Creatives clubbing together in the 'culture factory'

Christian Koch10 April 2012

It doesn't look much from the outside.

Triangulated by the bourgeois coffee shops of Broadway Market, the ghostly arches of London Fields and the takeaway joints of South Hackney, you'll find a dour grey-bricked building with Sixties signage and nondescript windows.

But press the buzzer next to the steering-wheel door (odd, that) and a whole menagerie of madness opens up. A wander down its stark corridors could mean you stumbling across stylist Jacqueline White hosting a rude T-shirt-making workshop. Or bumping into indie band The Duke Spirit rehearsing for their latest gig. Or maybe two ladies on sewing machines, making jackets for Lady Gaga.

It's all part of the creative hub that is Netil House - a "culture factory" where arty folk toil away in studios to produce a huge array of work.

Across London such communities thrive, whether it's Brick Lane's Old Truman Brewery, Bethnal Green's Rich Mix Centre or Islington's Arts Factory. Then there's the "punk aesthetic" of Bloomsbury's Horse Hospital where avant-gardists have sought succour since 1993.

"I envisaged it as a creative space like Warhol's Factory, where people can come and do what they wanted," says founder Roger K Burton. "We're home for nomads who have nowhere else to go ..."

Many of these places wouldn't exist were it not for London's myriad disused buildings. Take Utrophia, which transformed its ex-ice cream factory home in Deptford to host a "Cryptic Lagoon" (think giant swamp with smoke machine) and giant zeppelin. Currently looking for new premises, co-founder Jono Allen says: "We find new places by cycling around and looking out for derelict buildings."

Netil House had a similar genesis. The erstwhile community college, council offices and squat had been derelict for 15 years before 29-year-old life coach Leo Lawson-O'Neil laid eyes on it in 2009.

"There were 30,000 tyres on the ground floor, the electric had been stripped out and there was human excrement on the floors. I thought, 'I'll make this happen.' Everyone thought I was nuts ..."

Thanks to cheap rent (£200 a month upwards), small start-up companies flooded in, including fashion designers (the Gaga-favoured Fanny and Jessy), cake bakers, a Pilates studio, branding consultants and a tattoo parlour. There's even a 5,000 sq ft warehouse space, hired for events/parties (Dizzee Rascal recently shot a music video there). Netil also lends itself to the pop-up vogue - there have been transient nail-bars and restaurants (Shacklewell Nights), while next month its roof terrace opens up to become a bar with panoramic views. Meanwhile, on Saturdays there's the adjoining Netil Market, which has crafts and food stalls.

The colourful mishmash of enterprises working inside culture houses spawns all manner of ventures. It's not unusual for, say, a band using Netil's in-house recording studio to hire the photographer down the corridor to take promo shots. Moreover, the venues foster a semi-bohemian environment for its denizens. Indeed, many firms want to buy into the cool cachet of culture houses. Netil is deluged with requests from accountants, mechanics and IT firms desperate to work there - all rebuffed by Lawson-O'Neil, who wants to "retain the vibe you get from squats".

Culture-houses aren't new but since last October the number of co-working spaces in Europe has risen 19 per cent. "Thanks to corporate downsizing, creative people pushed out of the office suddenly became independent workers," says Joel Dullroy from co-working magazine Deskmag.

Working alongside like-minded souls is the thing.

As Lawson-O'Neil says: "People are excited to be here. We've had problems - last winter there was no heating - but it's the spirit that counts."
netilhouse.com

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