The sight of students, creatives and remote workers pecking away at laptops in coffee shops has long been a familiar one. But what about setting up shop for the day in a cinema? As hybrid and remote working continues for many, independent cinemas are increasingly encouraging audiences to work from their café-bars. From brunch menus and coffee deals to renting out office space, it’s a varied picture. Rachel Brook met with staff from various venues to investigate the approaches they’ve taken, the factors that motivated them, and the lessons they’ve learnt along the way.
With COVID-19 closures preventing them from screening films, East London’s Genesis Cinema began offering hotdesking to remain connected to their local community. As restrictions began to ease in spring 2021, providing COVID-secure workspaces was their next step after serving takeaway coffee and food. “It was just something we could offer at that time and it was nice for anyone that wanted to be part of it,” remembers General Manager Callum Pawlett Howell.
With essentials like tables, a coffee machine and Wi-Fi already in place, Genesis put hotdesking tickets on their website, and added characterful touches like popcorn at each workspace. Creative use of their iconic signage helped to pull in curious locals: “We would change the marquee every week to some film-related pun like ‘Covideodrome’. You’d see people walk past on their daily walk and take a photo of it.”
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An initial trickle of regulars were tempted in by friendly faces and unlimited coffee for £5. Hotdesking has continued into 2022 and 2023, with Callum finding that the presence of remote workers “adds a bit of life” to Genesis’s downstairs coffee shop and upstairs mezzanine and bar area.
Tom Roberts, manager of a fellow East London indie – Homerton’s The Castle Cinema – agrees that welcoming in hotdeskers makes a space feel more alive. Tom was consciously developing The Castle’s café-bar before COVID-19, and had begun promoting it as a “work from home alternative.” Of course, the pandemic still had an impact: “We introduced food options quicker than we had planned, during the stage that we needed to have ‘substantial meals’ available for anyone buying alcohol. There are certainly more people working remotely or hybrid working now, who need the space.”
This sentiment is echoed by the experiences of staff at Showroom Cinema in Sheffield. As well as a cinema, Showroom operate Workstation: a creative hub providing office spaces for rent alongside networking opportunities and community events. In May 2021 they added a casual hotdesking option in their café-bar, offering locals a vibrant place to work and unlimited drinks for £7.50 a day. Despite already having tenanted workspaces, this tapped unfulfilled demand, bringing in more than four people a day on average during the first year.
Local demand is a motivator for ArtHouse Crouch End in North London too, where director Sam Neophytou is proud to cater to a diverse audience including students, retirees and remote workers. He sees cinema café-bars as a better solution for remote working than standalone coffee shops and cafés. Such businesses sometimes ban laptop use in favour of custom from diners, but the ArtHouse, as they’re not wholly reliant on food sales, aren’t worried about laptop users lingering for a few hours. Thanks to the natural ebb and flow of films starting and ending, most tables turn over regularly and there’s plenty of room to go round. Genesis’s Callum suggests that such a relaxed atmosphere gives hotdesking from a film venue a unique appeal for workers too: “Cinema has this kind of magical appeal. It’s not related for most people to work. You go there as an outlet to enjoy yourself … with hotdesking, you’re just allowing yourself to be in a relaxing place doing what you have to do work-wise.”
From a venue perspective, the potential for increased food and drink sales is an obvious advantage of welcoming hotdeskers. The ArtHouse has recently launched a new breakfast menu, and The Castle has benefitted from increased toastie and coffee sales. Similarly, Lesley Ellerby, Assistant Marketing Manager of Showroom Workstation, has found hotdesking customers sometimes stay on for meals, after-work drinks or a screening. “We believe the remote working offer has helped to bring a new audience to the café-bar,” she reflects. Once people are through the door, there’s a valuable opportunity to promote the film programme; Lesley advises clearly communicating other services “while you have a captive audience”.
In Showroom’s case, hotdesking also provides an opportunity to promote the Workstation side of the business, as it’s possible someone working in the café-bar will later need more permanent office space. Workstation is no stranger to providing this sort of evolving service. “We have housed many businesses that have started off as fledgling enterprises needing only small spaces, and transitioned with them as they have grown into larger office set-ups,” explains Lesley.
Yet venues aren’t just motivated by financial opportunity – far from it. These cinemas strive to connect with and serve their communities. “We have a duty as a community hub to try and do as much as we can for people,” says Genesis’s Callum. “The more people we connect with the better, and [hotdesking is] just a slightly off-kilter way to connect with people”.
As well as generating new business or feeding into audience development, venues have found hotdesking also yields artistic returns. “We have many creatives using our space,” says The Castle’s Tom, “and often their projects will evolve to include the cinema as a venue, or subject. For example, someone recently reached out to create a project about the history of the site.” At Genesis, one customer attracted by the hotdesking offer later applied for a job and is now part of the front of house team.
That’s not the only way Genesis’s reconfiguring of space has helped with staffing. In 2021 they also developed ‘The Yard’, evolving a former car park into a beer garden. Thanks to being able to open in a limited capacity before indoor-only venues, Callum believes Genesis were able to recruit the highest-quality candidates and get them “fully integrated” into the team before film screenings resumed. “It gave us the confidence that we knew what we were doing and that people would come to us,” remembers Callum. “Building back people’s confidence was a big part of it.”
Having an outdoor space has also influenced programming, allowing Genesis to put on events they couldn’t previously have imagined, such as an all-day breakdancing tournament followed by a linked screening.
The pandemic forced independent cinemas to adapt their operations, tapping into an aptitude for creative innovation that was already there and remains apparent. The venues encouraging remote working are united by wanting to see their spaces being used, and having an unwavering commitment to evolving alongside the needs of their communities. The continuing cost-of-living crisis is proving no different. Both The Castle and Genesis have initiatives in the works that will ensure their café-bars can function as comfortable, warm and inviting refuges for family audiences.
For any other venues looking to give hotdesking a try, Lesley’s final piece of advice based on her experience at Showroom is to ensure your offer is “enticing, easy-to-understand and good value for customers”.
Rachel Brook is a freelance marketer and copywriter working principally for film and arts organisations. She got her first taste of film marketing as an intern at Oxford’s Phoenix Picturehouse, and has also worked for the BFI and Into Film. Rachel recently launched Cineaste, an email newsletter dedicated to helping film lovers in North and East London discover cinema events beyond the mainstream and under the radar.
Header: Showroom, image from Victoria Greensmith Photography