Factory 15 in Barking has hosted J Hus and Marching Powder filming

Make It London is a business that takes disused buildings and turns them into spaces for small businesses and local communities.

Factory 15 in Linton Road, Barking was set up by Make It in 2022 and is an events venue.

Head of marketing at Make It, Bobby Hayward, said that rapper J Hus has used the space as well as Nigerian musician DJ Cuppy.

He added Sky Sports has used the venue for filming and most recently, Danny Dyer’s latest film Marching Powder had scenes shot there.

Bobby said: “It was a bit slow for the first year in terms of drawing people in and making it a destination for events and promoters.

Make It turned the space from a disused council building into an events venue (Image: Factory 15) “Originally our plan was to be open as a bar full-time, but the footfall and general demand didn’t pan out as we anticipated.

“After around a year-and-a-half we became a private events company as well as putting on free events for the public.”

The venue offers two rooms across the ground floor as well as an outdoor space.

Bobby said: “It’s definitely got an industrial feel – this is an old council building that we gutted and ripped everything out of – it’s got an old school rave feel in the evenings but in the daytime it feels more like a lounge as we have a lot of mid century furniture and a custom made bar – its beautiful.

“Its got a trendy east London style finish.”

Bobby described the venue as having a trendy east London finish (Image: Factory 15) He described the project as being “really successful” to date, having hosted community church groups, music nights, film shoots and more.

“We’ve had open mic nights over the last two years and they’ve been some of our most successful events – we run these in-house and they’re completely free for the public,” he said.

“The response since opening from the local community has been amazing – without them, we’re nothing.

“The last time I checked, we did over 400 events and allowed the community to come in at either heavily discounted rates or for free – we’ve been told that Barking always needed something like this.”

Ayoba Shadamoro (left) is a musician and general manager of Factory 15 (Image: Factory 15) Ayoba Shadamoro is a musician and the general manager at Factory 15 and in a promotional video shot about the venue he said: “The thing I love about Factory 15 is the autonomy that we have to create magic.

“A space like Factory 15 being around when I was growing up may have helped me to shape what I wanted to do sooner.

“It’s had a major impact on the area – I feel like it’s elevated the standard of Barking and Dagenham.”

Bobby added that April to September is the venue’s busiest period and most of the events focus around music in the summer – particularly Afrobeats.