ACTIVE STUDIOS
There are currently three active studios on the South Side:
The Old Ironworks, The Co Lab, and Waterborne Works.
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More to come...
Waterborne Works
A collaborative creative space, Waterborne hosts four full-time creatives, from traditional sign-writing to ceramics, to film & photography and fashion design - the studio offers flexible, safe, calm, and bright dedicated studio space for locally-rooted artists.
Flex space is available for rent to artists and creatives - photography, events, and studio hire.
Best kept secret in Leighton Buzzard.
The Co Lab
Catalysed by funding from Hertfordshire Community Fund & Harpenden Building Society, South Side Studios joined forces with other local arts, culture, heritage, health, and enterprise organisations to activate the former Wilko at the heart of the Market Square. The site has played host to a packed calendar of activity and connection: sound baths, a two-day ambient music festival, a huge LEGO event, a wellness weekend, community film screenings, a huge open call art exhibition, and a large-scale textile installation - and has just been granted another month of extension into September 2025.
The Old Ironworks
An active Ironworks, on the site of the former stables of the Rothschilds' Leighton House manor, the studio currently hosts local artist Ben Ashton, a fine artist and portrait painter.
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This unique space permits the creation of large artworks, as well as the opportunity to collaborate with and provide facilities to a broad range of local creative entrepreneurs.
The Telephone Exchange
An early studio, since re-developed, the studio was housed in the former Telephone Exchange, with its rich links to Leighton Buzzard's role as Q Central, and played host to academic 4d sound exploration.