The Hidden Lane. Creative Diary.

Our first place of business was in the most inspiring surroundings of Craig's tiny kitchen in his equally tiny Southside flat. When that proved to be unsuitable for any sort of professional endeavour (unable as we were to get any sort of mobile phone signal) we realised that we might need to look for a better place to be based.

One rainy Sunday morning when I was living on Paisley Road West, I happened to have a brutal hangover after a trip to The Arches the night before, so drove across the squinty bridge in search or some paracetamol, thankfully finding a little chemist shop open in Finnieston. Back then it wasn't the best area in town with very little in its favour (apart from the most excellent Clan store which sold EVERYTHING!).

What I did notice was an intriguing sign that offered the timely promise of creative studio spaces to let. So I called the number and left a message.

The very next week, one returned call later, we were introduced to the wonderful world of The Hidden Lane.

Founded by Joe Mulholland, the lane is a rag tag collection of rickety buildings some of which used to be old horse stables way back when.

Accessed through a nondescript cobbled lane at 1103 Argyle Street, the rather gloomy entrance opens up into a random mix of friendly little buildings, crammed together and painted in a range of bright colours.

As soon as we saw this place we fell in love with it. The imperfections made it the perfect place for our little studio to be based - and even before we were shown the first space we were sold.

Joe took us round some of the available rooms across a few of the buildings, each one at the end of a labyrinth of corridors, with delightfully squeaky floors and beautiful stained glass windows throughout.

Quite a few of the rooms we looked at seemed ideal, but at the time we had no money so were looking for the very cheapest option available. Luckily Joe had something in mind.

We were led out of the lane and on to the main road along to a very cool little building which housed a curious Russian Cafe - which is now home to the much nicer The Finnieston bar & restaurant. Towards the side was a little door that led to a dingy back court area with stairs leading up to the entrance to the upper building floor and attic area.

As soon as we entered this magical little space we knew we had to have it.

As this place housed the most amazing music store called Volcanic Tongue - owned and run by David Keenan and his wife Heather Leigh which sold an esoteric collection of records with sections including Japanese Noise.

Right next to them was a tiny room no bigger than a cupboard with a little window that would, at a push, house a couple of desks. And the best part, it costed only £180 / month all inclusive. So we did the only thing we could do and snapped it right up on the spot.

I can remember the rush of excitement of securing our own studio space, a place to create exciting things for people and somewhere that we could really bring Jamhot to life. Over the next couple of weeks we managed to get some internet connected and then moved ourselves in.

This marked the start of an amazing 5 year period for Jamhot within The Hidden Lane creative community.

One year later, we moved from our beloved little room into a larger space in the main lane. Over this time we met so many amazing people and businesses. From folk operating recording studios (included Belle & Sebastian), the Sub Club team who would run out with buckets every time it rained to collect the leaks at their office door, a quirky little cafe with one strange owner who gave you toasties on real plates demanding you returned them fully washed within the hour, comedians writing sitcom scripts, a very creepy dude who we believe was recording porn in the room next door (he quickly got removed) and the curious lady across the hall who had three phones ringing constantly - turned out she was running psychic hotlines!

We have many fond memories, and lots of amusing stories from our time in The Hidden Lane, much of which are better told over a pint or two. The thing we valued most was getting to feel part of a wider creative community, something that was crucial to a couple of folk inexperienced folk (us) trying to get things off the ground. It made us realise the importance of cost effective (cheap) studios for creative & arts businesses, giving people the space to try out new companies and ideas alongside the power of community and the importance of feeling part of something bigger than yourselves.

After a break away (across the park to Woodlands) we're based back in Finnieston which feels like our natural home, and we also look fondly upon that little building where we were first based as we remember were Jamhot started.

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Graeme's writing this little creative diary as we celebrate running Jamhot for 15 years and look towards what the future of our creative & design studio holds. We're writing these for our own amusement, but if you do find yourself reading along then a big hello to you.