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HomeWork Workspace is the next generation solution to local, flexible working or in other words, the office of the future... Conveniently located on high streets in residential areas (SW London currently), HomeWork provides a flexible and affordable workspace and a community for people who live locally. We were lucky enough to chat with the Head of Marketing & Customer Experience, Georgie, to hear about their bumpy but successful journey of growing their flexible workspace and cafe during the pandemic.

Hey Georgie, thanks for chatting with us. Can you please tell us about Homework and how it all started?

HomeWork was co-founded by husband and wife duo Claire and Sam, who both had corporate jobs and were juggling childcare. They both felt that working from home wasn’t the most conducive environment to work productively, and wished they had an office closer to home/school to work from. This is when they identified that there was a gap in the market for a workspace out of central London that was affordable, flexible and easily accessible. 

They acquired the first site in Putney in 2018 and launched HomeWork in August 2019. This is when I joined the team and if we’re honest - we didn’t really know what we were doing, but we thought let’s just give it a go and see what happens. What Claire did know was that she wanted to offer great specialty coffee, which was perfect as that was something I had a background in, previously working for Rossyln Coffee. The cafe is located right at the entrance of the workspace - so our HomeWorkers can grab a coffee on the way to their desk, or the general public off the high street can grab a takeaway coffee.

As predicted, after a few months we were incredibly busy - our space was full of local freelancers, small business owners and corporate workers… until Covid hit.

How did the pandemic affect your business?

Closing our doors in that initial lockdown was a huge setback, but luckily when we were able to reopen, the working world had dramatically changed. Everyone was working from home, and the flexible working model had grown by 70%. It has been a bumpy journey, with a lot of nerves about when we would have to close our doors next, but we are now confident that we are the office of the future. During this time we have secured funding , which has allowed us to open HomeWork Southfields and in a few weeks time we’ll be opening HomeWork Fulham (with a further  two sites in the pipeline!). We’re proud to be supporting local. Businesses have been greatly affected by the pandemic and we are all about the rejuvenation of the high street and bringing people together to support their local communities!

How does HomeWork…work?

You can walk in and pay as you go, we have flexible memberships for 2-3 days a week (pay only for what you use at the end of month) or fixed desks for those wanting a full-time office space. Complimentary filter coffee and tea, and everything else you need to work!

In your opinion, what makes shared workspaces so special?

We have a lot of small businesses and individuals using the space, who normally feel pretty isolated when working from home. We also have a lot of young corporate employees who are missing out on coaching and development by not working around their managers. So, what makes HomeWork so special is that we have people from all backgrounds, industries and skill sets. It’s basically a huge pool of talent - and there are always people there to help one another. So, the best thing about HomeWork is the community we have built, and it’s our amazing customers who helped us to do this. We like to think that you can make someone the best coffee they can ever drink, but they won’t always remember that. What they will remember is the way they felt, and the experience they had drinking that coffee. We get a lot of positive feedback on our team, and this is something we strive for each day.

What's your go to coffee order to help you through a work day?

No question - I always have a flat white. Which I love to make myself! I used to work in coffee and I miss making coffee every day. We serve an unbeatable cup of Rosslyn coffee!

What is the inspiration behind the interiors of each space?

The brief for each workspace was to create a productive working environment, that’s cosy, warm and inviting. A homely space, where people can feel relaxed and produce their best work. We didn’t want it to look generic or corporate so we went for warm pastel colours and lots of plants! We love our limited edition coloured decent coffee cups as they suit our brand perfectly! Basically, we wanted to create a “home away from home”.

Thank you for using our decent packaging products, can you please tell us what made you decide to use sustainable packaging?

We always want to put the environment first, and I love the story behind decent packaging, and have loved working with your team. We want to make sure we are having as minimal impact on our environment as possible! We’ve started our Net Zero journey, have completed phase one, and our carbon emissions are so low - and this is down to partnering with people like yourselves and other sustainable businesses. Every little bit we can do we are more than willing to do. We also love telling people that our cups are 100% compostable, and I make a conscious effort to educate our people and our customers on the decent packaging brand.

What does community mean to Homework?

Creating a space where people feel welcome and at home. Our customers describe us as the perfect alternative to working from home. HomeWorkers feel like our own colleagues, as we’re all working in the same place. We’ve shared the journey from our first site to our third with many of our customers, and this is something we want to maintain as we grow. Our CEO Claire, is based in HomeWork full-time, often even as the barista. It goes from the top down, and she is passionate about delivering the best experience for our community, which means everyone else on our team does too.

Lastly, can you please tell our readers your locations and the best way to join your shared spaces?

Just walk on in and come and see us! It’s as simple as that. Your first day is on us - so get cracking and we will chat to you when you leave. So many people come into the cafe and say “Ohhh, can you work from here?”. People don’t expect to see an office on the high street, especially not one that they can just walk in and work from on a casual basis. You can also enquire online here or follow us on Instagram here.

Our locations:

HomeWork Putney, SW15 2SH

HomeWork Southfields, SW19 6NW

HomeWork Fulham, SW6 1EL - Opening Spring 2022!

Register interest here: fulham.homeworkworkspace.com