THEN & NOW

Great Western Studios have been housed, since 1994, in a previously redundant railway warehouse in Westbourne Park in the West of London. The studios are an example of regeneration in action - one where an interesting, architectural, empty railway warehouse has been converted to provide well managed, affordable workspace for more than 140 self-employed artists and creative businesses and in turn create one of the largest concentrations of creative activity in London.

The building was set up in 1994/95 by Simon and Nick Kirkham; 40,000sqft was converted into 70 self-contained studios and workshops. Each space is simple and quiet with good natural light, interesting views, ample power, good acoustic separation and high ceilings. The communal facilities include: well run café, exhibition and project spaces, general business services, hoist/goods access and storage units.

The management, led by Adam Withington, pro-actively market the artists, their success in turn produces a hot bed of creativity, where the disciplines complement each other and join forces to benefit both their own practice and provide a range of services available to the wider business environment.

There are around 140 people in the studios working in a diverse range of creative areas, including painting, visual art, sculpture, illustration, architecture, product design, art direction, costume design, fashion and textile design, photography, jewellery, ceramics, stone carving, glass design, printmaking and furniture design.

The people working from the building include people fresh from art college to those who have established creative businesses. This mix of people and disciplines means that a broad range of experience and knowledge can be shared between the artists.

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Great Western Studios aims to provide affordable studio space to practitioners across the visual arts. The individual studio spaces range in size from 225 sq ft up to 1050 sq ft and feature high ceilings and good sound insulation.

Alongside the studio spaces Great Western Studios also houses a cafe that is open weekdays from 10am - 4pm and caters for everything form your morning coffee and breakfast to cheap, delicious and nutritious lunches. Studio users also have access to basic office facilities such as the photocopier and fax.

If you are interested on applying for studio space at Great Western Studios please e-mail us here with your contact details and some idea of the kind of size space that you require.

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