A Place to Work

During my professional career as a freelance illustrator I’ve always rented studio space. Life as any kind of artist can sometimes be a solitary business so I like to get out of the house of a morning and work with a group of likeminded creators. I’ve found it to be an ongoing challenge to find suitable space at an affordable rent. It’s happened several times over the years that as soon as I’ve become settled in a place the developers have moved in or the rents have gone up and I’ve had to move on. At some time or another I’ve been in just about every artist’s studio space in South London. My epic trek in search of a place to work started in Brixton.

I’d just moved to London from Leeds where I’d studied illustration and was living in a shared flat in Stockwell, where there wasn’t room to swing a cat let alone put up a drawing board. Luckily I discovered the Brixton Enterprise Centre which was opening up in the Bon Marche. As part of a drive to regenerate the area following the riots of the previous year British American Tobacco had acquired this dilapidated former department store and converted it into low cost studio units. The Bon Marche has a fascinating history and you can find out more about it here: History of Bon Marche and The Secret Tunnels

I initially shared space with the Guitty Talberg illustration agency where I worked alongside illustrators such as Anne Magill, Gary Wing, Martin Chatterton and Liz Dalton. I then moved into a smaller unit sharing with animation writer Chris Trengove. When Chris moved out I assembled a bullpen of comics talent including the likes of Andy Lanning, Brian Williamson, Anthony Williams, John Tomlinson and Steve Cook. This was the late Eighties and we were all riding a wave of huge comic book sales. Unfortunately BAT, the owners of the Bon Marche, were losing money on their investment in Brixton despite large handouts from Lambeth council. They doubled our rent almost overnight, leaving us scrabbling around looking for suitable alternative premises. After a couple of false starts in Wardour Street and Waterloo we finally settled on Clockwork Studios half a mile up the road from Brixton in Loughborough Junction.

Clockwork Studios in another building with a interesting history. It was once the workshops for Fred Carno’s circus and would have been visited by the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy. You can find out more here:

https://clockworkstudios.co.uk/history/

After a while we were joined by fellow comics stalwarts Steve White and Doug Braithwaite. Things were working out fine but there was trouble around the corner. The comics boom of the Nineties turned to a massive bust by the end of the decade. I saw trouble brewing so took a sideways move into the world of computer games, giving up having a studio space for a while. After the dust had settled following the comics bust I was tempted back into freelancing again. We’d moved to Sydenham and I had managed to find studio space in Gipsy Hill Workshops a converted Victorian dairy which is nestled in the middle of The Triangle in Crystal Palace:

http://www.gipsyhillworkshops.co.uk/Creatives-in-Crystal-Palace.aspx

Following my three years working in the corporate world of computer games this was like a return to my roots. I stayed their for a year or so until I was offered slightly larger (and considerably warmer…) space in nearby Cooper’s Yard:

https://www.coopersyardstudios.com

Cooper’s Yard is a labyrinthine warren of a place but after a year or so working there the lack of natural daylight began to get to me. Luckily I discovered Havelock Walk in nearby Forest Hill:

https://www.havelockwalkstudios.com/

This cobble stoned mews located a stone’s throw from the South Circular is home to a thriving creative community comprising artists such as David Mach and Elizabeth Chisholm. As soon as

space became available I nabbed it. I spent three happy years there until our landlord decided he wanted the space for himself and turfed us out. I’m sure the rapidly rising property prices in newly fashionable Forest Hill had nothing to do with his decision.

Once again scouting around for a place to work I came across the Stockwell Street Studios located in John Humphries House situated slap bang in the middle of bustling Greenwich.

There I shared space with amongst others fellow illustrator Rod Hunt. This was a great position, a fact not lost on Greenwich University who a year later bulldozed our studios and built their shiny new campus right on the top of it. Rod moved down the road to Woolwich, an option that would have been open to me but I decided that the commuting from Bromley, where we now lived, would be a bit of a drag.

Instead I moved to a converted factory, the Maybray Works in Lower Sydenham which had just been opened up by the Artist’s Studio Company. With the best will in the world you couldn’t claim that Lower Sydenham was anywhere near as attractive as Greenwich, but it did boast a huge Sainsbury’s Sava Centre ! It was also very handy for the Lower Sydenham train station. Too handy in fact, two years later we were given our marching orders as developers were going to flatten our admittedly drafty studios and whack a huge development of flats on top of them. Can you see a pattern forming?

Via word of mouth I found out that a local developer had a few offices to let above an estate agents in Crystal Palace. The flat roof was a bit leaky but it had central heating and great views all over London. In a case of history repeating itself the views proved to be too good. Our landlord, not unexpectedly, announced that he was converting our offices into bespoke flats.

On the road again. This time back down the South Circular to Forest Hill once again, to a converted factory run by Whirled Arts. I spent a couple of winter’s at 118, Stanstead with amongst others children’s book illustrator Sarah Horne. Towards the end of my time there the huge windows without any sort of double glazing became a bit of an issue. It was brass monkeys !

My next move was a return to where my Odyssey had first begun all those years ago in Brixton. I found desk space in Tulse Hill Studios near to Brockwell Park. These studios boasted plentiful, albeit rather expensive, heating, although after a while the commute from Bromley to Brixton became rather onerous. It was fine in the summer when I’d cycle it but navigating the hill at Crystal Palace on a rainy Autumn morning wasn’t much fun.

Salvation was at hand in the form of Beckenham Park Mansion. Slap bang in the middle of Beckenham Place Park this palladium style mansion is home to a small group of artists who I’m very glad to be one of. I’m hoping that this may be my last studio in London and my quest may at last be over. Fingers crossed.