Creatomatic HQ IV – Work starts here

James Miodonski 11th of February 2021

Progress report: What we’ve taken on

Welcome to a virtual tour of Creatomatic HQ IV in all it’s largely neglected and rather sad looking current state of glory.

With work now finally underway we thought now was a good time to share what it is that we’ve let ourselves in for and what we’re starting from. The ‘before’ before the ‘after’ if you like.

Grand entrance

Our new front door. Confusingly – given our address is 25 High Street, Lockerbie – this is actually on Victoria Road. The T junction onto the High Street is about 10 yards to the right of this. There’s another front door just round the corner which is for Farries, Kirk & McVean – our neighbours downstairs in number 27.

First impressions count and there’s a bit of TLC needed here to make good on that front. We’ll clear out the weeds, replace the missing signs and generally give the bit a good old clean up. Green isn’t really our colour so that’s going to change too.

The wall to the left houses a small walled garden area and sizeable private car park shared between us and the accountants for staff and visiting clients.

Car park and garden

Round the back we’ve got a small grassy patch, a tatty metal fire escape, remnants of an old walled garden and the car park. Lots of potential to put outdoor seating and benches out here on warm afternoons. There’s also a pub just on the other side of that wall so also scope to reinstate our own private beer garden that’s been sorely missed since we left Bridge House.

Bar a couple of spaces reserved for our new friends downstairs, this is all ours. Finding a parking space in Lockerbie can be tricky at times, so having this right at the back door was a big positive deciding factor when we first looked at the place.

Having parking on-site and readily available makes it easy and stress free for clients visiting for meetings, although it appears that it’s currently used as a free-for-all whilst the place is sitting empty. (Looking at you here white van lady).

We’ve got plans to install a secure bike park to encourage and support anyone that wants to cycle in to work and make it a much more appealing prospect (more on that later).

Overall – as is a continuing theme – it could all do with a bit of cleaning up and TLC. Nowt a bit of graft won’t sort out, and Paul’s offered his landscaping expertise to help kick things into shape too.

Inside

Behind the heavy old front door is a rather nice hallway complete with patterned mosaic floor. Unfortunately that’s where much of the olde Victorian charm ends.

Downstairs we’ve got a bright and airy office space to the left and a couple of storage cupboards by the main hallway.

What we’re dubbing as the Meeting Room down here has had a partition wall put in at some point which splits off a small store cupboard and creates the most titchy little office space shown below.

Kit shown for scale.

It feels like a bit of a wasted space so we think removing the false dividing walls will open this out beautifully and also let a load of natural light in too.

The hallway and stairway beyond are lit from above by a lantern window (up for replacement, as it leaks like a sieve). Carry on up the stairs and our main workspace is on the first floor.

Upstairs

Up here we’ve also got half a dozen offices of various size that currently look a lot like this. We’ve got carpets to lift and replace, walls to paint and lights to upgrade throughout.

We’ve got a couple of toilets – the best of which is finished in fetching avocado green.

A titchy wee kitchen – this has scope to cause headaches when everybody wants to make a cup of tea at the same time.

And a load of walkways and storage areas that look like they’ve sat empty and unused for years.

And it was all yellow

By now you may have noticed the colour scheme.

For reasons unbeknownst most of the interior has been painted in a shade of old nicotine stained 90’s computer yellow, with dull matte blue hiding the otherwise really nice original cornices.

It’s pretty mingin’.

Couple this with a series of questionably placed partition walls that create a warren of tight and pokey walkways. Then imagine it all being lit with the kind of lighting you might find on an urbex blog and you’ll begin to get the picture.

If funds allow, we’d love to punch a couple of holes into this wall to let some light in from the stairway but it may have to be a job for the future. Everybody that’s been so far has managed to get lost through here. Yes, we know about that carpet.

So many walkways.

The wall on the left here is false plasterboard and the old cornice runs straight through it into the office on the other side. Our plan here is – you guessed it – to knock this out to combine this otherwise creepy and useless walkway with the small office next door into a nice, bright open break-out space. Somewhere for folks to have lunch away from their desks or to just get a screen break in when needed.

So there you have it

Creatomatic HQ number four in all its present glory. It’s a fixer-upper, for sure but we’re really excited to get stuck in and keep you posted as we go. Grand plans are afoot and in motion and despite COVID things have started to pick up some real momentum now.

Watch this space.