The future for artist studios in London looks very, very grim

On a Friday in mid-February, Mark Jackson, a 40-something artist living in South London, was packing up the final few paintings in his Camberwell studio. By Sunday, the building was empty and the doors were locked for the last time. This marked the end of three weeks of chaos, conflicting information and wild rumours about the future of the studios. According to some, the closure was kicked off by the insolvency of the building’s Cayman Islands leaseholder and the sale of the building to a new owner, which was complicated by a subletting arrangement with a second studio company. In any case, it ended in everyone being evicted, security guards being posted at the gates and artists once again looking for new studio spaces.

In any other industry, Mark’s story would be shocking. But in the arts it’s business as usual. “I’m kind of used to it,” Mark told me over the phone. “When you take one of these studios, you understand that in certain circumstances you might be moved on quite quickly. So, I was expecting it, but not wanting it to happen.” As Mark’s story shows, it’s not just artists who are struggling to find spaces, it’s studios too. Both artists and studios are being squeezed between landlords, policies and events beyond their control. They’re often making compromises on quality, paying a fortune and despite this, spaces are being pulled out from under their feet.

In 2014, the Mayor of London released the Artists’ Workplace Study, which highlighted the immediate risks facing studios: increased demand, diminishing supply, increased prices and insecure tenures. A follow-up study in 2018 showed the same issues remained: while the city saw a net gain of 13 studio sites, around 100 spaces were lost, an estimated 24% of sites remained at risk of closure within five years and 13,780 artists remained on waiting lists for studio spaces. A second follow-up study planned for 2022 was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but a separate survey by London’s Affordable Artists Studio Network (LAASN) is due to be released in the next few weeks. Given the increases in population and cost of living since 2018, the report is unlikely to paint a pretty picture.

The figures obscure the human impact. Rising prices are affecting artists at the beginning of their careers. Take Georg Wilson. The 25-year-old painter graduated from the RCA in 2022 and in the past two years has seen exhibitions at Soho Revue and Berntson Bhattacharjee. Just over a year ago, she started looking for a larger studio to accommodate her growing practice. “Most London studio companies will prioritise those who have been on their waiting list the longest, and even though I had been registered with all of them for over three years, it took a whole stressful year of regularly applying for studio spaces until I was actually offered one,” she told me. In the end, she had to turn the space down, as it cost almost as much as her accommodation.

Even when there are studios available, they often don’t fit the needs of artists. Farouk, 26, a digital artist, said he has repeatedly lowered his expectations. “Finding a studio with adequate facilities, such as proper lighting, a workshop and screen printing space has been another hurdle. Limited choices often mean compromising on essential aspects of what I want in a working environment. But even at that, finding basic space with solid wall space, and not just desk space, has been a struggle.” He said that the challenges of finding a suitable studio have only added additional stress to an already competitive and demanding industry. “I can’t make the art I want to make, which makes me feel slightly stagnant and powerless.”

Jonathan, 32, is a designer, photographer and editor who moved from Manchester to Brixton two years ago to develop his career. “Manchester just couldn’t quite fulfil what I needed,” he said. “It’s so expensive for any space in London. Especially with rent so high. For artists who are making serious money from their art, fair play. But for anyone who isn’t and wants to be creative in a space – basically impossible.” While in London there are more opportunities for work, there’s instability in housing and studio spaces. “Most buildings are just on a timeline until a developer comes in and decides that’s the final stage and the building is going. It happened all around me in Manchester in the final years of me living there.”

Instability has become a fact of life for artists. You can do everything right, but the threat of eviction hangs over everyone. Bryony, a 23-year-old painter, told me that last year, her entire East London studio was evicted because the studio company wasn’t actually paying the rent to the building’s landlord. There was no warning, the studio residents only found out what was happening when a neighbour texted them to say that there were bailiffs at the door. Bryony said that, thankfully, she didn’t lose much money in the studio company’s collapse, but that she knows of people who lost thousands in deposits and upfront rent payments.

Some who talked to me described being misled by property managers, having preliminary agreements broken, and being evicted with just 24 hours’ notice. Others said that, for the moment, they were able to make ends meet. A few even told me that they were planning on leaving the city because of the difficulties of working here. Everyone spoke of the impact on their wellbeing, and the importance of having a space outside of their (shared) homes to focus on their work and run their businesses.

When I spoke to studio representatives, none of them said the situation was easy. As it stands, there is no possibility for well-established studios, small and large, to meet demand. Clapham-based Studio Voltaire has over 200 artists on their waiting list, with only 55 places. “Despite our increased capacity and offer to artists, it’s impossible to meet the extreme and unprecedented demand that exists for safe and affordable creative workspace in London,” said curator Maggie Matić.

Trino Verkade, director of Sarabande Foundation, the studios and artist incubator founded in 2006 by the late fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, said that while they’re able to interview about 50% of 400+ annual applicants, “we only have space for 30 artists per year across all disciplines. So even with both Sarabande buildings up and running – we now have new studios in Tottenham as well as our original Haggerston HQ – it’s not possible to meet the demand.” With such a small number of artists they’re able to absorb increased running costs, however, “we too are suffering with difficulties in fundraising.”

While scale helps larger studio companies absorb costs, it can’t cut waiting lists. Acme is a charity founded in 1972, that today looks after 600 spaces across 15 sites, supporting around 800 artists each year. Their first-come, first-served waiting list has 1500 artists, and annual turnover is just 10-15%. Part of the reason so many artists are stuck on the waiting list is because Acme prioritises security and stability by providing long-term tenancies – it’s a Catch-22 situation.

The recent rise in interest rates is another risk to businesses. Art Hub Studios‘ manager Luke Merryweather explained the company’s ‘all-inclusive’ pricing had been eaten into by energy costs, service charges and insurance premiums. “Combine these and our outings increase dramatically. In order to cover these costs, in September 2023 we implemented a 4% rent increase for all Woolwich members. The first time in 16 years. This was a last resort,” he said.

If these existing businesses close, it’s unlikely that there’ll be anything comparable to replace them; developers simply aren’t creating enough truly affordable space (GLA guidelines define ‘affordable’ as 20% below local market rate). Additionally, the quantity and quality of property is decreasing as it’s taken up for more profitable ‘luxury’ accommodation and coworking desk spaces. In 2023, Art Hub Studios lost one of its two sites to developers. “The developers of our site in Deptford have designated 10% of the commercial space at 20% below the market rate. This is a small amount and would cover less than half of our current studio members.” Luke said.

Many of the new studio sites in the city are so-called ‘meanwhile spaces’, temporary leases on sites in between development or demolition. SET Studios specialises in these spaces. As Josh Moseley, the manager of their Ealing site, told me, the advantage is that they’re quick to set up. The disadvantage is that renovation and investment are impractical or impossible. The sad fact is, that run-down buildings might be plentiful and cheap up-front, but they cost a lot to get going and keep running. Josh said they’re trying to secure long-term leaseholds to sustain their initiatives. Their long-term goal is to acquire a building and provide enduring and sustainable support.

The situation facing studio providers was summed up by Nichole Herbert Wood, vice-chair of LAASN. The organisation is an alliance of studio organisations committed to supporting, researching and advocating on behalf of affordable creative spaces. Members include SPACE, ASC, SET, Tannery Arts, the Koppel project, APT, Arebyte, and Wood Street Walls as well as Second Floor Studios & Arts (of which Nichole is the CEO), representing a total of 1,000,000 sq ft of studio space, and one in three artists in the London.

According to Nichole, the fundamental problem is that the majority of studios don’t own their properties, they’re stuck renting. This wasn’t always a problem. “In the 1980s and ‘90s there was so much industrial space in London. It was really easy to pick up a ten-year rental on an old industrial warehouse for £2.50 per sq ft.” But, she says, due to the current use of ‘meanwhile spaces’ rental leases are typically a maximum of 18-36 months. “The cycles are too short for us to go in and build communities in a meaningful way.” She gave some worrying statistics: over the past 15 years, the city has lost an estimated 50% of its artist workspaces. “There’s about 45% of the square footage in the LAASN portfolio that’s on a 5-10 year lease,” Nichole said. “They did their deals 15-20 years ago, and won’t be able to afford the increase.”

I emailed the Mayor’s Office to find out what’s been done to support artists and studios since the original Artists’ Workplace Study. It turns out, complaints haven’t gone unnoticed. As Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries told me via email: “London’s creatives are the lifeblood of our capital, uniting communities and driving our economy. However, they continue to face challenges from a lack of affordable studio space to the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why the Mayor and I are doing all we can to support and create affordable workspaces for artists, as we build a better London for all.”

“We have protected studios in the planning system for the first time, we gave rapid emergency grants to those struggling during the pandemic, and we’re supporting artists through our Culture and Community Spaces at Risk Office. We have also funded artist studios, such as Studio Voltaire and SPACE Ilford, as well as wider creative workspaces that support visual artists, including Second Floor Studios in Deptford and the London School of Mosaics.”

Simons also noted the development of a new Affordable Workspace policy in the London Plan (the planning document outlining the development of the city); the launch in 2018 of ‘Creative Enterprise Zones’, an initiative to promote and support creative sector employment and to deliver 775,000 sq ft of permanent affordable workspace; as well as the founding of the Creative Land Trust in 2019. The CLT is a joint project between the Mayor of London, Arts Council England, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Outset Contemporary Art Fund to support creative workspaces through public, philanthropic and patient impact investment funds. The target of the Creative Land Trust was to create 1,000 affordable workspaces by 2024. To date, three sites have been secured, but only one has opened. When completed, in total the three sites should provide 46,000 sq ft of floor for around 300 workspaces.

From my conversations, it’s clear that artists and studios have different priorities, and many believe that not enough is being done to address those from either. A representative of one studio told me their company had seen one of the sites taken up by the CLT, however, the company believed it was inadequate due to its lack of natural lighting and ventilation, both of which are essential to artists using machinery, paint and other toxic materials. The representative noted that the CLT has created 180 workspaces for 400 artists in the 33,000 sq ft building, an average of just 82.5 sq ft per person before circulation space and storage are deducted – a figure they said was unacceptable. While they commended the intention behind the CLT, they criticised the amount of money that it has ‘diverted’ from other projects.

I asked artists and studios what, in their opinion, would help. Proposals from artists included rent caps on business and domestic property to reduce financial pressures, regulation of landlords and greater pressure on landlords to open up empty city-centre buildings. Some criticised the ‘first-come, first-served’ system that most studios employ for their waiting lists, saying that circumstances and demographics should be taken into account. Others said that the definition of ‘affordable’ used in policies (20% below market rate) was meaningless, and affordability should be defined in terms of income, rather than expenses.

Jon Opie at Acme called for more data to be collected and published, and to make sure that the specific circumstances of artists’ studios are taken into account when allocating funding. The ‘creative industry’ is such a wide term in which a lot of very different practices are lumped together; profitable fashion and design studios alongside low-income artists. Studios aren’t conventional businesses, the value they generate in skilled artists is realised elsewhere, which makes it hard to quantify and hard to apply for funding.

Everyone, artists and studios agreed on the need for direct ownership of property. Few are happy with ‘meanwhile’ spaces and everyone knows rent will only increase. As Nichole pointed out, having layers of investors between studios and properties is unsustainable. The focus should be on providing seed funding, which would allow studios to apply for mortgages. Full ownership would, in turn, promote greater investment in property and services by making renovation cheaper and easier (the most common complaint of artists and studios, by far, was the lack of insulation and the cost of heating).

“London is a dynamic, thriving, exciting environment to be part of. But artists have to be able to afford to be here,” she said. “That, I think, is the saddest thing: we’ve got some of the most amazing education establishments, teaching visual arts-based courses and design courses; we have world-leading, iconic galleries and museums; and yet, we’re just turning a blind eye to the cultural context of our city and the fact that we need artists to live and breathe and work in our cities to make them authentic.”

Back in south London, Mark’s former studio managed to move a number of their displaced artists into one of their other buildings. However, Mark tells me the site was oversubscribed, and in any case, the building’s low ceilings weren’t suitable for his large canvases. He did view another studio in the area, but it was too expensive to justify, and finding the deposit for a new place while the previous deposit hadn’t been returned would be tricky. He had planned to join three others and subdivide a space, however he gave up on that. The last he heard, they were now thinking of subdividing the same space between ten. He pointed out that with so many fellow artists now out of a studio and back on the local rental market, there’s going to be even greater pressure. After all he’s been through, he considers himself one of the lucky ones. He’s managed to secure a space in another studio, only because seven years ago he signed up for their waiting list. However, even this space is a sublet, and in six months he’ll have to pack everything up again. After that, who knows.