No.8’s Newly Refurbished Space Brings Work and Play Under One Roof

For the last few months, No.8 was in the process of refurbishing their studios and suites into a space that combines work with play to better address the post-covid working mood. As well as a new interior, the post house has taken over an adjacent building to house its ever-expanding services, now including colour alongside sound, music, and VFX  “One of the things the new space does is give a home to our No.8 colour department, so there is lots of new kit! We purchased three brand-new Baselights and broadcast monitoring as well as the biggest client TVs I have ever seen,” says Barny Wright, No.8’s managing director.

All the space was redesigned and given a cohesive, fresh look. It’s now a contemporary space with flourishes of mid-century detail and confident colour accents. “It needed to feel homely and the sort of place you would want to hang out,” he explains.

“Another reason we took on the additional building was to provide a nice drop-in space for clients to use when they are in town. It doesn’t matter if you have a job going on with us at the time, just pop in, have a coffee or do a few emails in the bar area,” adds Barny.

So, what’s the company’s attitude to post-pandemic working? It seems that everyone has seen the benefits of flexibility and better work/life balance - there’s really no way of going back to ‘the way things were’, just for the sake of it. “The flexibility of remote working is here to stay for sure. Pre-pandemic, nobody thought we could do our job remotely, but the technology and processes have advanced so much it gives us the freedom to do that.”

“We love having the team together in one place, and we love having clients in the building - we don’t ever want that to change that, but now if someone needs to do something from home, they can, and it works perfectly well.”

To launch and celebrate the new space, No.8 hosted a party bringing together what felt like the whole of Soho. The fortuitously good weather saw hundreds of industry insiders gather inside the mews - tipple in hand - laughing and catching up after so many months away. “It was actually really emotional! It was so great to see people together in real life for the first time in what felt like forever. Being able to show off the new space, see old friends, and meet some people for the first time not on Zoom was a huge amount of fun,” Barny says.

With a new space, new kit, and an attitude that balances craft and fun, No.8 is ready to take on whatever challenge comes next.