Origins: Making with What Was There

Set within a former canalside sausage factory in Hackney Wick, Grow has been shaped over time through conversation and making - built by people working with what was already there.

Nothing here arrived fully formed. The space has been shaped over time, through people showing up, sharing tools, swapping materials, asking questions, and figuring things out together. Often it starts with something simple: what do we have, what can we use, who knows how to do this? From there, things begin to take shape.

In the early days, we held parties in the empty shell of the building. From there, things began to grow. We started by caring for what was then an uncared-for canalside—building planters and planting greenery. Over time, we made the bar, installed the windows, and built the mezzanine. Later came the floating planters, extending the space out into the water.

Each part has been added gradually - through use, need, and collective effort.

Building Through Reuse and Resourcefulness

The greenhouse is made from old bus shelters - working with parts that might otherwise have been discarded and reassembling them into something new. It was designed and built by a local designer and builder of adventure playgrounds.

That same approach runs through the whole site. Materials are reused, repaired, and adapted. Things move between people. What might be waste somewhere else becomes part of the infrastructure here.

Grow has operated with circular economy principles from the beginning - sharing resources, exchanging skills, and repurposing materials as part of everyday practice, long before the term was widely used.

A Local Economy in Motion

Across Grow Studios and Grow Hackney, a local economy is constantly in motion. Artists and makers collaborate across disciplines, fabricators supporting sculptors, designers working with musicians, neighbours sharing tools, knowledge, and time.

A conversation at the bar can turn into a commission. A shared resource can become a new line of work. It’s informal, but it builds something real, rooted in trust, proximity, and mutual support.

An Evolving Creative Ecosystem

Grow was founded in 2014. It is a unit of Grow Studios and its canal side location was a opportunity not to be missed.

Since 2007, the Studios has been home to hundreds of artists, makers, and small businesses. Today, designers, filmmakers, painters, metalworkers, musicians, bakers, and producers work side by side.

Some stay for years, others move through, but all contribute to the evolving shape of the space. Across sites, there are now over a hundred people working within this ecosystem, with more joining as new spaces open.

The aim has never been to fix what Grow is, but to allow it to adapt - holding space for exchange, experimentation, and support.

Ecology and the Canal

Planting has been part of Grow from the beginning. Terrace planters were introduced early on, bringing greenery into the space and creating a more welcoming environment for people alongside plants and wildlife. Rather than filling the canalside with more seating, a different choice was made - to prioritise people and planet, creating a green oasis in the city.

In 2021, this expanded into the canal with a floating ecosystem. Built through collective effort and hands-on making with volunteers, the floating planters - sometimes described as a floating terrarium - form small islands for birds, bees, and pollinators, contributing to biodiversity along the Lee Navigation.

It’s a subtle intervention, but one that shifts how the space is experienced - introducing calm, habitat, and a different relationship to the water.

Energy and Infrastructure

Energy has followed a similar path of long-term commitment and incremental change. Since 2014, Grow has been powered by renewable electricity, avoiding gas heating and choosing a lower-impact approach even when it has been more complex or costly.

In 2022, solar panels were installed across the studio roofs. With support from a 2023 crowdfunder, systems have been introduced to enable battery storage, with ongoing work to raise funds for more batteries to store more of the energy generated on site.

Like much of Grow, it’s not a finished system - it’s something that continues to evolve.

Social and Economic Sustainability

Grow has been committed to paying the London Living Wage since 2014, recognising that fair pay is fundamental to a sustainable and equitable community.

In a sector shaped by rising costs and ongoing challenges, maintaining this commitment requires care, resilience, and long-term thinking. As an accredited Living Wage employer, Grow prioritises fair working conditions, training, and development.

This reflects a broader belief that social value should sit alongside environmental and economic sustainability.

How Grow Operates

Grow is a self-organised, independent project that has evolved through collective effort from people at every level, rather than through a fixed top-down plan.

Built by artists, makers, and the local community, it has been shaped through shared responsibility, resourcefulness, and a commitment to making something work with what’s available.

At the same time, sustaining it has meant taking on long-term responsibility - holding the infrastructure, making difficult decisions, and navigating the realities of running a space within the pressures of the city, the grassroots music and art sector, and hospitality.

Not every choice is easy, and not every decision is shared, but the intention has always been to keep the space open, responsive, and grounded in the needs of the people who use it.

What Grow Is (and Isn’t)

There is no single model for what Grow is. It sits somewhere between a studio complex, a cultural venue, a community space, and an ongoing experiment in how to live and work more sustainably.

It connects culture and ecology in practical ways - through food, music, making, growing, and building. It creates opportunities for collaboration, supports grassroots practice, and holds space for learning through doing.

An Ongoing Process

Much of what exists here has come through trial and error. Trying things out. Seeing what works. Adapting. Sharing knowledge. From reusing materials to building energy systems, from hosting events to growing plants, the process has been iterative and collective.

Grow isn’t finished. It continues to shift and change. Shaped by the people who pass through it, the materials that find their way into it, and the wider context it sits within. It remains, at its core, an ongoing conversation - between people, place, and the physical things that hold it all together.

Practice as Activism

This kind of work often exists at the edges, in liminal spaces, shaped by care, collaboration, and resourcefulness.

We are not the loudest voices. Often, the more time there is to talk about something, the less it is actually done.

Staying open—continuing to hold space, to make, to maintain—is the work. It is the practice. It is the activism.