As part of the legacy of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the wide ranging placemaking and programming skills of Many Studios in collaboration with New Practice were employed to develop and operate a new creative hub in the East End of the city. Since 2016, the hub has played a major part in the strategic development of The Barras neighbourhood, historically home to a thriving and industrious market, and an iconic place which occupies a place in the hearts and minds of many Glaswegians.

The anchor for this strategic approach was the adaptive reuse by Many Studios of the 100 sqm ‘Charlie’s Market’ building on Ross Street into a new Creative Hub where we introduced to the area 42 new creative workspaces, event and residency facilities, a public facing gallery and street facing shop units for varied creative and commercial uses. 

With a modest £0.5 million construction budget available, Many Studios and New Practice made the most of the building’s heritage and existing structure to create functional, flexible and accessible creative workspace across the building. In consultation with Many Studios - who had operated a creative hub in Merchant City for 2 years - New Practice designed workspaces that would serve a wide range of practitioners and businesses providing spaces that focused on flexibility, functionality, usability whilst future-proofing the overall approach to the building to accommodate emerging trends in creative workspace.

Today, Many Studios is host to a range of businesses from freelance creatives, architects, interior designers to engineers, e-commerce start ups, jewellers, graphic designers and fashion labels. The public facing gallery space is now home to The Gallow Gate; a platform for the development, presentation, and discussion of contemporary visual art and culture where projects consider the misrepresentation of non-western cultures in the UK. The gallery was designed to be an experimental space capable of introducing play and participation to build accessibility to creative practice with remove barriers to participation to local audiences. 

At the time, the project presented a great opportunity for Many Studios to grow expeditiously, and develop new avenues for income generation and creative development, simultaneously building partnerships locally to strengthen the creative industries in Glasgow. Since the building opened in 2016 we have continued to grow as an organisation outward from the building, introducing community-focused projects such as Ross Street Market and East End First Saturdays; politically-engaged, international networks including Movement of Freedom; a well-respected, international arts programme at The Gallow Gate; we have introduced new staff members, and developed an global consultancy practice working across UK, Europe and Africa.