Miloco

The Garden Studios Detailed Information

The Garden has been a hub of creativity since the late 1970's. Located in the basement of the old Lazarus department store it was originally created by legendary studio designer Andy Munro and owned by John Foxx, former singer with the band The Ultravox.

As soon as the studio opened it became a force to be reckoned with within the recording industry. Bands and artists as varied and influential as The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Jesus & Mary Chain, Julian Cope, Echo & The Bunnymen, Lloyd Cole and Depeche Mode (to name but a handful) were all recording here and creating hit after hit. From the early 1980s the studio became a home away from home for Matt Johnson of The The, and in fact he loved the studio so much he ended up buying it and running it as a private studio.

Then, from the mid-1990's, Miloco began running The Garden for Matt Johnson and so embarked on a program of upgrades and improvements that have succeeded in creating one of the finest sounding tracking rooms in London. The studio is currently based around a Neve V3 48 channel console with Flying Faders and Boxer T2 Monitors. Recording can either be done on a beautiful sounding vintage Studer A80 MkIV 2" machine or the state-of-the-art ProTools systems.

The studio consists of a cosy recreation room, kitchen, internet room, bathroom, generous sized control room, ultra dry booth and a large live area. The control room is 19' x 19' and features a huge glass window looking directly into the live room. And for those essential breaks you need only take a few short steps from the control room to enjoy our recreation room, watch telly, videos, or jostle manfully with a myriad of computer games.


Directly off the recreation area doors lead to 'The Garden' (probably the smallest garden in London...), a staircase (leading to the street and the world beyond), not to mention the kitchen, bathroom and internet room. There's also a cable cupboard which can double up as an additional amp room.

Just across from the control room is the 'dead' booth. The room is perfect for recording vocals but is also large enough to fit a drum kit inside if you are looking for a very close, dry sound. The booth is 10' x 8'.






Turn left from the control room towards the live room and you'll find a corridor large enough to double up as another amp recording area. The live room itself measures some 26' x 18' and features plastered walls, a low plastered ceiling and fine oak floors. And it's this low ceiling that is the key to the astonishing sound delivered by this room. Drums sound immense in here - loud, raw and reverberant it's one of the most distinctive live rooms in London and engineers and producers just love it.


Finally, just off the live room, there is an old coal bunker which is perfect for creating that sought-after cavern sound (or for incarcerating bickering band members of course).

But despite all this, perhaps the greatest aspect of this studio is its privacy and solitude. It is completely isolated from offices, the outside world and other people, so you're at liberty to totally immerse yourself in the process; to setup, spread out, relax and record at will.

The studio has been in existence for 25 years and can lay claim to a wonderfully diverse range of clients who return again and again to The Garden to exploit its unique charms and churn out hit after hit. Add yourself to that list and discover for yourself what makes The Garden such a magical recording environment.