Eleven rooms, one hall, and a door policy of not having one.

Twenty-four disciplines, seventy staff, and a building that opens at seven and closes at ten.

A studio is a room you can walk into, not a slot you book.

There is no booking system, no sign-up sheet and no key to sign for. If a room is open and you know how to use what is in it, it is yours for as long as you need it.

THE PLAN

One hall, eleven doors

Every studio opens off the same room, so the shortest route between any two of them goes past a third. Most of what gets learned here gets learned on that walk.

THE HOURS

Seven until ten, daily

Term time and holidays are treated identically. The building closes four days a year and none of them fall in term.

THE FABRIC

A furniture works until 1974

Concrete floors, north light, and a goods lift that still takes a loaded kiln. Almost nothing here has been prettified since.

The four main rooms.

Twenty-four disciplines are taught here, but four rooms carry most of the week — the four with a door of their own. Everything else shares the hall.

Ceramics

Two electric kilns and one wood-fired, a glaze lab, and eight wheels that are never all free at once.

Two kilns · eight wheels · glaze lab

Print and metal

Screen beds, a litho stone, an etching press and a forge in one long room. Ink and heat together is unusual.

Screen · litho · etching · forge

Moving image

Two blackout stages, a grade suite and a kit store that lends without a form. Shoot on whatever is free.

Two stages · grade suite · kit store

Sound

A live room, a modular lab and four booths. The school radio runs out of three of them: the only door with a lock.

Live room · modular lab · booths

WHEN YOU CAN BE IN THEM

Seven until ten.

Every day of the year, minus the four the building closes. Eleven studios, three kilns, seventy staff.

ROOM BY ROOM

Ceramics
Firings booked ahead
Print and metal
Forge staffed after 6pm
Moving image
Stages bookable
Sound
Booths on a rota

Who keeps them running.

Eleven technicians, one in every room during opening hours. Three of them are here.

Nadia Bergström

Ceramics technician

Fires the wood kiln, runs the glaze lab, and has never once said the kiln is full.

Owen Achebe

Print and metal technician

Twenty years in commercial print before this. Will teach anyone anything, twice if needed.

Ines Moreau

Sound and moving image

Runs the kit store on trust and the radio rota on a whiteboard. Both work.

Inside the building.

One week in November, photographed by the students who work in it. Nothing here was staged and nothing was tidied first.

Walk in on an open morning and try one.

Every second Tuesday through the autumn term. No portfolio, no appointment.

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