Ardwick Works
A cotton warehouse, rebuilt for work
Unit 9 was a spinning floor, then a print works, then empty for eleven years. We took the roof off in 2017, put a better one back, and opened in March 2018 with nineteen members.
The building
We wanted somewhere you could think in the morning and talk in the afternoon, without moving building. That is the whole brief, and everything here follows from it.
2018
Opened, with nineteen members
91
Members across three floors
9
Bays, which is where the name came from
The community
Five things we put in the diary
A community does not happen because there is a table-tennis table. It happens because somebody books the room and buys the bread.
Thursday lunch
One o'clock at the long table, every week since the second month. We cook, you sit down. About forty people usually do.
Member showcase
Last Wednesday of the month. Three members, fifteen minutes each, on whatever they are working on. Then the terrace.
The intro board
A cork board by the kitchen. Pin what you need — a proofreader, a van, a second opinion — and somebody in the building answers.
Evenings downstairs
The ground floor clears at six and takes sixty for a talk or a launch. Members book it free twice a year.
The first fortnight
New members get walked round and introduced to five people who do something near what they do. It is not left to chance.
The floors
Three floors, nine bays
Quiet gets louder as you go down. Pick the floor that suits the week you are having.
Ground — hot desks
Kitchen, booths, front desk, events after six
First — dedicated desks
Forty desks, wired sockets, library rules
Second — private offices
Six rooms, meeting rooms, stairs to the terrace
Members
What the members say
Ninety-one people work here. These five agreed to be quoted.
I moved off my kitchen table in January and my working day got two hours longer and a lot calmer. The booths are the thing — I can take a client call without warning anyone.
Nadia Sharpe
Illustrator, member since 2024
Nadia Sharpe
We took a four-desk office upstairs after eight months on dedicated desks. Same building, same coffee, same people at lunch — we just shut a door now.
Theo Adeyemi
Founder, Barrow & Bell
Theo Adeyemi
The wired connection at my desk is the unglamorous reason I stay. I push big files all day and I have never once blamed the wifi.
Mei Lau
Product designer, Halyard
Mei Lau
I came for a day pass, booked a meeting room that afternoon and signed up on the Friday. Nobody chased me once.
Rory Finn
Freelance developer
Rory Finn
Thursday lunch is where I have picked up three pieces of work. That is not a perk, it is the whole reason I pay monthly rather than daily.
Asha Devan
Copywriter, member since 2022
Asha Devan
I moved off my kitchen table in January and my working day got two hours longer and a lot calmer. The booths are the thing — I can take a client call without warning anyone.
Nadia Sharpe
Illustrator, member since 2024
Nadia Sharpe
We took a four-desk office upstairs after eight months on dedicated desks. Same building, same coffee, same people at lunch — we just shut a door now.
Theo Adeyemi
Founder, Barrow & Bell
Theo Adeyemi
The wired connection at my desk is the unglamorous reason I stay. I push big files all day and I have never once blamed the wifi.
Mei Lau
Product designer, Halyard
Mei Lau
I came for a day pass, booked a meeting room that afternoon and signed up on the Friday. Nobody chased me once.
Rory Finn
Freelance developer
Rory Finn
Thursday lunch is where I have picked up three pieces of work. That is not a perk, it is the whole reason I pay monthly rather than daily.
Asha Devan
Copywriter, member since 2022
Asha Devan
Journal
Notes from the floor
How the building works, what things cost and what we got wrong. Written by the people who run it.
Tours
Come and see it. Tours run Tuesday to Thursday
Twenty minutes, no sales patter. You see the floor you would sit on, meet whoever is in, and leave with a price in writing.
The member note — one email a month, what is on and what is free