Collective launch a new creative marketplace: C/159
Camden Collective launch a new creative marketplace: C/159
- Camden Collective are expanding their thriving pop up programme and have taken over a large vacant retail space in the heart of Camden Town in order to offer a long-term test trading opportunity to multiple entrepreneurs simultaneously.
- C/159 will house a market of London’s most innovative creative retailers, arranged in an open-plan layout in order to build Camden’s creative community, encourage business collaboration and nurture enterprise.
- 159 Camden High Street, two minutes walk from Camden Town Station has been fully redesigned by Build is Everything, a design team renowned for their use of sustainable materials and the quality of their build.
Camden’s Collective Pop Up programme is the only one of its kind currently operating in a UK Business Improvement District. The programme has been based in a retail space at 69 Camden High Street, and has seen huge success over the past twelve months with businesses including the Amy Winehouse Foundation, Sew Over It, Designer Jumble Sale and the Cob Gallery all using the space to showcase exciting exhibitions and approach new audiences via retail.
C/159 will expand on these successes by reframing the potential of the 3000 square foot space, enhancing the commercial value of the ten individual units whilst providing valuable opportunities to the fledgling creative sector business that they support. This is a fantastic opportunity for creative businesses and brands to flourish through product sales, trials, events and securing a bolder presence in the Camden creative community. This innovative retail project will also create twenty new jobs with additional work placements available for Camden residents.
Design plays a really important role in all of Collective’s spaces, and Build is Everything’s design to transform the existing unused space is no exception: reflecting and reiterating the collaborative and informal work environment C/159 promotes while the partitioned build equally facilitates each stall’s unique branding.
The ten stalls are equipped to showcase each business to the tenants design, with space for hanging products, light fittings, freestanding floor units and power sockets. Lighting equipment and signage areas are provided for the individual branding of each business.
C/159 is offering 6-month leases of the retail space to fledgling creative businesses from February 2014. Deadline for applications is mid-January.
For Terms and Conditions and to apply for the opportunity, visit:
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The Collective Project: Delivering a Creative Vision
The Collective initiative, through the two unique Hub workspaces and the Pop Up programme, is putting Camden Town on the map as a hothouse of creative industry talent, contributing to the wider economic regeneration and creative reputation of the area.
The project is unique in the way it weaves together sector-specific professional training, start-up incubation, commercial testing and public realm regeneration into an integrated Creative and Cultural Industry development programme.
The ambitious Collective scheme works in partnership with Camden’s sector-leading CCI businesses to attract the brightest new creative talent and nurture the next generation of CCI entrepreneurs and start-ups to affirm Camden Town’s position at the heart of the UK’s creative economy. The project is delivered by Camden Town Unlimited, the borough’s Business Improvement District (BID).
Previous Collective Pop up success stories include fashion label LoveMayka, who has gone on to showcase at Moscow Fashion Week and in British Vogue, while Art Gallery Atomica are currently on an extended 1 month pop up in the heart of Soho in Berwick Street. Testspace, Collective’s first ever pop up tenant, have since held events all over London and even popped up in New York, receiving commissions and making fantastic sales in the process.
Creative Camden
The Borough of Camden is the UK’s most significant hub for the Creative and Cultural industries. 3,700 CCIs in Camden provide over 40,600 direct employment opportunities, with a further 23,300 creative or cultural sector jobs providing a total CCI workforce in excess of 60,000.
CCI businesses in Camden have an estimated gross turnover of between £995 and £1,166 million.
Simon Pitkeathley, Chief Executive of Camden Town Unlimited and Jude Bennett, Pop Up Programme Curator are both available for interview or comment.
For press enquiries please contact Lucy Dundas on 0203 463 2088 or lucy.dundas@flint-pr.com
