Re-using industrial spaces in the city
How we are taking advantage of our Industrial Architecture heritage
A couple of months ago we were approached by a photographer, Carmel King, who asked us if we would like to be part of a study on the use of Industrial places in the City. This study, led by a team from the London Metropolitan University, focused on a mapped audit of the industrial economy across Southwark, as well as drawing attention to the threat of expulsion that a high proportion of industrial businesses face thanks to a combination of planning policies and developers’ actions.
Carmel wanted to shoot our workshop space, illustrating an example of the diversity and strength of this sector of Southwark’s economy. This inspired us to do some research on the topic, which led us to multiple interesting discussions and, eventually, this blog post.
INDUSTRIAL AREAS IN LONDON
99.8% of London’s businesses and nearly half of the capital’s jobs come from the over 800,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that fill the city. These businesses hold the potential for much of London’s future innovation and growth, generating approximately £430 billion of turnover.
Industrial areas factor in this data by accommodating a wide range of economic sectors directly linked to London’s growth. From food preparation, printing, construction, distribution, waste and recycling, and other utilities that persist in the city for sustainable and efficient operation reasons.
Not only that, this variety offers the type of jobs that make this city so rich in skillsets.
As you move outside of the central area, 18% of London’s jobs operate in industrial areas (corresponding to 556,000 jobs in 34,720 businesses, around 11% of London’s total).
The growth of the creative industries sector in the city also impacts the use of these spaces, requiring workspaces where products can be customised locally and distributed within the city at a fast pace.
However commercial uses, particularly in industrial areas, have faced redevelopment pressure in the last decades. The London Plan sets a benchmark for the net release of approximately 37 hectares of surplus industrial land per annum, with fairly strong policy protections, but monitoring shows the average loss was 83 hectares per annum between 2006 and 2011.
So, even though the symbiosis between the industrial and creative spaces of London and Southwark’s can strengthen its economy, it is also being threatened with the expulsion of a high proportion of industrial businesses due to a combination of planning policies and developers’ actions.
MAKING THE MOST OF OUR INDUSTRIAL SPACE
Our Workshop and Showroom are based in the Industrial Estate of East Dulwich.
Before we set our company here, this space saw multiple businesses from bakeries to all sorts of crafts. Today, there is a huge diversity of businesses- from joinery to books or even costume design — but even with this variety, the most interesting factor of this Estate is that its original industrial architecture and history has perseveered.
When we took over, we had to adapt the original structure including new rewiring and heating installation, but there were not a lot of physical changes needed to make room for our workshop. The high ceilings, open spaces and division between internal areas allowed us to bring in the needed machinery to produce our designs in house. It also allowed us to create areas of work for different stages of labour, fulfilling all our technical needs.
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
Being part of East Dulwich, where the lingering sense of community that dates back to the 1700s is still intact, your work integrates such a strong local circle that it ends up naturally evolving and growing with it.
As we built our workspace, we created a one-stop-shop where we could attend to all stages of our business- from the first client meeting in our first-floor showroom and office to the production of all cabinetry downstairs. We opened it to the neighbourhood- with a physical space that invited everyone to walk in and see our work developing.
We also opted to have a strong and capable team who always works in-house, hiring local Cabinet Makers that can produce the full flow of the project and offering apprenticeships. With the increase of industrial machinery substituting hand-crafted designs, these apprenticeships have held a special place in our history, as we pride ourselves in training young people in this art of bespoke cabinet-making.
Lastly, we focused on giving back to our community by producing locally and helping the Southwark economy thrive, opting to focus mainly on projects that are within a close radius to where we’re based, building a strong chain of local referrals.
Looking back through over 1000 projects that we have designed in the last 45 years, our London and Southwark portfolio is now part of the region’s story. Few things give us more happiness than driving around and seeing our portfolio not only spread across the city but also spaced out across multiple generations, sometimes passing from parents to grandchildren within the same family.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are multiple factors that make a business grow and thrive, from its internal structure and strategy to the clients we serve. A side that people tend to forget is how impactful a business can be in its surrounding environment but also the reverse- how a strong sense of community and local production can impact its maturation and establishment.
It is hard to believe that this side symbiosis can be shut off with a diminishing number of businesses taking part in local communities by revitalising their industrial areas. These spaces have so much potential for extraordinary projects that can truly make a cultural and economic impact in the city, it is a shame to see it being dedicated to other less community socio-economic matters.
From our perspective, we’re proud to be running our business from a space that represents a great part of East Dulwich’s economical story. By making the best use of this industrial space and its architecture, we have sustainably grown our business, scaling the number of projects that we can produce in house and keep consistently growing our team.
We love designing locally and driving across the neighbourhood knowing we have done projects in almost every corner.
Hopefully, like us, similar scale businesses that preserve London’s industrial inheritance will still be able to thrive to continue helping their local communities economy.
Credits: All photos were shot by Carmel King- www.carmelking.com | @carmelkingphoto- as part of the London Metropolitan University Study and Project on the use of Industrial Areas in the city
Research: Industrial Areas Estate Teams + Made In London (2 Projects), which can be found on www.london.gov.uk/moderngovmb/documents/s46606/
