2b:I[31964,["5953","static/chunks/app/blog/%5Bslug%5D/page-940075dea53b52c0.js?dpl=dpl_7wTZEAozwjNKEr629g33EVN598L1"],"ViewTracker"] 2c:I[2197,["5953","static/chunks/app/blog/%5Bslug%5D/page-940075dea53b52c0.js?dpl=dpl_7wTZEAozwjNKEr629g33EVN598L1"],"SafeImage"] 2d:T1ce7,

Cheltenham gets bookmarked and then forgotten. You remember it's between Bristol and Birmingham, recall that it has the festival and the racecourse, and then default back to whichever city you know better. That's most photographers' relationship with it, and it means Gloucestershire in general is seriously underrepresented in conversations about UK studio hire.

I've had reason to look into this properly, and the short answer is: the options are limited but the ones that exist are good, the M5 access is genuinely practical, and for briefs that are already anchored to this part of the country, the alternative of driving talent to Bristol is less smart than it looks.

Stealth Studio GL52

This is the most significant studio space in the area, and for certain briefs it's genuinely exceptional. The white cove measures 9 metres by 9 metres with a 6-metre ceiling — which makes it the largest white cove in Gloucestershire by some margin. That's a meaningful spec: 9 × 9m at 6m high is car-capable with a mid-size vehicle, adequate for architectural product sets, and large enough for a full fashion or lifestyle brief without hitting the walls with your widest angle.

The ceiling height is particularly worth noting. You'd be surprised how often UK regional studios list a large floor area but then cap out at 3.5m or 4m ceiling, which cuts off the lighting positions you need for overhead rigs or anything using a Scrim Jim as a large diffusion source. At 6m, you have room to work properly.

Stealth GL52 is just outside Cheltenham to the north — GL52 is the postcode district for Bishops Cleeve and the surrounding area. Access from the M5 (junction 10) is quick, and from the M4 via the A417, it's realistic for Bristol-based or Swindon-based crews without the city-centre delays.

STMO

Based in Cheltenham town centre with direct links to the M5 and a short walk from Cheltenham Spa station. STMO is a more versatile creative studio space than a strictly photography-first setup, which has pluses and minuses: the flexibility is useful if your brief involves elements beyond still photography (video, podcast, content creation), but you lose some of the dedicated shooting infrastructure that a purpose-built photo studio provides.

Worth checking directly for current rates and what's included — they're the kind of space that configures differently depending on the brief, so a call is more useful than a listing page.

The Peerspace option

There's a concrete-aesthetic studio that shows up on Peerspace for the Cheltenham area — raw concrete walls, recently renovated, a different visual character to the standard white studio. For editorial or brand work where that industrial aesthetic is specifically useful, it's worth knowing about. But as with any Peerspace booking, you're adding a 20% host service fee to whatever the listed rate is, which can move the cost meaningfully on a full-day shoot. Check whether direct booking is possible through the same space — sometimes it is.

Gloucestershire airport

This matters more than you'd think for certain production scenarios. Gloucestershire Airport (Staverton) is a small general aviation airport close to Cheltenham — not a commercial hub, but used for private aviation, aircraft maintenance, and light aviation operations. For production work that involves aviation adjacent content — aviation brand photography, pilot portraiture, corporate aviation — the airport proximity is a genuine location asset. Hangar-based shoots or apron-side location work combined with a nearby studio day can be planned around the Cheltenham area in a way that would be logistically complicated anywhere else in the region.

The wider Gloucestershire picture

Gloucester city itself has fewer dedicated photography studios than Cheltenham, though the two towns are fifteen minutes apart and both on the M5. The Cotswold belt — Cirencester, Stroud, the Chipping Campden area — has some interesting location assets for lifestyle and food and drink photography: stone barn conversions, working farms, country house interiors. The combination of a Cheltenham studio for the controlled shooting and a Cotswold location for the environmental hero shots is something I've seen structured into a couple of productions to good effect.

Stroud specifically has a strong creative community relative to its size. It's not primarily a studio-hire destination, but there are working photographers and makers there, and the town has a character that doesn't exist in Cheltenham's more polished environment. If you're looking for something with genuine texture for a brand that wants to lean into craft and authenticity, it's worth a look.

Why not just go to Bristol

Bristol is 45 minutes from Cheltenham on the M5, and its studio scene is much more developed. If you have no geographic constraint, Bristol probably wins on pure studio choice. But if your client is Cheltenham-based, if your talent is coming from the Midlands rather than from London or Bristol, or if your location work is in the Gloucestershire or Herefordshire countryside, the geometry changes. Driving everyone to Bristol and back adds a couple of hours to a shoot day, which costs money and energy.

There's also the access angle. Cheltenham Spa station has direct services to London Paddington in around two hours, Birmingham New Street in around an hour, and Bristol Temple Meads in forty-five minutes. If you're pulling talent from multiple locations, Cheltenham is a more neutral meeting point than either Bristol or Birmingham.

What to ask when you're booking in this area

A few things that are particularly worth clarifying for Gloucestershire studios:

Power supply spec — the region's studios vary a lot on this. Confirm whether you have access to a 32-amp circuit or just 13-amp domestic sockets.
Daylight quality — large cove studios in this area tend to be in commercial park or agricultural buildings where the daylight (if any) comes from rooflights rather than large windows. If north-facing window light is important to your brief, ask specifically.
Parking for a van — most of the Cheltenham studios are either town-centre (difficult for loading) or business-park-adjacent (easy). Know which before you book.
Equipment included — some spaces include basic lighting; others don't. Check before assuming anything.

The honest summary

Gloucestershire's studio offering is thin by the standards of Manchester, Leeds, or Bristol. But what exists — particularly Stealth GL52's large white cove — is legitimate professional kit, not a converted garage with a paper roll. For the right brief, usually one that's geographically anchored to this part of the country, it's worth the effort of looking properly rather than defaulting to a longer drive to somewhere more familiar.

The Creative Studio Hire directory has Gloucestershire coverage if you want to see what's currently listed and filterable by specific spec. Worth checking before you resign yourself to a three-hour round trip to somewhere that wasn't strictly necessary.

20:["$","div",null,{"className":"container mx-auto px-4 py-8","children":["$","div",null,{"className":"grid grid-cols-1 lg:grid-cols-3 gap-8","children":[["$","article",null,{"className":"lg:col-span-2","children":[["$","$L2b",null,{"postId":"4462c64a-28bc-4c63-bc8c-cdbbb16597d1"}],["$","div",null,{"className":"relative w-full h-96 mb-8 rounded-lg overflow-hidden bg-gray-100","children":["$","$L2c",null,{"src":"https://zleegsldkizzjytljdor.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/blog-images/photography-studio-hire-cheltenham-gloucestershire-2026-1786943822431.png","alt":"Photography studio hire in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire in 2026","fill":true,"priority":true,"className":"object-cover","fallbackClassName":"w-full h-full flex items-center justify-center"}]}],["$","header",null,{"className":"mb-8","children":[["$","div",null,{"className":"flex flex-wrap gap-2 mb-4","children":[["$","$L15","5c376041-5bd3-4e0d-8a5a-24f7d319c901",{"href":"/blog/categories/location-guides","className":"text-xs font-medium bg-indigo-100 text-indigo-800 px-3 py-1 rounded-full hover:bg-indigo-200 transition","children":"Location Guides"}]]}],["$","h1",null,{"className":"text-3xl sm:text-4xl font-bold text-gray-900 mb-4","children":"Photography studio hire in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire in 2026"}],["$","div",null,{"className":"flex flex-wrap items-center text-sm text-gray-600 mb-4","children":[["$","time",null,{"dateTime":"2026-08-27T08:00:00+00:00","children":"August 27, 2026"}],["$","span",null,{"className":"mx-2","children":"•"}],["$","span",null,{"children":[0," views"]}]]}],["$","p",null,{"className":"text-xl text-gray-600 border-l-4 border-indigo-500 pl-4 italic","children":"Cheltenham sits between Bristol and Birmingham with better M5 access than either of them. The studio options are thin but the right one for certain briefs."}]]}],["$","div",null,{"className":"prose prose-lg max-w-none prose-headings:font-bold prose-h1:text-3xl prose-h2:text-2xl prose-h3:text-xl prose-h4:text-lg prose-p:my-4 prose-a:text-indigo-600 prose-a:no-underline hover:prose-a:underline prose-img:rounded-lg prose-li:my-2","children":["$","div",null,{"dangerouslySetInnerHTML":{"__html":"$2d"}}]}],"$L2e","$L2f"]}],"$L30"]}]}] 23:null 27:[["$","title","0",{"children":"Photography studio hire in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire in 2026 | Studio Directory Blog"}],["$","meta","1",{"name":"description","content":"Cheltenham sits between Bristol and Birmingham with better M5 access than either of them. The studio options are thin but the right one for certain briefs."}],["$","meta","2",{"name":"author","content":"CreativeStudioHire"}],["$","meta","3",{"name":"keywords","content":"photography studio rental, video production studio, creative studio space, studio rental near me, photo studio for rent, film studio rental, podcast studio, content creation space"}],["$","meta","4",{"name":"creator","content":"CreativeStudioHire"}],["$","meta","5",{"name":"publisher","content":"CreativeStudioHire"}],["$","meta","6",{"name":"robots","content":"index, follow"}],["$","meta","7",{"name":"googlebot","content":"index, follow, max-video-preview:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-snippet:-1"}],["$","link","8",{"rel":"canonical","href":"https://creativestudiohire.com"}],["$","meta","9",{"name":"format-detection","content":"telephone=no, address=no, email=no"}],["$","meta","10",{"property":"og:title","content":"Photography studio hire in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire in 2026 | Studio Directory Blog"}],["$","meta","11",{"property":"og:description","content":"Cheltenham sits between Bristol and Birmingham with better M5 access than either of them. The studio options are thin but the right one for certain briefs."}],["$","meta","12",{"property":"og:image","content":"https://zleegsldkizzjytljdor.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/blog-images/photography-studio-hire-cheltenham-gloucestershire-2026-1786943822431.png"}],["$","meta","13",{"name":"twitter:card","content":"summary_large_image"}],["$","meta","14",{"name":"twitter:creator","content":"@creativestudiohire"}],["$","meta","15",{"name":"twitter:title","content":"Photography & Video Studio Rentals | CreativeStudioHire"}],["$","meta","16",{"name":"twitter:description","content":"Find and book creative studios for your next project. Direct booking with studio owners. No platform fees."}],["$","meta","17",{"name":"twitter:image","content":"https://creativestudiohire.com/twitter-image.jpg"}]]