The Premises Studios

The Premises Studios is a music studio complex based near Haggerston in Hackney, London. The studio complex contains 10 commercial rehearsal studio spaces, one acoustic recording studio, one mixing studio, and various private long-let rooms and office spaces.

Originally housed across two Victorian terrace houses at 201–203 Hackney Road, London, the studios were opened in 1986 by two local jazz musicians, Dill Katz and Colin Dudman, as a cost-effective alternative to London's more established music studios.

The buildings themselves are said to have a somewhat illicit history, prior to the music studios taking residence, with one building "reputed to be a rendezvous for illicit trysts between Lord Hamilton and Lady Hamilton" and another of the terraces said to have been a club run by notorious East End gangsters the Kray brothers.

After a difficult financial period the studios were forced to declare insolvency in 1996 and the business was bought by current owner and CEO, Viv Broughton. Broughton is a published author and gospel music historian (he had a gospel column in The Voice, which newspaper he helped to launch) and was one of the early members of The Pretty Things.

At this time The Premises Music Education Programme was established as a music-based charity, which ran a New Deal work programme and still provides workshops and courses throughout the year, often in partnership with like-minded non-for-profit organisations.

In 1998 the charity purchased the freehold of neighbouring properties and secured the future of the studios in their current location at 205–209 Hackney Road, although the original 201–203 Hackney Road studios have remained within the greater complex as long let studio spaces. Upon expansion the original buildings were demolished to make way for a bespoke new building with studios and offices over three floors. In May 2010, the arrangement between The Premises Studios Ltd and Full Frequency Ltd, the lease holders for 201–203 buildings, was dissolved. The Premises Studios business operates only in 205–209 Hackney Road.

In 2007, The Premises Studios finished work on a large acoustic recording space. This was the first solar-powered recording studio in the United Kingdom and believed to be the first in Europe.

In 2010 Hackney Council controversially ordered the removal a landmark piece of street art from the wall of The Premises, a 12-foot rabbit painted the previous year by graffiti artist ROA, with the studio's consent. Following a campaign, the council reviewed the case and "decided not to take action because the rabbit had been in situ for some time and had not provoked complaints".