Eldon Street. Jamhot Studios Past.

Next up on our cheery tour of Jamhot studios past (we hope anyone bothering to read this nonsence is enjoying it) we're off across Kelvingrove Park to Woodlands Road, or to be precise Eldon Street (a strange wee street next to Gibson Street). 

It felt quite scary leaving Finnieston behind, as it felt like a creative place, with the ramshackle nature of The Hidden Lane suiting our approach to running the studio. But we felt it was time to get a little more professional. I think it was when one of our clients was in and complained about the state of our toilet that we thought it might be time to make a move. And so that's exactly what we did. 

We saw a listing for a quirky little building that was being used as a space for creative businesses, and there was a motion / 3D studio and a couple of designers already in there. So we decided to up-size, and took two rooms in the place. The move felt very professional, we had our own garden area which we planned to make extersive use of (I think we used it a couple of times). 

It was a great building to be based in. Before it was an office it used to be a music recording studio called Castle of Doom, owned by Scottish band Mogwai. 

Good times were had here, it was nice sharing the space with some other studios despite having the smallest meeting room ever invented. We once had a meeting in there once where the client brought 5 people without telling us (the meeting room only held 4) and so when we all fitted in there we couldn't open the doors again to let the tea and coffee in.

We started to do some really great work in this studio, getting to collaborate with different creative folk along the way. But it was also a time when we probably took on a bit too much work, as we didn't realise you could say no to things, a valuable lesson we have learned along the way. 

This was when we really started to get more into coffee too, as we had the excellent Artisan Roast on our doorstep where we used to frequent every morning. Still sad that it's no longer there. On a very fancy day we might pop out for some lunch at Stravaigin but more often we would get a roll with cheese & onion (and almost half of a full onion at that) at Rajous store - for the bargain price of one pound.  

It was also nice to be based right next door to a pub with one of Glasgow's best beer gardens, The Old Schoolhouse where they would often run a free Friday buffet for students, which we would sometimes partake in. Other haunts were The Dram bar (it was quite long) and the Doublet - one of Glasgow's best boozers (will need to go back, not been there in ages). 

It was nice having a seperate meeting room, where we could go and cry when things became too stressful. There was also kitchen upstairs in the building, where some of the folk used to make a full english breakfast each morning, the smell of which could be enjoyed throughout the place. 

For some reason there was also a life sized cardboard cut out of Jon Bon Jovi kicking about the building, which used to move location from time to time. 

It was a good place to be, although there were some arguments about which one of the two toilets it was appropriate to make use of (as the doors to both were opposite two of the other offices), leading to several slighly angry email threads that did the rounds amongst us and the other two studios. I'm not sure that issue was ever fully resolved. 

We loved this building and the studio space. But after 4 years (or around that length of time) it felt like it was time for a move again. Craig managed to find a great space in Finnieston, so back across the park we went. 

From memory, I think we did manage to get our deposit back from this place - leaving it in tip top condition. Happy days. 

More on our next studio soon...