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Every London photographer has a mental map of where the studios are. Mine had a blank patch for years — the stretch between Hackney Wick in the north and Peckham in the south, with the Stratford and Forest Gate belt sitting there unexamined. I assumed it was residential, mostly. I was wrong about that.

The 2012 Olympic development changed the E20 area considerably, and the ripple effects have been arriving slowly. Affordable industrial space turned commercial-creative space. Some of it became studio space. Not in the Hackney Wick density, and not with the Shoreditch rates or the Shoreditch foot traffic — which, depending on your brief, might be exactly what you're looking for.

Here's what I've found booking in Stratford, Forest Gate, and the wider E15/E20 zone.

Why nobody talks about it

Partly because the Hackney Wick studio cluster is so visible it creates a kind of gravitational pull. If you're booking east London, you default to E9 first. Also partly because Stratford has a reputation as a shopping destination rather than a creative hub — Westfield is enormous, it dominates the E20 postcode conversation, and the association for most photographers is “busy train interchange” rather than “place to shoot”.

But. The stretch south and east of the Olympic Park — the bits that didn't get turned into brand-new residential blocks — still has old industrial buildings. And in old industrial buildings, you can get the floor areas and ceiling heights that commercial photography needs without the Zone 2 premium.

Transport — genuinely better than most east London options

This is the thing that catches people out about Stratford. The station is actually extraordinary for production logistics. You've got the Jubilee Line (straight into Canary Wharf and the West End), the Elizabeth Line (Liverpool Street in seven minutes, Paddington in under twenty), the DLR, the Overground, and several National Rail connections. For client-attended shoots where people are arriving from across London, Stratford is often better than Hackney Wick, which is one Overground line and a twenty-minute walk from anything.

For large-kit transport, the access to the A12 and A11 makes east-side logistics manageable without navigating inner city streets. The Olympic Park development brought proper road infrastructure. It's easier to get a long-wheelbase van into a Stratford loading bay than to navigate the E8 streets around Hackney Wick on a busy morning.

What's actually in the E15/E20 area

The spaces in this belt tend to run to a specific type: larger floor area, older building fabric, basic but functional. Not the polished-concrete-and-exposed-brick aesthetic that's been marketed heavily out of Shoreditch. More warehouse conversions that got repurposed for production rather than hospitality. That's fine for the right brief — and often better than something designed to photograph well but not to actually work in.

Floor areas in the spaces I've booked in E15 have typically been larger than equivalent-rate studios in E8. You get more room for the same money. Ceilings at 4m-plus are more common than they are in Hackney Wick, where some of the older units are constrained by railway arch structures. For large sets — furniture photography, car component work, any brief that needs space rather than aesthetic — the E20 corridor is worth looking at before you default to Hackney.

Power infrastructure also tends to be better in the older industrial units. Three-phase supply isn't unusual. For a large production with significant lighting requirements, that matters.

Rates

The E15/E20 area runs at a meaningful discount to comparable space in E9. I've seen similar floor areas and ceiling heights priced at 20-30% less than their Hackney Wick equivalents. Part of that is the postcode premium — Hackney Wick carries a name that adds value in brand contexts. If your client is reviewing location images and “Hackney Wick” means something to them, then fine. If the studio is just a production tool and nobody in the room cares what it says on the address, E15/E20 is often a better deal.

Half-day rates for decent-sized commercial floor space in this area sit roughly in the £200–£350 range, full days £350–£550. That's not rock-bottom — the spaces I'm talking about are proper production spaces, not empty rooms with extension leads. But it's competitive compared to what Hackney Wick charges for similar infrastructure.

What the area doesn't have (yet)

There isn't a cluster of studios here the way Hackney Wick has a cluster. The individual spaces are good — but you can't walk between five options in the same afternoon the way you can on the canal in E9. Discovery is harder. A lot of the good spaces aren't on the major platforms, or they're listed inconsistently, and finding them requires asking around.

Amenities are thinner too. Hackney Wick has coffee shops and restaurants within easy reach. Stratford has Westfield, which is fine if you don't mind taking the crew through a shopping centre. The smaller industrial areas around Forest Gate and the south side of E20 are quieter — which for a production day is neutral at worst, but it's worth knowing if you have clients who want a lunch venue nearby.

The daylight studio option in E20 is also limited compared to E8. The older industrial building stock doesn't always have the north-facing roof glazing that the purpose-built Hackney Wick spaces do. If daylight quality is the brief — natural window light for beauty or portrait work — you'll probably still end up in E9 or further afield.

When E15/E20 is the right call

It works well for: large floor-area shoots where the post-industrial aesthetic isn't a problem. Heavy lighting rigs that need proper power supply. Productions where multiple vehicles need loading access without complex street logistics. Budget-sensitive jobs where the Hackney Wick premium isn't justified by the brief. And any shoot where easy public transport access for talent and crew from central London is a priority.

It doesn't work as well for: daylight shoots, shoots where the “creative neighbourhood” atmosphere is part of the brief, or anything where the studio's own visual character is a consideration rather than a neutral backdrop.

What to ask when enquiring

Same questions as any commercial studio, but with a couple of additions specific to this area. Confirm parking and loading arrangements — not all converted industrial units have sorted out the logistics properly. Ask about three-phase power if you're running large continuous rigs. And ask explicitly whether the space has been used for photography before, or whether it's a general events venue that happens to have white walls. The distinction matters when you start asking about blackout, floor condition, and background availability.

The spaces worth booking in this area aren't going to come up first in a Google Maps search. Ask other photographers who work east London commercially. The good rooms tend to be known by word of mouth before they build a search presence.

You can also search the E15 and E20 postcodes directly on creativestudiohire.com — it's worth cross-referencing with what's there against current rates, since the platform inventory updates more regularly than some of the listings platforms.

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