First opened in 2007, owner John Merriman and his wife Ruth, wanted to create a studio space that is affordable, accessible and sustainable. They focus on supporting the community, creating spaces that welcome everyone.
So, tell me about Crown Lane’s growth from the beginning until now?
John: Our studio has evolved over the last 17 years from one room, to two and then slowly we built three. I thought let’s open a coffee shop, an event space and another podcasting room, thinking that’ll be easy and it turned out not to be because the pandemic came and it hit us really hard. Both businesses being hospitality and music were hit really hard. In the last five years we’ve been recovering and here we are celebrating 17 years.
We are primarily a recording studio. But we also double up as a rehearsal studio as well. So, all throughout the day, there's teaching that goes on here. Podcasting recordings, [and] bands all the way from originals to cover bands.
Lawrence Bradshaw
Crown Lane Studio
What kind of bands do you normally work with?
John: We've got lots of regular bands and they keep us going and hopefully we keep them going. And we’ve got a lot of people who come to the website who love the look of the place and will come maybe because we're well located for Surrey and for London. So, we get a lot of people coming for those reasons. Just having parking as well makes a big difference. And then we have artists and bands that are from record labels. All from being in the industry for years and sort of household names as well. We try to walk the line between everyone’s welcome and everyone being treated exactly the same no matter where you’ve come from.
Lawrence: We've had bands who are young teenagers trying out new music for the first time. All the way up to what I would consider dad bands, which I’m a part of. It's one very big, happy family basically. We're very proud actually this year to have a younger band who just showcased at Glastonbury under the new artists act.
We had a few bands at Glastonbury this year… At different stages in their career and then people from big household name bands as well …. And everyone's … meeting out here for the coffees. It’s totally sort of just [a] very fair, even loving place.
John Merriman
Crown Lane Studio
How do you want your customers to feel when they book a studio at Crown Lane?
John: It's an arrangement where they feel that this place is home. We don't put posters up or notices or anything about all the other bands. So when any band comes in, this feels like their place and they love that, because it is their place where they feel like they belong. We’ve got one band that’s used this room even before we opened 17 years ago. They were in this week, and we redecorated recently, and still they love all the changes.
We always want people to feel like it’s an extension of their living room.
Lawrence Bradshaw
Crown Lane Studio
What’s a day in a life like at Crown Lane?
Lawrence: A day in a life at Crown Lane is beautifully chaotic sometimes. We have everything from spoken word to bands recording, BBC sessions or teenagers coming in for their first ever EP. Keeping track of everything is quite a difficult job but it's a joyous one and one that we all take a lot of pride in. You never quite know what's around the corner, as prepared and as planned as we like to be. The nature of musicians sometimes used to be a little bit last minute, so sometimes we never know who's coming in the next day. A few weeks back it was a Thursday, it looked completely blank, it went from zero people, a nice, quiet day for us in the office to all the stations being full. So it can be quite unpredictable sometimes.
John: It's a uniquely long day because we open the doors here at 6:30 in the morning for the coffee shop and events space. We get here at about 10, so before we're even here, the doors are open and the booking system allows bands to be in and rehearsing before we're even here. So, before we've even set foot in the place, people are making music and recording things and all sorts going on. In the middle, the coffee place turns into a wine bar and event space. Lawrence hosts a thing called the Pub Orchestra, which is like karaoke, but anyone can turn up with their instrument and join in. Sometimes studios say you have to be at this level to be in a studio but with a Pub Orchestra you don’t anyone is welcome.
It's a long day but we love it and the business works because of that. So a bit like a sweet shop you think, how does that survive? Selling sweets for 5p or 10p. Here we've tried to keep our prices low but we do so many different things over such a long amount of time every day and open every day. But all together it means that we can just about put food on the table.
John Merriman
Crown Lane Studio
I noticed how accessible Crown Lane is. Can you tell me about the work behind that?
John: The studio's accessibility journey started from something I didn't understand all the way through to how it is today. We've got a wheelchair user currently recording an audiobook next door but that's only possible because of the long journey we've been on.
It's the unseen disabilities as well as the more visible ones, so we have very large signage everywhere, it’s just funky, cool, big and very bold. We have an access rider, which means that confidentially people can send us requests. We just tried to make the whole place more accessible. In one of the live rooms we actually raised the floor, so that if you're in a wheelchair you’re on the same eyeline as everybody else so you don't feel like you're lower. It's little things like we’ve got a hearing loop as well. In the coffee shop we do quiet hour, every week at 2 o'clock on a Monday. The music turns off automatically which reminds the whole team we need to be quiet because there’ll be people who just find a coffee shop quite an overwhelming space so that helps them feel part of the place as well.
Notice the wheelchair accessibility everywhere … we wanted to make it a place where somebody who's in a wheelchair or has a disability that's either seen or unseen … all feel treated the same.
John Merriman
Crown Lane Studio