Strongroom Studios under threat – online petition set up
Posted on: Wednesday 4th of July 2018
Strongroom Studios is under threat from an office development that may leave its popular recording spaces unusable. “The back wall of our Studio 1, Studio 2 and writing rooms adjoin a building next door where they propose to do extensive construction. The wall that runs the length of our courtyard, which many people will have seen while sitting outside having something to eat or drink, will be part of this proposed construction, and will be built up to six stories high,” co-owner Richard Boote told Resolution magazine.
Founded by Boote in 1984, Strongroom stands as one of Shoreditch’s longest running establishments, enriching a then-sparse area of London and aiding its evolution into the arts and technology centre we know it as today. “A lot of the creative industries in this part of London, writers, musicians, producers and designers – the first DVD authoring companies – a lot of these media entrepreneurs started at Strongroom, because we rent out office space as well,” Boote explains. “We are part of the reason that Shoreditch became a cultural hub, sadly over the last ten years this has all been diminished with expensive office buildings going up…”
Strongroom co-owners Richard Boote & Paul Woolf (L-R)
Strongroom bar & kitchen – open space under threat
“Over the last six months, we’ve worked out a scheme to run a not-for-profit kitchen at the Strongroom Bar, just because the prices for ordinary people in the borough of Hackney are going through the roof. Unbeknown to us, they’ve been making this big plan next door and Hackney have been helping them (without talking to us) and now we’ve got this monster going on next door, right on the party wall of our main studio. It’s outrageous and sickening!” co-owner Paul Woolf protested. “It’s all about greed and money. Local authorities shouldn’t support this against us and the hundreds of people who’ll be impacted if we have to shut. I’d like producers and industry people to make a lot of noise about this!”
If you want to make a difference in the outcome for Strongroom, you can help by joining forces to sign a petition here:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-strongroom
Built as a single studio out of a disused zip factory, Strongroom grew organically to become 12 world-class music studios, 6 edit suites, 8 offices and an award-winning Bar & Kitchen, serving the community as a shared gathering point with an open courtyard dense with foliage planted by co-owner Richard Boote himself.
