#6 The First Studios for Artists
50 stories from The Acme Archive
By 1975, Acme had identified that, in addition to the need for short life houses, which combined accommodation and studio space, there was also high demand from professional artists for inexpensive, secure and well managed large scale studio provision.
A group of artists resident in Hammersmith had been lobbying the council for the provision of working space. This resulted in Acme working with Hammersmith and Fulham Council on the conversion of a school and a school kitchen on Hetley and Faroe Roads into studios for 16 artists.
In the 1976 Acme Housing Association brochure, this collaboration is noted as providing a precedent for Acme. Later that year, the studios in Hammersmith were joined by studios converted from a meat pie factory on Acre Lane in Brixton and, by the time of the 1984 Acme Prospectus, studio provision had gained equal importance with housing with 110 studios across four former industrial buildings.