The word ‘redevelopment’ is enough to send a shiver down the spine of many artists and studio facilitators across London. With more and more spaces under threat from housing developers, artists are finding it increasingly difficult to find studios in the capital, let alone pay for the ones that are available.
However, a new proposal by a south London gallery hopes to buck the trend. Bold Tendencies, which has been located in the upper levels of a disused multi-storey car park in Peckham since 2008, has put forward proposals for 800 new affordable artists’ studios at the site. If successful, it will become one of the largest group studio located in the city.
Titled Bold Home, the project will see Bold Tendencies collaborate with Second Home, an East London-based workspace and cultural venue for entrepreneurs and creative businesses. Adding additional kudos, the plans have also been designed and overseen by award-winning Spanish architecture practice Selgas Cano, which created the 2015 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Hyde Park.
As Peckham Peculiar reports, it is one of three proposals that the council has shortlisted to take over levels 1-6 of the multi-storey car park for the next five years. Southwark Council is due to make a decision on who will operate the space this month.
Studio rents will be around £100 per month, with another £50 factored in for electricity, broadband and rates. Second Home and Bold Tendencies also claim the studios will support more than 2,500 local jobs, whilst operating an apprenticeship programme for local unemployed young people.
Since opening seven years ago, Bold Tendencies has become renowned for its summer programme of visual art, architecture, music, theatre, film, literature, food and drink. A number of high profile artists have exhibited there, with Richard Wentworth most recently creating a site specific installation covering the entire floor area of the car park roof.
