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Leicester's not the first city on anyone's studio shortlist. And I get it. You're thinking London, Manchester, maybe Leeds or Bristol. Leicester doesn't come up. But I've been shooting in the East Midlands long enough to know that skipping the city entirely is a mistake — especially if you're based anywhere between Birmingham and Nottingham and don't fancy the M1 at rush hour.

The studio scene here is smaller than you'd expect for a city of 350,000 people. There's no equivalent of Hackney Wick's production belt, no cluster of converted Victorian railway arches pulling double duty as cycloramas. What there is, though, is a handful of genuinely usable spaces at rates that make the same brief in London feel borderline offensive.

I'm going to walk through what I've found — and be honest about the gaps, because there are a few.

What the brief looks like in Leicester

Most of the work I've done in Leicester is portrait, corporate headshots and smaller product shoots. It's not a fashion city in the way Manchester or London is. The client base tends to be SMEs, local brands, healthcare groups — the kind of commercial work that needs clean, professional space but doesn't need a 12m infinity cove or 100-amp 3-phase.

That's useful information before you book. If you're planning a car shoot or a full-scale fashion video with six lighting heads, Leicester's current studio stock isn't really built for that. You'd be better off driving 45 minutes to Nottingham or heading to Birmingham's Digbeth. But for a headshot day, a product session or branded content? Sorted.

Studios I'd actually book

Ivory Nest Studios

This is the one I keep coming back to. It's positioned primarily as a styled content space — natural light setups, lifestyle sets, the kind of environment that works well for brand and social content. The light quality is good. Not north-facing daylight good, but diffused and manageable.

It's also set up for families and newborn shoots, which tells you something about the spec: the spaces are temperature-controlled, the floors are clean, and there's proper changing provision. That matters more than people admit when you're working with clients who've never been inside a studio before. First impressions land differently when the space feels considered rather than thrown together.

Rates at Ivory Nest are mid-range for Leicester — broadly in line with what you'd pay across the East Midlands for comparable spec, and meaningfully below what London charges. Book direct via their website rather than through a platform. Straightforward.

XYZ Studios

If Ivory Nest leans lifestyle and brand, XYZ Studios goes harder into product and commercial work. It's marketed at websites and social media content — a clean, neutral space that steps out of the way of whatever you're shooting. I've used it for a product run and had no complaints.

The floor was clean. The power held up on a standard 13A ring — fine for small continuous rigs, less ideal if you're trying to run multiple heads off the same circuit. Worth asking about the electrical setup before you confirm if your kit list is serious. Not because the studio is bad, just because that's the question.

SB Studios

Five minutes from the city centre, which in a Midlands city with actual parking options means something entirely different than it does in Zone 2 London. SB Studios offers flexible hire setups — useful for the kind of half-day headshot or brand shoot where you need in, done and out without paying for three hours of space you're not using.

I haven't personally shot there, but photographers I trust in the area have, and the feedback is consistently decent. Sometimes that's exactly the endorsement you need. Not spectacular, but reliable.

What I've actually paid

Expect somewhere between £50 and £100 per hour for a dedicated photography studio in Leicester. Most of the usable options I've encountered sit in the £60–£80 range. Half-day rates — typically four to five hours — often come in cheaper per hour, around £200–£280 for a mid-range space.

Compare that to a comparable spec in East London, where you'd be at £90–£130/hr for anything worth calling a proper studio, and the maths works quickly. Particularly if you're Midlands-based and your commute cost is zero.

Full-day rates vary more. I'd expect to negotiate for anything over six hours at smaller independent spaces. Most Leicester studio owners aren't running at full occupancy, and a reliable full-day booking genuinely means something to them. It's worth asking.

The parking situation — and why it matters

More relevant than it sounds. One of the genuine frustrations of London studio hire is the load-in. You park the van somewhere vaguely adjacent, carry the kit to the studio, someone moves the van, you reverse the whole thing at 6pm when you're tired and running behind on the edit.

Leicester doesn't do that to you. Most studios have either free parking directly adjacent or cheap paid options within a two-minute walk that won't cost you £25 before lunch. If you're travelling with C-stands, a Godox AD600 kit bag and backdrop rolls, that's a practical difference to how the day feels.

The honest gaps

I said this wasn't a car or large-scale fashion city, and I meant it. Ceiling heights across most Leicester hire spaces top out at around 3–3.5m. Fine for portraits, fine for product, borderline for anything needing an overhead rig, and genuinely inadequate for a vehicle shoot. Nobody's running a 12m cyc here.

Daylight studios with consistent north-facing light are thin too. There are natural-light spaces, but they're not the same thing — typically large windows on mixed aspects, which gives you good light on clear mornings and a flat grey box on overcast afternoons. If consistent daylight is the brief, Manchester's Ancoats has better options, or you drive to London.

Green screen exists in Leicester but I haven't personally verified anything at the standard I'd trust for broadcast. For anything chromakey-critical, view the space first or use a specialist in Manchester or London.

Booking direct vs platforms

Most Leicester studios book direct. Some list on Peerspace, which adds a guest service fee on top of the quoted rate — up to 15% on some bookings. For a £70/hr studio running four hours that's an unnecessary extra. Every studio I've mentioned has a direct contact or booking form on their own website. Use it.

Peerspace's Leicester inventory is still worth browsing to understand what's on the market. Just don't book through the platform if you can avoid it. Same space, less money out of pocket.

Who Leicester works for

Be honest with yourself about the brief before you commit. Leicester is the right call if you're based in the East Midlands and the London commute plus parking eats your margin. If the shoot is portraits, headshots, product or mid-scale brand content. If you want clean professional space at rates meaningfully below Birmingham or London. And if easy parking without a fifteen-minute kit carry matters to you.

It's not the right call if you need a car-capable cyclorama, consistent north-facing daylight, broadcast-grade green screen, or anything needing 32A+ circuits. For those, head to Nottingham, Birmingham or Manchester. The kit exists. The spaces are bigger.

Finding studios in Leicester

Alongside the spaces above, creativestudiohire.com's East Midlands listings give you a wider view of what's available, including spaces I haven't personally used. Cross-reference with a direct Google search before committing — studio listings don't always reflect current availability or recent kit changes.

If you've shot in Leicester and have a space worth flagging, submit it via the site. The scene here is small enough that word-of-mouth still moves faster than SEO.

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