Enterprise hubs

Posted: 10/03/2022

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Lewisham Council are establishing three new
business enterprise hubs in Catford, Deptford and Lewisham town centres.

Lewisham has become a leading centre for dynamic, diverse and creative
micro-businesses, with the highest percentage of very small businesses in
the UK (84.2% of businesses in Lewisham employ less than 5 people, NOMIS
October 2013).

However, our surveys of creative and digital micro-businesses
showed little evidence of clustering of these businesses within the borough. In
fact 75% of them were found to be home-based
which revealed that support for this sector was under-networked in the
borough and potentially holding back growth.

Consequently, a key recommendation identified in the recent Business
Growth Strategy 2013-23 was to address this market failure and to ‘expand
opportunities for incubator space for new businesses and specific business
sectors’.

Establishing the business case 

​In 2013, we commissioned a number of feasibility studies and
talked to several start-ups to establish the business case for
creating a network of business enterprises spaces within three vacant
council-owned buildings in central Lewisham, Catford and Deptford.

We were successful in being awarded
funding of £1.63m (£1.2m from the New Homes Bonus and £430,000
from the GLA High Street Fund) to support the refurbishment and fit out of the
hubs and to support the running costs for the first two and a half years. 

All three enterprise hubs
will provide affordable, high quality, co-working spaces for rent in in
Lewisham’s main town centres.  

Local entrepreneurs and businesses will be able to access space and facilities
across the hub network including:

• advice and support for start-ups
• intensive mentoring and practical advice
• fixed working for larger organisations.

Co-working

Most of the hubs will offer
co-working which is suitable for people who need occasional or short
term access to workstations, studios or meeting rooms. In
a co-working environment the format of the space is primarily open plan and the atmosphere
fairly informal, which is aimed at creating an interactive and creative working
environment.

Catford hub

• a central location on the 4th and 5th floors of the Old Catford Town
  Hall
• co-working space
• small business units
• 28 studios
• space for workshops, networking and meetings
• a cafe

Deptford hub

• free touchdown working
• small events
• meeting rooms 
• business start up support.

Lewisham hub

• 220sqm of retail space
• high street visibility
• touch down working
• co-working
• an ideal space for prototyping product start-ups to deal directly with
  the public. 

The location of the hubs

All three enterprise hubs will be located in the
main town centre areas of Lewisham, Catford and
Deptford which already benefit from excellent
transport links and recent regeneration.

Catford 

• As the largest of the three hubs located in the Old Town Hall, the
  Catford hub will also be the headquarters for the enterprise hub
  network and occupy 950sqm of office space. Situated just off the A205 South
  Circular road, the Catford hub will be suitable for
  businesses and social enterprises who require a full
  business package suite that has large workspaces, studios,
  meeting rooms and a cafe.

Lewisham

• The Lewisham hub will be situated on
  the ground floor of the Ladywell pop-up housing
  village on the site of the former Ladywell Leisure
  Centre in Lewisham High Street. The Lewisham hub will be most
  suitable for start-ups who require prime retail space and high street
  visibility.​​

Deptford

• Located
  within the Deptford Lounge, the Deptford hub will be
  located in50sqm. The Lounge’s location within
  the already established Deptford and New Cross arts and creative
  hub as well as its close proximity to the world-renownedGoldsmiths, University of London
  and Trinity Laban,
  make this a populararea for entrepreneurs working in the arts, music
  and multimedia sectors. 

Get in touch with Lewisham Council

If
you own or work for a creative business or social enterprise and would
like to register your
interest in renting a unit in one of the
enterprise hubs then please
complete the form.

More information is available on Lewisham Council’s website.

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