The room that wasn't there yet

There was nothing to go on. Bare floors, exposed structure, dust in the air. Rosie walked me through it anyway, pointing at spaces that did not exist yet and describing what they would become.

I grew up labouring for my dad, a bricklayer, so I have always had a real interest in buildings, development and how spaces come together.

Walking through an open plan, welcoming space like this, you start to notice how intentionally it has been designed for people to move, meet and connect from the illustrations. CameThru is trying to do something similar, just through a different material. Huge shoutout to Rosie for such an insightful tour earlier on this year. 🙌🏾

Last week I went back. The room is real now, and it is pure luxury.

The space is called TOGETHER, at 88 Wood Street, EC2. The first thing I noticed was the flexibility. There is a partition that lets the main room flex from one large format down into smaller configurations, individual screens that reconfigure for whatever the day needs, and a design that never feels like it is straining to be more than one thing.

It holds up to 500 people theatre style on the ground floor. And then there is the screen. A nine metre LED wall running the front of the auditorium. It is the kind of thing that could easily tip into spectacle, but it does not. It carries the room without shouting over it. Big enough to make anything on it feel like an event, restrained enough that it never gets in the way of the people in front of it.

Then there are the details you do not notice until someone points them out. The air quality is actively monitored. When you put a few hundred people in a room the CO2 climbs, and most of us have felt what that does without ever naming it. You get tired, you lose focus, you want to leave. TOGETHER measures it and manages it. It is exactly the kind of thing you do not realise you need until you have been in a room that did not have it.

I have spent the last year taking CameThru into a lot of event spaces. You learn quickly that the building is only half of it. The other half is the people running it, and whether they actually care how a day feels rather than just how many people fit in it. TOGETHER cares. Their whole line is that belonging is designed, in the quiet decisions that make a day run, and having watched them take a shell and turn it into that room, I believe them.

Something I wasn’t aware they were doing: brand new on top of brand new. Club 88 sits on Level 12 of 88 Wood Street, while downstairs caters for larger gatherings. TOGETHER, they give organisers the option to host the main event below, with a more intimate VIP, dining or networking experience above, complete with skyline views, a lounge, terrace and six metre LED wall.

One more thing I want to name, because it matters to me. Every event at TOGETHER supports James’ Place, the men’s suicide prevention charity, with a donation for every delegate through the door. I have spent time this year around men’s resilience work, and I do not take that lightly. Backing a cause quietly, event after event, without making it the headline, tells you something about the people behind a business.

If you’re planning something in the City and want a space that’s genuinely designed around bringing people together, go and see it for yourself.

Some conversations leave you with more ideas than answers.

Elliot, Emilie, Declan, Rosie, Joe and Aeron and the team have built something worth seeing.

Who knows what might grow from this one. 🌱

Watch this space.