In Practice at the People’s Hall
If at the start of the year you had told me that, within 3 months of launching, Before Sunset Studio would have a physical address, I would have laughed.
So when my dear friend Vivien Chan (https://vivienchan.co.uk @_vivienchan, aka @in_out_ofpractice) came to me with a proposal I was both stunned and dizzy with excitement.
I have known Vivien for years. We met through a beautiful mutual friend and bonded over our shared love of research, history, design art and visual culture. We taught together at Nottingham Trent, nibbled on baked goods together all across Nottingham’s bakeries, and talked about how much we both dreamed to have our own thing. She was one of the first people I discussed the idea of BSS with.
Whenever I think of Viv, the word embodied comes to mind. She is the kind of friend who will bring you tomato plants she has grown from seedlings as a birthday gift. In her practice, she researches sensation, touch, bodies, food. She is all about the material, so when she told me she wanted to open a space one day, I knew it was a matter of when, not if. Her dreams of workshops, talks, public programmes, working groups, exhibitions and all the other good things you can possibly image belongs in a physical place, and this year she made it happen.
The People’s Hall, in the heart of Hockley’s queer quarter, has a beautiful history. You may know it simply as the big beautiful Georgian building next to good coffee shop (shoutout to Effy for keeping us all caffeinated and alert). It was built in 1737 as the home of Nottingham gem Ann Morley, the widow of an earthenware manufacturer. By 1843 the building hosted the Nottingham's Government School of Design, one of the first in the country. During this time, the building would have been populated by lace-makers of all ages. In 1854, lace merchant George Gill established the People’s Hall Institute – a ‘working-man’s hall’.
During the 20th century the building was used for a variety of different purposes, including as a rehearsal hall for The Cameo Players, a local amateur dramatic group; a meeting place for the Antediluvian Order of the Buffalo; and, since the Second World War, a venue for sporting competitions including snooker and billiards. It has now been empty for 20 years. Conservation activists have been championing its reopening, and in September 2025 a group of makers and artists, including Vivien, have taken a leap at making it their home.
Viv’s beautiful yellow room, on the first floor, is going to breathe new life into the building’s history of design education and practice. When the building was converted to The People's Hall, this room was in use as an ‘Artisan’s Library’. What better way to bring it back to life, then, than what Viv has in mind for it: a reading room (Out of Practice) and design residency space (In Practice) . And this is where BSS comes in.
BSS will be a documentary resident throughout In Practice’s first year - I will be documenting the residencies through a series of portraits to create a visual archive, as well as carry out a few exciting creative projects of my own in the space. I could not be prouder of Vivien, who is off to the Nertherlands today to start a Fellowship, and as I promised her in her going away card: her room is in good hands.
