Stoodio Club is a start-up based in Hackney offering Studio sessions from £8 per hour and linked to local community-based programmes. https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/business/stoodio-space-hackney-recording-7957288

Our vision is to create spaces that encourage well-being and unprecedented social interactions. 

Today 24th May 2021 we received an email from the Operating Manager of our Hackney-based building Licensor who we have a 12-month lease commencing 1st June 21 which was signed in February 2021. The email informed us that they have "decided not to go ahead with our agreement" because "you have allowed someone accessing the building and the desk space without notifying anyone"

We and others in the building have reasonable grounds to believe this to be discriminatory conduct and a breach of contract law here is why:

A few weeks after signing the agreement, we were asked to attend a meeting with the Senior management. Myself and fellow 2 Co-founders attended in good faith as we were told by the building manager it was to learn more about us and how we could work together. However, the meeting felt more like a disciplinary hearing than a meeting of two equal entities.

All that we had discussed with the building manager was no longer allowed. The person conducting what I could now only call an interrogation (the operations manager) spent the majority of the time questioning us about "the kind of people" who would come into the building. She went on to mention she had some research on us and was concerned that we would be unable to pay the rent because we had no online presence and had no original social media content.

We explained that we were a start-up, currently focusing on the build of our app that we would operate a studio (provided by yourselves) that would not be ready until May so we were waiting for the studio to be complete to post more and in the meantime were posting progress of the building in the studio. When we realised that she was not aware that we had been posting the build progress, I opened my phone showed her our Instagram account and her response was "I don't how to use this" which clearly demonstrates she had not done enough research to make here the previous statement.

But she reverted the conversation back. to her concern regarding "the kind of people," we would attract because we offering our prices extremely lower than the norm. I explained we charge from £8 per her opposed to the average £25 per hour because we want to attract those who are priced out of the £25 per hour plus range. Her response was something in the lines of when you have cheap prices you attract cheap people. I believe this be extremely discriminatory language.

During her questioning, I further mentioned that we were paying almost double the asking rent amount at our previous office with WeWork Aldgate Tower with no issues. And any real research into me or my other companies would show that we had an average of £2 Million in turnovers annually at paying £1200 per month not be an issue. But she completely disregarded this comment.

Following the meeting, The building manager who was also present apologised for the nature of the questioning.

We later proposed a joint launch day at the end of April 21 to help boost awareness of the new co-working space. Our proposal was for an open day where we would do a presentation about our vision, people could ask questions, network and see the space which is still under construction until June. The building manager was happy with the idea and suggested that they would provide the refreshments for the open day.

This did not materialise, we recently found out it was because of "concerns from a previous incident where a music video was shot on one their other locations and people were standing on cars" We have nothing to do with this incident nor do we know who the people were, but their concern was this could also happen with us. 

The building manager has been amazing throughout this ordeal, they have apologised countless times for the targeted actions towards which began in March. They have tried to reverse this decision to no avail hence we are starting this campaign to raise awareness of unethical dealings.

We have not breached any of the licensee obligations. No evidence or explanation has been communicated to us in their email that justifies early termination in accordance with the termination clauses in our signed agreement.

The welcoming from the building manager and other tenants including conversation, networking, weekly building lunches and overall excitement around the grand opening of Stoodio Club has been overshadowed by the hostility shown towards us by the Operations Manager. 

We have reached out to London City Hall, the Mayor of Hackney, Meg Hillier MP, Rt Hon Diane Abbott MP, Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn MP, Rt Hon Emily Thornberry MP and more many more MPs. We have also begun discussions with local community leaders in Hackney but we need your help to gain more awareness of the matter.