This Week’s Project. - 005

So… what happened?

On the 28th of August 2025 at about 1am, an old battery exploded in a draw in my studio (we think) and started a fire that destroyed 95% of the gear in my studio. The fire was luckily contained to just my space. The Fire Service had put out the fire and left by 2:19am. Nobody called us to inform us, so I turned up to work at 07:41 to find the front door barricaded shut with two large wooden beams. Then I had to start trying to work out what had happened.

I haven’t felt the impact yet.

I don’t know anyone this has happened to. I know people who’ve had to move spaces at short notice and I know people who’ve had to give them up. I don’t know anyone who has lost their studio and nearly everything in it overnight.

It’s a really strange and surreal feeling.

Other than the initial stomach-drop when I first saw the scorch marks framing the broken window of my studio from the street below, the way I’ve reacted to this all happening has just been straightforward practicality. From figuring out who to speak to at the Fire Service to find out if we could go in and clear it out, to finding an insurance cancellation email I’d missed and then just mentally writing everything in the studio off.

Thinking about what I’ve lost makes me sad, so I just don’t tend to do it. I default to just thinking about what can be done now.

Whenever big bad events have happened in my life up to now, this seems to be the way I naturally deal with it. One other thing I know for certain though, is that it does eventually catch up with me. And I don’t really get to choose the time that that occurs. So that’s something fun to look forward to, hopefully it’s not in public.

What do you lose when your creative space disappears?

Now this is incredibly subjective and will obviously differ among those unlucky enough to experience it. So I can only speak to what I’ve lost.

One, I hesitate to say, pleasant surprise has been how unattached I am to stuff. I lost cameras, multiple computers, design books, a 3D printer setup, an exercise bike setup, furniture etc etc etc. You get it, a lot of stuff. But honestly this part has been fine really, all of that is replaceable eventually. So while on paper I’ve ‘lost’ this stuff, I also genuinely feel a little lighter for not having to sort through this at some point in the future and decide what to keep and get rid of. Not a feeling I expected to feel but here we are.

I did lose some sentimental stuff that’s really made me sad. A cap I was wearing when me and Jess got engaged in Central Park in New York. I had journals that were from when our kids were born. I’m not going to remember how exactly I was feeling at that point in time and those were records of my thoughts and memories and the things that were special about that time. I’ve lost 25 years worth of paper designs and drawings. Losing those really feels bad.

But one of the things that I have lost is the space itself. When you have a studio or a creative space of your own, you end up making it in your image. Whether or not you realise you’re doing that, you are building a space that suits what you do. You make it to your purpose.

And when you are forced back to a home office, or a dining room table or a co-working space you are forced back to adapting to your environment rather than being able to work in an environment you’ve adapted to suit you and your work. My main computer and hard drives survived, magically, but they survived because I’d mounted them under my desk, something I did so that I had more desk space to draw.

So for me, in this case, I’ve lost a space I can rearrange to shoot video, draw, design or quietly think. Day-to-day, this impacts me by being deeply annoying, meaning Jess can’t work from home as easily or I have to rearrange other rooms in order to do something that would have been instantaneous in a space set up to accommodate it.

Events like this are going to hit people in different ways, I don’t think I feel a deep sense of grief over it, which is a relief. I do just want to get on with life and as someone who hates bureaucracy, let me tell you a fire is the perfect way to find out the building owners didn’t have a clue who was responsible for what.

How do you start to rebuild?

Well, first of all you need permission from the council.

But on a more practical note, you quickly notice what you use and no longer have. I keep going to do something and thinking ‘oh yeah, fire, I don’t have that anymore.’

For me it’s been things like, my amazon basics tripod. I’ve got nothing to stand a camera on. My Kaweco Sport fountain pen, I’ve been writing most mornings with a Muji pen and let me tell you, it’s not the same.

I've found that the best place to start has been to get what I needed to get going again.

Make a list of what you need to replace so when you try to use something and no longer have it, you don’t just forget again. There’s a lot going on.

When I’m allowed back into the space, I’m planning on being a lot more intentional about what I have in terms of equipment. I’m also planning on doubling down on sentimental objects and art. That’s what made the studio for me, those were the things that made it my creative space and made for a place I wanted to be and to work.

Some thank yous!

First of all, Rob, he’s got the lease for our studios and he’s been great at helping me clear out and deal with all of the phone calls that need to happen. Rob’s dad as well, one for building the space to such a high standard in the first place that meant the fire was confined to just my room and two for coming in and getting on with sorting it out.

Thanks to my Dad for coming down and lending a hand and thanks for forcing me to accept some help with this, it went much faster with an extra pairs of hands.

So since putting out a couple of posts about the fire, I’ve had so many kind messages of support that really helped and honestly probably kept me distracted from the realities of tasting burnt plastic through a respirator and trips to the tip. Genuinely thanks for those, they were very kind.

Have a great week,

Liam

✌🏼

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💡 This Week’s Idea

You likely don’t need a lot of the stuff you have.

I would not recommend finding that out this way though. You do need some of it.
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🎵 This Week’s Soundtrack

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​Big Thief - Double Infinity

A new album from Big Thief. Soothing, beautiful folk-rock. A treat.

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