16 Feb Outernet

Outernet is a global media and entertainment company connected by city-centre entertainment districts where music, film, art, gaming and retail experiences come to life in a breath-taking ways courtesy of unique creative and technical capabilities. Imaginators are part of the team that helps bring this immersive event space to life.

Denmark Street, which lies a few feet from Tottenham Court Road station has been a centre for music since the 16th century.

But it was in the 20th century that it became the undisputed hub of London’s contemporary music scene, with music and instrument shops, recording studios and hangouts that hosted musicians from Elton John, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and later the Sex Pistols.

Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley recorded here. The Kinks even wrote a song about it. There was music everywhere – at one point, there were 12 live music venues within a 500m radius of Tottenham Court Road. By 2017 only one remained.

The devastation of this musical heritage has been a source of concern to Londoners for decades – Crossrail is the main culprit, but rising commercial rents and a general urge to sanitise what was one of the grottiest crossroads in central London have played their part.

Now though, something exciting has happened; the largest purpose-built venue in central London to open since the 1940s. HERE, a 2,000 capacity, two-storey space kitted out with up-to-the-minute audio visual technology, is part of the new, shiny Outernet development that looms, with its high-specification street-facing LED screens which are the largest in the world if you exclude The Sphere is Las Vegas and sits conveniently just outside Tottenham Court Road station and the new Elizabeth Line.

Descending below street level and emerging into the vast black box that is HERE, excavated between the new Crossrail Line and the buildings above, it’s hard not to be impressed.
A seemingly endlessly reconfigurable space with a 10m high floor to ceiling, with a mezzanine on three sides, and equipped with state-of-the-art production, lighting and acoustic systems that will make it possible to create high-end video of any gig and live stream it globally.

Above HERE is another venue, one that will be familiar to any music lovers who know the area of old as the 12bar, an iconic club that hosted countless legendary acts as well as being home to London’s emerging punk scene in the mid-Seventies.

Renamed The Lower Third it has been entirely gutted and refurbished. The redevelopment has retained the original smithy, a grade II listed building at the back of the 12bar that had to be literally picked up whole and put back down again to access the space below and will be available for acoustic sets and small impromptu performances.

With a production history for branding some of the most iconic music venues, Imaginators were the only choice to become the sole preferred supplier of branding to all event spaces including the HERE Building, Now Trending Building, Now Building and the smaller Pop 1 and Pop 2 Buildings.

Imaginators were brought in early during the development stages as the building began to take shape and captured detailed specifications to form a library of surfaces which can be branded.

We work alongside the giant video screens to complement branding opportunities both internally and externally including the giant folding windows which form the perfect canvas for eye-catching branded messaging.

Imaginators provide a complete turn-key solution to branding all Outernet spaces and work in partnership with many leading brands and their agencies to provide project management, artwork templates, print production and a comprehensive overnight installation service.

Our teams are familiar with all Outernet spaces having worked on live performances, interactive immersive experiences, film premieres, festivals, product launches and car launches including Netflix, Ford, YouTube, Billie Eilish and Tag Heuer.

Thinking of hiring space at Outernet? Contact our Outernet Team today – we’ve a wealth of knowledge and experience to share.