Cockpit Studios
Location: Deptford, London
, UK
Status: Built
Service: Architecture, Interiors
Area: 870m² / 9,360ft²
Client: Cockpit
2019-24
Cockpit is the UK's oldest and best-known incubator for craft businesses. Its Deptford site, in a 1960s council office building on Creekside, is home to more than sixty makers and was under threat of demolition until the studios resisted a neighbouring masterplan and commissioned us in 2019. The work is part retrofit, part new-build: we reworked the existing concrete-framed building, added a new studio building at the rear, and cut a public entrance through the long brick wall. For the first time, Cockpit faces the street.
The project won the New London Architecture Award 2025 for Retrofit.
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The new 86m² workshop is a lean timber and breeze-block structure with red corrugated Eternit elevations, housing a shared woodworking hub and a larger-scale rented studio, and runs on its own air-source heat pump. In the main building, we kept the original sixty studios and reconfigured underused spaces to add five more. We reclad the ground floor with a metal and glass facade, insulating the bare concrete columns, and specified oversized radiators so the building can switch to heat pumps in a later phase. We refinished the existing hardwood floors and left the concrete frame exposed inside.
A 6m opening in the brick wall turns the sealed front yard into a craft garden landscaped by Sebastian Cox, leading to the public entrance with a café and education space. Facing the street, a new tiled mural, Head, Heart, Hand by Cockpit-resident maker Amber Khokhar, celebrates Deptford's diverse community. The building hosts public programming, including the National Saturday Club for teenagers. A site once marked for demolition is secured, its craft now open to the neighbourhood.
Awards & Press
New London Architecture (NLA) Awards 2025 — Winner, Retrofit category link
"The judges were impressed with how this project opens up the world of making to the public, celebrating visibility and access. Reuse was central to the design, with the building remaining open throughout refurbishment. They praised the way it transforms the street through community engagement, turning leftover spaces into beautifully designed, welcoming places."
RIBA London Awards 2025 — Shortlisted
RIBA Retrofit & Reuse Awards 2025 — Highly Commended, Adaptive Reuse into Mixed Use link
"Declining a developer’s offer to buy its 1960s former office block and move into a new-build scheme nearby, arts incubator Cockpit instead commissioned Cooke Fawcett Architects to perform a light-touch makeover. Working with an existing concrete frame and upgrading key elements, the project has achieved significant carbon savings while sensitively making spaces better-suited to need. The judges commended the team for ‘shining light on the ways to get these kinds of projects done.’"
Civic Trust Awards 2026 — Finalist
The Pineapples Awards 2026 — Shortlisted, Cultural Retrofit category link
Wallpaper, 24 June 2024: Cockpit Deptford is a new home for the arts and crafts in south London (Emma O'Kelly) link
The Observer, 14 July 2024: Cockpit Deptford review – the subtle art of making do (Rowan Moore) link
Architect's Journal, 23 August 2024: Making the Most of What You Have Got — Building Study (Ellie Duffy) link
FX, 10 September 2024: Brief Encounters (Veronica Simpson) link
Architecture Today, October 2024: Cockpit Deptford link
Dezeen, 29 December 2024: Cooke Fawcett reveals workings of "messy and noisy" Cockpit Deptford studios (Ella Jessel) link
Architect's Journal, 19 June 2022: RetroFirst Stories: Cooke Fawcett plans new life for craft studios in 60s block (Richard Waite) link
Process
Images taken during construction by Isabelle Young
Concept design
Observations of the original site and building condition: an unwelcoming wall to the street with an inaccessible, unused front yard
Drawings
162.
Cockpit Studios
Year:
2019-24
CF team: Oliver Cooke, Francis Fawcett; Eden Day, Andy Gibbs (project architect), Emilia Johnson
MEP design: Max Fordham LLP
Structural design: Momentum
Cost consultant: G&T
Planning consultant: Planning Lab
Photos: Max Creasy, Isabelle Young, Peter Landers
Read more about how we work on arts projects.