When it comes to our grass­roots music venues, the news is usu­al­ly gloom cen­tral. So it gives me great plea­sure to report that a brand new venue is to open in Tot­ten­ham, north Lon­don, on 5th Sep­tem­ber. The new venue is called radi­al and is designed to serve the arts, music and cul­ture. And- acc­tu­al­ly, it’s our sec­ond piece of good news, as we’ve just shared the news about Music Venue Trust’s tenth venue acqui­si­tion. Things are look­ing up.

Radi­al is brought to you by Ten87 Stu­dios, who are expand­ing their cre­ative ecosys­tem from music mak­ing into live per­for­mance. The 250-capac­i­ty venue will host live music, lis­ten­ing events, talks and per­for­mances. With their pro­gramme root­ed in active lis­ten­ing, you can expect inti­mate per­for­mances, eclec­tic club nights and artist-led exper­i­ments includ­ing work­shops and sound-based wellness.

Designed by cre­ative stu­dio SODA, radi­al takes inspi­ra­tion from Ola­fur Elias­son’s ‘the weath­er project’; a cir­cu­lar radi­al sun art instal­la­tion. The radi­al con­cept shapes every aspect of the phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence, from how peo­ple arrive and gath­er, to how they move through, watch per­for­mances and con­nect with one another. 

Found­ed in 2014 by Rob Burn and Romy Quin­nen, Ten87 Stu­dios was born from Rob’s first­hand expe­ri­ence as a music pro­duc­er and a desire to address the short­age of high-qual­i­ty, cre­ative space for Lon­don’s music scene.

Romy, who’s also a record­ing artist, says, ‘Small­er venues are essen­tial to Lon­don’s musi­cal ecosys­tem. Sad­ly we’ve watched so many clo­sures over recent years. We just want to give peo­ple a new space for cul­ture and con­nec­tion. Which feels impor­tant now, more than ever.’

radi­al is sup­port­ed by Arts Coun­cil Eng­land’s ‘Sup­port­ing Grass­roots Music’ fund

radi­al: Insta­gram | Web­site  Ten 87: Insta­gram | Web­site