Garage music

MERIJN ROYAARDS, a musician and architecture student, does not own a car. But for two years he has rented a small garage in east London. Tucked behind a row of shops, it has no electricity, is freezing in winter and stuffy in summer. Yet without any close neighbours it makes an ideal music studio for him and his friends. “Drummers jump on it,” he grins.

Owning a car used to mean housing it in a garage—in 1951 one resident of Coventry told the local press that there was “no joy in having a new car if it is going to be exposed to the elements and ruffians to be ruined”. Developers obliged: over half of the homes built between 1919 and 1980 had one. But many are becoming redundant. Between 2002 and 2012 the proportion of vehicles kept in garages at night dropped from 22% to 14%.

This is partly because some households now have more cars than garage space. But it is also because big modern cars do not fit in older garages, says David Leibling, a transport expert. Few rust when left outside, and many are more difficult to steal: between 2003 and 2013 the number of vehicle thefts in England and Wales fell 76%. Instead, garages now solve a different set of problems. Householders unable to move to larger homes have taken to filling their garages with clutter. Some have become “granny annexes” for ageing parents, says Paul Bishop, who runs a garage conversion company in Bedfordshire. Others house youngsters unable, or unwilling, to leave home.

In desirable parts of London garages can sell for vast sums. But many publicly owned ones lie empty. Of the 6,000 garages owned by Hackney council, around 40% are free. Over 3,000 garages owned by ten housing associations are unused and the land they take up is unfit for building homes upon, says Steve O’Connell, a councillor at the London Assembly. He thinks they could be turned into small offices. That has already happened in places such as Berlin. Boosters hope such projects could be funded from the £9m ($15m) which Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has promised to councils who want to spruce up their boroughs.

But converting garages can be tricky, says Bill Hodgson of University College London. Few councils are enthusiastic enough to truly champion the idea. A recent proposal to turn some garages in north London into shelters for the homeless foundered; councillors feared that local residents would not approve. Getting planning permission can be complex, and developing on local authority land is often fraught. Like the garages themselves, these plans may moulder.