Paul Smith’s Foundation, in partnership with Travelodge – the UK’s first budget hotel brand which operates over 600 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain – announces the next chapter of the first Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield, which began in 2024. This March, the designers moved into a new, purpose-built studio space donated and created by Travelodge, directly next to Liverpool Street Station in the City of London. 

SET Broad Street Place provides six affordable studios, with additional artist workspace and cultural activities to be developed as the space evolves. In partnership with Paul Smith’s Foundation, managed by SET, and powered by Culture Mile BID and the freeholder Travelodge, the collaborative partnership has collectively raised money for the initiative and developed a new model for cultural placemaking.

Located at 6 Broad Street Place, the site brings together cultural, non-profit and private partners to transform an unused building in an iconic part of London into a centre for creative work, placing artists and community at its heart. The project demonstrates how empty spaces can be activated to meet real needs, offering stability through affordable workspace for fashion designers while opening the City of London to new cultural activity through a public programme. It reflects the partners’ ongoing commitment to supporting early career talents and creating affordable space in the City.

Sir Paul Smith, Founder of Paul Smith’s Foundation, comments:

“I’m very thankful to our new partners supporting the Foundation in making this happen. Affordable space, mentorship and people who genuinely care, that’s what will help the next generation to build sustainable businesses and thrive! This is exactly the kind of collaboration we need more of in London and in the UK more broadly.”

Designers Pauline Dujancourt, Laura Pitharas, Paolina Russo, Karoline Vitto and YAKU were originally supported through The Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield in 2024-25, receiving 18 months of free workspace and over 80 hours of business mentoring from industry leaders, along with branding advice and business planning training. The Fashion Residency was created by the Mayor of London, Projekt and Paul Smith’s Foundation, with support from British GQ and the City of London Corporation. Spearheaded by Culture Mile BID, SET Broad Street Place ensures the designers  can sustain their practices in the face of rising rents and the threat of displacement.

The building, provided by Travelodge, has undergone extensive refurbishment – including new partitions, electrics, heating, flooring and digital infrastructure – to bring it into use. The site is delivered and managed by London-based arts charity, SET, which will support the designers through studio operations, further workspace delivery and day-to-day management. The arrangement is secured for a minimum of 12 months, with designers responsible only for operational costs and business rates.

SET Broad Street Place joins SET’s established network of artist and community-led centres across London. With more than 12 centres, including several sites within the City of London and the Square Mile, this new location builds on SET’s growing presence in the area. Drawing on nearly a decade of experience delivering high-quality cultural programming and studios, SET brings a proven model rooted in genuine affordability, inclusivity and continuity, responding directly to the pressures artists face in a city that continues to price them out.

Roland Fischer-Vousden, co-Founder at SET, comments: 

“We are pleased to be able to provide high-quality, affordable studios in the City, supporting a group of artists and designers to develop their practices. Using what would otherwise be an empty building to support those who need access to affordable workspace, particularly in central London, forms part of a wider radical intervention to bring inclusive and genuinely affordable spaces back into Zones 1 and 2. A temporary reclamation of sorts which will be an exemplar  for a future reshaping of London’s cultural landscape.”

Reinforcing the value of mentorship, SET Broad Street Place reflects Travelodge’s belief in long-term investment, in people as well as places. Through a supportive culture and infrastructure, the business nurtures talent internally whilst externally repurposing the Broad Street Place space into active use and supporting the local community. 

Steve Bennett, Chief Property Officer at Travelodge, comments: 

“We are proud to be working with the Paul Smith Foundation, SET and Culture Mile BID to repurpose and utilise this fantastic site in an iconic part of London. The acquisition of 6 Broad Street Place and 15-17 Eldon Street was a significant step in our UK development strategy as we continue to grow and optimise our network. At Travelodge, our purpose is to help people to go and do their thing and by repurposing vacant spaces, we aim to restore their economic value, benefit the local community, and meet the rising demand for quality budget accommodation.”

Culture Mile BID plays a central role in convening partners, unlocking the opportunity and ensuring the project connects to the wider cultural life of the area. By aligning with its mission to make creativity part of everyday life, SET Broad Street Place will link into the Culture Mile’s events programme, bringing accessible and often free cultural activity into shared public space.

Andrew Smith, Chair of the Culture Mile BID, comments:

“Our work has always focused on increasing accessibility to the arts and fostering collaboration between the public and private sector to achieve this. This project is a fantastic example of how we bring together partners to inject culture into our shared spaces and into the everyday lives of local workers and visitors.”

SET Broad Street Place stands as a practical example of what collaboration can achieve: a vacant building put to public use, affordable workspace secured for artists, and a new cultural asset embedded in the City. 

Martha Mosse, Director of Paul Smith’s Foundation, comments: 

“In the past 18 months of the original residency at Smithfield, we have seen these designers grow their businesses at unprecedented pace; tripling in turnover, quadrupling in staff. This next chapter has been created directly in response to the designer’s developing needs, combining affordable space, mentorship, and infrastructure to prepare them for the realities of the industry and ensure the growth can be sustained. We’re delighted to be working alongside Travelodge, SET and Culture Mile BID, partners who are thoughtful and distinctive in their approach, and whose commitment demonstrates that sustained, responsible support.”

To keep abreast of the public programme, please visit:

https://www.paulsmithsfoundation.org/

@paulsmithsfoundation

NOTE TO EDITORS

Press contact:

Carlotta Dennis-Lovaglio

carlotta@carlottadl.com 

About Paul Smith’s Foundation 

Paul Smith’s Foundation supports early career creative people working in fashion, visual arts, and design. Through in depth and bespoke business mentoring, the Foundation equips creatives with the insight, tools, and network they need to establish and sustain a healthy business for the long term. Through partnerships, we create paid opportunities to freely make, encouraging curiosity and experimentation without financial burden, whilst nurturing potential to help shape a dynamic and enterprising creative sector.

About Travelodge

Founded in 1985, Travelodge is Britain’s very first budget hotel chain and today is one of the largest budget hotel chains in the UK, with a portfolio of 630 hotels and over 49,000 bedrooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain.  

Welcoming over 22 million guests annually across the UK, Ireland and Spain, the majority of Travelodge hotels are located in major cities, towns and holiday hotspots as well as by airports and key business hubs. With over 96% of its hotels rated 4 dots or above on TripAdvisor, Travelodge is proud to offer guests across its diverse customer base a good value experience – whether they are travelling for business or leisure. 

Whether out celebrating a birthday, going to a concert or sporting event, visiting friends and family, taking a business trip, working away from home, or taking a short break, we help people to go and do their thing by Being the Brilliant Base.

Travelodge continues to invest in its ongoing hotel refit programme and has already upgraded approximately two-thirds of the Travelodge room estate to its new design. The brand is also continually evolving its quality offering to deliver a better experience for its diverse mix of business and leisure guests such as its new look Bar Cafe design, 85 Bar Café, which has been rolled out to selected UK and Spanish hotels as part of the refit programme.  

Travelodge is focusing on its environmental and social impact, with sustainability integral to its business strategy. Its Better Future sustainability plan aims to build a more sustainable future for its customers, colleagues and the planet, underpinned by three core pillars: Inclusive – ensuring we are accessible, inclusive and well-priced to our customers and colleagues; Caring – creating a caring and healthy environment for our colleagues and customers and ensuring their wellbeing; and  Conscious – Travelodge is conscious of its impact on the planet, taking into account the waste it produces, the energy and other resources it consumes and the carbon emissions it generates.  

About SET 

SET is a contemporary arts organisation and registered charity that transforms vacant buildings across London into spaces for eclectic, experimental culture, collective making, and community. 

Founded by three artists in 2016, SET has grown into a series of city-wide centres shaped by the artists, local residents, and communities who inhabit them.  

Since then, SET has transformed over 400,000 sqft of underused buildings across 10 London boroughs into active arts and cultural centres, currently operating over a dozen sites across the city.  At the heart of SET is a year-round, multi-disciplinary public programme, co-created with our members and the wider public, spanning exhibitions, performances, residencies, workshops, talks, live music, social projects, and activism. Alongside this programme, SET provides some of London’s most affordable artist studios and has supported more than 1,000 artists across various disciplines. All income generated through studios is reinvested into operations and public programming, ensuring long-term affordability and stability for artists. SET also advocates for artists and communities, working with partners including London’s Affordable Artists’ Studio Network (LAASN) to safeguard affordable space and keep culture open to everyone. 

About Culture Mile BID

The Culture Mile Business Improvement District (BID) is the fifth BID in the City of London and plays a key role in the City Corporation’s plans for Destination City, which is aiming to transform the area into a retail, leisure and dining hub. 

The neighbourhood is defined as the area from West Smithfield in Farringdon to Finsbury Circus Gardens in Moorgate, covering the Smithfield, Barbican and Guildhall areas. The destination is home to world-class cultural institutions such as the Barbican Centre, and the future London Museum, due to re-open in 2026, as well as a wide selection of restaurants, bars, pubs, and leisure experiences such as Enoteca de Luca, Club Gascon, Origin City, Hawksmoor and Clays.