The Premises Studios - History

History

Originally housed across two Victorian terrace houses at 201-203 Hackney Road, London, the studios were opened in 1986 by two local jazz musicians, Dill Katz and Colin Dudman, as a cost-effective alternative to London’s more established music studios.

The buildings themselves are said to have a somewhat illicit history, prior to the music studios taking residence, with one building "reputed to be a rendezvous for illicit trysts between Lord Hamilton and Lady Hamilton" and another of the terraces said to have been a club run by notorious East End gangsters the Kray brothers.

After a difficult financial period the studios were forced to declare insolvency in 1996 and the business was bought by current owner and CEO, Viv Broughton. Broughton is a published author and gospel music historian and had been one of the early members of The Pretty Things.

At this time The Premises Music Education Programme was established as a music-based charity, which ran a New Deal work programme and still provides workshops and courses throughout the year, often in partnership with like minded non-for-profit organisations.

In 1998 the charity purchased the Freehold (English law) of neighbouring properties and secured the future of the studios in their current location at 205-209 Hackney Road, although the original 201-203 Hackney Road studios have remained within the greater complex as long let studio spaces. Upon expansion the original buildings were demolished to make way for a bespoke new building with studios and offices over three floors. In May 2010, the arrangement between The Premises Studios Ltd and Full Frequency Ltd, the lease holders for 201-203 buildings, was dissolved. The Premises Studios business operates only in 205-209 Hackney Road.

In 2007, The Premises Studios finished work on a large acoustic recording space. This was the first solar-powered recording studio in the United Kingdom and believed to be the first in Europe.

Read more about this topic:  The Premises Studios

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of the prophets. He saw with an open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history he estimated the greatness of man.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)

    We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.
    José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)