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Every photographer learns the north-light story early. Soft, even, doesn't shift colour temperature much through the day, doesn't throw harsh wedges of sun across your set. It's why painters used north-facing studios for four hundred years before any of us turned up with a Sony A7 and a Profoto strobe.

The problem in London 2026 is that 'daylight studio' on a Peerspace listing means almost nothing. I've turned up to spaces marketed as daylight that had two south-east windows facing a brick wall. Spaces called 'north-facing' that turn out to be west-facing. Spaces with one beautiful north window — and a ceiling-mounted halogen rig that makes the daylight irrelevant.

So here's the actual list. Studios I've shot in personally, where the north-facing claim holds up, plus the test I now run before booking anywhere new.

The five-minute test before you book

Before I commit to any listing claiming daylight or north-facing, I do this:

One. Open the listing photos and look at the shadows. Soft, no obvious direction = probably north or skylight. Hard shadows running across the floor in one direction = south or west or east, and they're either lying or being loose with the wording.

Two. Find the postcode. Drop it into Google Maps satellite. Identify the building. The window orientation is right there. Five seconds.

Three. Cross-check with SunCalc or any sun-position tool for the date you're shooting. North-facing in London means basically no direct sun for nine months of the year — but in summer, between roughly 5am and 8am and again 7pm onwards, you can get oblique sun rake even on north windows. Worth knowing.

Four. Ask the host one specific question: 'is there any direct sun on the set in the window between 10am and 4pm in May?' If they hesitate or say 'a bit,' the window isn't north. North-facing in London gets zero direct sun in that window, every time.

Areas where north-light studios actually cluster

This isn't random. North-light studios cluster in a few neighbourhoods because of how the building stock got converted. Industrial buildings from the late Victorian era often had north-facing roof glazing built in deliberately — for the original textile or print workers — and those buildings still exist as photo studios today.

Hackney Wick and Fish Island

Probably the densest concentration of genuine north-light spaces in London. The old industrial blocks here were built east-west to maximise the long north-facing roof and window run. Most of the converted units I've shot in have north-facing windows over the long axis — daylight from 9am to 5pm, no direct sun, very even.

Pricing: roughly £75–£120/hr for an 80–120sqm space with a couple of windows. The catch: a lot of these buildings are still split-use with light industrial below, so noise on the lower floors is a roll of the dice. Always ask.

Hoxton, Shoreditch, Old Street

Pockets here. The terraced commercial buildings off Curtain Road and Charlotte Road have a few good rooms — usually first or second floor, north-facing onto a yard or another street. Smaller spaces, 40–80sqm, often the upstairs of a creative agency or design studio that lets the room out by the day.

£90–£140/hr. The benefit is everything is twenty minutes' walk from anywhere. The drawback is parking and load-in are hostile — most have stairs only, no lift, narrow doorways. Fashion lookbook with two suitcases of clothes, fine. Anything heavier, no.

Park Royal and Acton

Bigger spaces, more industrial, more genuine north light from the long warehouse roofs. Several of the larger studios out here are properly purpose-built or thoroughly converted with north-orientation in mind. Cyc rooms, drive-in, the works.

£110–£180/hr depending on size and kit. The trade is location — you're a long way west, and crew based in east or south London will grumble. But for a half-day product shoot or anything needing real space, it's the most reliable area for proper north-light at scale.

Deptford, Peckham, New Cross

South-east London's industrial buildings are mixed but there are gems. The old Victorian factory units near Deptford Creek have some of the most beautiful single-window north-light rooms I've shot in. Big sash windows, 4m+ ceilings, often a balcony or roof terrace as a bonus.

£70–£110/hr. The community is smaller and more word-of-mouth. A lot of the best spaces aren't on Peerspace at all — they're the artist's actual studio that they rent out three days a week to pay rent.

Tottenham, Walthamstow, Leyton

The newest cluster — a lot of conversions in the last five years off the back of the Hackney spillover. Mixed quality. Some are excellent purpose-builds with proper north glazing, others are just 'has a window facing the road' jobs.

£60–£95/hr. Worth it if you can find the good ones. The five-minute test above is doubly important here because the listings are often newer hosts who genuinely don't know what 'north-facing' means in a photographic sense.

What I look for in the listing photos themselves

If the listing has shots taken at midday and the windows are blown out white in the photo, that's a tell — either the windows face directly into sun (south or west), or they're facing onto bright white walls or sky reflections. Either way it's not the soft even directional north light you want.

If the photos show shadows on the wall opposite the window that are diffuse, with no hard edge, even at midday — that's north light. You can verify it by looking at the angle of any shadows on objects in the room. North light in the northern hemisphere casts very weak directional shadow, mostly downward from skyward.

If the listing shows a model lit from one window with a soft kicker on the cheekbone and no hot specular hits — north light, almost certainly.

The 'north-facing' studios that aren't

I keep a small mental list. Names withheld but the patterns are:

One studio in Wapping marketed as 'beautiful north light' that's actually east-facing onto the river. Gorgeous early morning, useless after 11am.

One in Bermondsey listed as 'daylight studio with skylights' where the skylights face directly south. In summer, unshootable from 11am to 3pm without significant scrim. Owner happy to admit it once you show up.

One in King's Cross marketed as 'pure north light' where the window faces a glass office tower. Bounce light off the office at midday is bright, blue-shifted, and absolutely not north.

Working with what you've got

If you can't get a true north-facing space and the budget's tight, the workarounds:

Big diffusion frame in front of the window. A 2.4m by 2.4m silk on a frame turns any window into something approaching north light, at the cost of about two stops. I've shot cosmetics campaigns this way in south-facing rooms when I had no other option.

Reverse the orientation. Put your set on the window side, model facing away from the window. Use the window as a hair light and bounce a fill from the opposite wall. Works surprisingly well in west-facing spaces in the morning.

Time the shoot. North-facing in London is just 'no direct sun on the window'. East-facing in the afternoon, west-facing in the morning — same thing, effectively. Plan your call sheet around it.

What's worth paying extra for

A genuine north-facing room with 4m+ ceiling and a window that runs the full length of one wall is, for me, worth the £20/hr premium over a comparable space facing the wrong way. You'll work faster, you won't fight the light, and your retouch time drops because the light is more consistent shot to shot.

For the listing-side filtering, the studio directories on creativestudiohire.com let you sort by window orientation and ceiling height — which is the bit that Peerspace and Giggster still bury, even though it's the single most useful filter for daylight work.

North light is real and worth chasing. Just don't trust the listing — trust the satellite map and the shadow direction. Five minutes of due diligence saves a wasted shoot day.

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