Links Studios

The building was opened on 3 August by Mr Ronnie Wood. In a strong effort to commit to the reuse of existing buildings, solid brick walls – half a metre thick – originally designed for refrigeration, are now used to absorb sound. The rejuvenated studios now host creative workshops that foster mental wellbeing, as well as skills courses and formal study programmes leading to qualifications in music technology and sound engineering.

The studio gives ‘vulnerable’ youngsters an opportunity to get excited about the future again. Young people have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, from disruption to school life, to curtailed employment. We want this to be a gateway for future artists, producers, and engineers.

The whole project is about creating opportunities for 11-19-year-olds to access positive and meaningful activities outside school. The building makes a dynamic and safe space for this, while the production facilities and music programmes enable smaller voices to be heard and give young people the chance to channel their curiosity, passion, and energy through creativity.

Links Studios revives Canning Town’s old City Morgue building from dilapidation and brings the building emphatically back into use for community benefit. The pock-marked appearance, material quality, and cultural DNA of the original building is kept – somewhat raw – to reference the history of the building and its status within the neighbourhood.

The remodelled morgue offers a study into how to creatively bring back to life an apparently redundant community asset on a budget. At £247,000 completed construction costs, Links Studios shows how existing, small-scale, community buildings can play an important role in creating crucial social infrastructure, while simultaneously exercising the same high design ambition as projects with bigger budgets

Annual CO2 data was not provided