A Campus for Creativity
The UK's creative industries are growing faster than almost any other sector. But the pipeline feeding that growth is quietly fracturing. Over the past decade, creative college enrolments have more than halved, arts teachers have disappeared from state schools at an alarming rate, and the number of young people studying performing arts has fallen sharply year on year. The talent the sector needs isn't coming through. Not because the appetite isn't there, but because too few learning environments able to support and nurture it.
Access Creative College has been pushing back against that story for over thirty years. With more than 4,500 learners across seven UK campuses, they have a track record of producing careers- and stars. FLO, Jess Glynne, Nova Twins, Rita Ora, and Ed Sheeran, who studied at ACC's former London campus in 2007–08, have all passed through their doors.
Following our work in Manchester and Bristol, ACC asked us back to design their seventh and largest campus, a multi-million pound home for creative education in East London, built to match the scale of what the sector demands.
Developing the Concept
Spread across three floors, the Whitechapel campus accommodates specialist, acoustically sealed learning spaces including rehearsal rooms, recording studios, green screen studios, and performance areas. 'Super Space' classrooms integrate hands-on learning with games and media production zones within traditional settings, enhancing the student experience in ways that blur the line between learning and doing.
Connecting corridors double as social and collaborative hubs, fostering the kind of spontaneous idea exchange that creative education depends on. The design, inspired by video games, features vibrant grids incorporating industrial materials, Amron steel mesh and corrugated panels — with striking LED and neon strip lighting throughout.
The aesthetic wasn't decorative. It was intentional. For students choosing between a bland classroom and an environment that communicates from the moment you walk in that creativity is taken seriously here, the physical space is a message. This building says: you belong here, and what you do matters.
A Special Launch
The opening of the new campus was supported by renowned alumni including Ed Sheeran, Let's Eat Grandma, and Beth McCarthy, a statement in itself about what ACC produces and what the new space represents.
The evening featured performances by ACC alumni, guided tours of the cutting-edge facilities, and a range of immersive workshops, from DJ masterclasses and VR introductions to esports competitions. In a sector fighting to attract and retain the next generation of creative talent, a launch like this doesn't just celebrate a building. It sends a signal to prospective students, to the industry, and to the young people of East London about what creative education can look like when it's taken seriously.
“I went to Access College when I was 17 and 18, and it just gave me so much freedom to be creative in London and have a base to meet like-minded people. A lot of the time you go to school and you’re made to feel you have to grow up and get a proper job and what Access does is it gives you a safety net of trying something before you go out into the big wide world. I found it so helpful and I hope you enjoy going there. I’m sure there are people there that are going to be headlining festivals in 10 years' time!”
Ed Sheeran, Former student and Patron of ACC
A Promising Future
For ACC, the Whitechapel campus is the most significant statement yet of what the organisation is and what it believes. Every student who walks in and feels that they are in the right place, that the environment matches their ambition, that the facilities are worthy of their talent, is a meaningful answer to a very large national challenge.
"The team at Sheila Bird have been creating amazing learning environments for our students as we've grown as an organisation.
Each of their designs for our creative campuses in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, and now London, sets a new bar of quality, innovation and creativity that continue to inspire the young people that use them everyday."
Jason Beaumont
CEO, Access Creative College
