Create London and the London Borough of Newham are delighted to announce plans to transform 31-35 Stock Street, a disused 19th-century warehouse in Plaistow, East London, into a thriving arts hub for creativity, culture and community wellbeing. The new space is due to open in late 2025 and will provide affordable workspaces, a café and studios dedicated to design, art and architecture, learning and skills development. As both development and operator lead, Create London is making a long-term commitment to the project with a 25-year lease.

With an initial investment of £1,015,000 from Newham Council (following their successful Levelling Up Fund bids), the building will be brought back to life as a cultural landmark through adaptive reuse. Create London has launched a capital fundraising campaign to raise the remaining £1.3m needed to cover part of the restoration costs. Donations and grants will be sought from public funding bodies, a number of trusts and foundations, individuals and corporates. 

As well as affordable workspace, 31-35 Stock Street will provide flexible events space, a working yard and versatile maker spaces to fill a gap in art and architecture provision and vocational training in Newham. The building will also enable local community and grassroots groups to host their own programmes. Once operational, 31-35 Stock Street will engage more than 13,000 people annually. 

A key pillar of Create London’s future strategic objectives is to demonstrate radical ways of embedding circular economy strategies and sustainable materials into capital developments that are both sector-leading and new to a UK context. 31-35 Stock Street is the fourth major architecture and infrastructure project by Create London, whose co-commission A House for Artists in Barking town centre recently won the Neave Brown Award for the UK’s best affordable housing, as well as being shortlisted for the 2023 RIBA Stirling and Stephen Lawrence Prize. Past building projects also include The White House, Dagenham (2016) and Old Manor Park Library (2015); each designed to drive social value and creativity through inclusive community engagement.

Create London has appointed emerging architectural practice JAM, whose commitment to radical circular design strategies aligns closely with Create London’s ethos. JAM will embed sustainable materials and the responsible reuse of historic fabric into the rebuild. The practice brings collective experience in leading award-winning projects such as Goldsmiths CCA in London and the recently-opened LUMA Atelier in Arles. A model of the design is featured in the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition 2024, on show until 18 August 2024. 

Marie Bak Mortensen, Director of Create London, said: “Create London is the only arts organisation in the UK that connects artists, architects and communities to design and develop new organisations and creative enterprises. We are delighted to be working with Newham Council to transform this important community asset and to continue our strategic objectives of providing affordable studios and beautifully designed spaces in areas of low cultural provision and arts participation. Our ambition is to create an exemplary project that exceeds contemporary and future decarbonisation requirements while extending ambitious environmental and social sustainability into our public programmes’ content to support a circular economy model. As we enter the second stage of our fundraising campaign, we are delighted to confirm that we will be opening this new creative hub at Stock Street in late 2025.”

Darren Mackin, Director of Community Wealth Building, Newham Council said: “We are thrilled to be working alongside Create London on the rejuvenation of 31-35 Stock Street, a stunning locally listed building, bringing it back into active use for the benefit of the local community. The project forms part of the council’s vision to transform vacant buildings within its portfolio into productive community and enterprise spaces that can contribute to a thriving range of civic activity within all of Newham’s neighbourhoods.”