People walk through the door and almost always say the same thing: there's nowhere quite like this. They're right — and it turns out, there never has been.

The Georgian townhouse at 34–38 Pentonville Road has been home to inventors, craftspeople and creatives since the 1850s. In 1859, master cabinet maker George Betjemann moved his family and his entire workshop into number 36 — and the building's reputation for ingenious making began in earnest. By 1871 the business had expanded into number 38 next door, employing over 119 skilled craftsmen and producing some of the most technically brilliant luxury objects of the Victorian age: self-opening jewellery boxes, mechanical writing desks, and the invention that made the family name — the Tantalus, a lockable decanter stand designed to keep servants and younger sons away from the whisky, patented in 1881.

The Betjemanns were prolific inventors, exhibiting at the International Exhibition of 1862 and the Paris Exposition of 1867. Their telegraphic address was simply "Betjemann, London" — that's how well-known they were. The family connection to the building ran deep enough to echo down generations: John Betjemann, who worked at these very premises, was grandfather to the poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, who later immortalised the family business in his autobiography, writing of the Tantalus as the source of the family fortune.

The business closed in 1939, and since then the building has lived many lives. It sits between the cultural energy of King’s Cross and the creative hub of Shoreditch and Old Street — two minutes from Angel station, on a road that also happens to be a Monopoly square.

For much of that time, the building was split into separate spaces. Now is the first time since then it has been brought back together as one whole building.

A rhizomatic plant has no defined boundary — it is a mass of roots sharing knowledge across an interconnected network of semi-independent nodes, each capable of growing on its own, yet supported by the wider collective. That's us.

We work with corporate brands and institutions to stay grounded and financially sustainable — which in turn lets us provide space, support and real opportunity for freelance creatives, charities, under-represented communities and independent small businesses, through the Anomalous Social Club (ASC).

We begin with questions and end with questions

We favour creative collaboration over independent work

We produce environments that encourage multi-sensory experiences and education

We value conversation as a vital component of reflective and reflexive practice

We propose disruption in preference to conformity

We advocate fluidity as opposed to stasis

We believe knowledge is a product of active participation

We cultivate relationships for cross pollination and concept development

We support freelance creativity and community building.