant housing estate.”A spokesman for Camden Council said part of its agreement with Yoo involves support to all existing companies on the site. A spokesman for Yoo said that it was liaising with those businesses and would be working closely with them as the project progresses.The displacement of small businesses is far from the only issue with recycling ex-industrial sites for housing.In 2023 Quad Projects bought up a former petrol station site close to the River Thames, rechristened it Surbiton Waterside, and set about building six houses and two offices. “We are a small developer and contractor and we wish the Government to take a more proactive approach”The work will be finished by Christmas, and the three-bedroom homes are on sale with River Homes priced from £1.5 million.But before construction could commence more than a dozen old petrol tanks had to be dug out of the land and disposed of, along with quantities of contaminated water and soil. This, said Nuggy Lianos, director of Quad Properties, added about 30 per cent to the cost of the build. Of course this cost was, in part, factored in when buying the site. “But these things always cost more than you imagine, and we did overrun,” he said. Those extra costs will be met by nibbling into Quad’s profit margin and passed on to buyers.“Many of these industrial sites are just unviable,” said Lianos. “We are a small developer and contractor and we wish the Government to take a more proactive approach and really stump up some money to assist with the cost of bringing these sites into residential use.”SuppliedDespite the challenges the CFQ is far from the only development gobbling up London’s industrial heritage.Two of London’s largest planned developments are also pencilled in on former industrial sites, including the proposed Charlton Riverside Scheme.Over the next two decades there are plans to replace an unloved circa 300 acres of industrial riverside running from the Greenwich Peninsula to Woolwich into a functional neighbourhood with 8,000 homes plus workspace. The scheme was first announced in 2012, but Greenwich council has only just reached agreement with a developer, Hyde New Homes, to build the first 3,000 properties. A spokeswoman for Greenwich blamed this glacial progress on the complexity of the site, with numerous interested parties involved, as well as the lack of local transport links. It is not clear when construction work will actually begin.Another 8,000 homes could be built around the new Old Oak Common Station, which is under construction between Harlesden and Acton. The development was announced by Boris Johnson in 2015. Eleven years and four prime ministers later, Johnson’s Grand Design has made little progress beyond some new apartment blocks marooned within a sea of old warehouses and a start of work on Old Oak Common Station, destined to become part of the new HS2 rail link but not scheduled to open until the 2030s.The final issue facing shed-to-bed developments is the current state of the property market, which has left so many Londoners priced out that a record number of newly built homes — around 4,600 — are currently sitting empty and unused. When it comes to the housing crisis, affordability is just as big of a hurdle as the lack of new homes being delivered, and one which is deterring house builders from executing consented projects.“Recent analysis by our research team identified a minimum of 77 sites across London, totalling almost 30,000 homes, that are now unlikely to be delivered despite having a residential consent,” said Rob Pollock, head of London development land at Savills.