The London Times: From chefs to candle makers, it’s a fight to keep the flame alive

The creative industry has been forced to its knees and ignored by the chancellor so its workers are finding some artful dodges

By Carol Lewis
The London Times
July 27, 2020

Uyen Luu, a Vietnamese chef and photographer, was meant to be celebrating the end of lockdown at the weekend with a supper club. But the party of 16 cancelled, too nervous to take up Rishi Sunak’s appeal to “eat out to help out”.

“That’s how it’s been,” Ms Luu, 43, said. “People book then cancel. They are so unsure. It would have cost me more to put this on, than not, with food costs, staff, cleaning, PPE etc. But I wanted to see how it went.” 

Uyen Luu, a food writer and supper club host

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER: RICHARD POHLE

Before lockdown, Ms Luu held weekend supper clubs for up to 50 people. Jamie Oliver, the chef and restaurateur, and Ellie Goulding, the singer, were among her fans. “If there aren’t enough people there isn’t any profit,” Ms Luu said. “So I have to pay the rent by working as a photographer. 

“I have had a few shoots but so much has been cancelled. I lost 95 per cent of my business [in lockdown]. I have never been in debt and it is so stressful. 

“If things stay as they are I don’t know what I will do. I have the lease [on a workshop] for another two years, so I can’t leave unless I go bankrupt.” 

Bankruptcy is a real possibility, with the rent and service charge at Regent Studios, a community of 54 creative industries in Hackney, east London, starting at about £30,000 a year. 

A couple of doors down from Ms Luu’s third floor studio, Jonathan Ward, a luxury candle maker, is equally gloomy about the future. 

“I have gone from £10,000 to £15,000 turnover a month to £300 to £1,000 almost overnight,” he said. “I made just £211 last week. I am owed so much by the big retail guys and in lost sales.” 

He points towards boxes of candles and diffusers made to order — orders that were made, then cancelled. 

Mr. Ward and Ms. Luu are among about three million freelance workers and small business owners who have been excluded from the chancellor’s £3 billion economic support package. Many of them were locked out of initiatives such as the self-employment income support scheme because they have had annual trading profits of more than £50,000 in the past three years, they operate as limited companies or are pay-as-you-earn contractors. 

Mr. Sunak apologised to those who missed out, warning that “hardship lies ahead for many” because, despite the government’s interventions, a recession still looms in the autumn. 

The creative industries sector has been hit harder than most, with more than a third working in a freelance or sole-employee capacity. 

Figures from the Creative Industries Federation show that more than 400,000 jobs in the sector are at risk — with 122,000 employees and 287,000 self-employed workers likely to lose their livelihoods. “I have had 21 rejections for different loans and grants,” Mr Ward said. “It is impossibly tricky for small businesses. The rent and utility bills are mounting up. It is a massive source of anxiety to be acquiring debts, I am seriously worried I might have to go back to making candles from home.” 

George Williams and Joel Price making ravioli for delivery to vulnerable people

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER: RICHARD POHLE

The government has pledged a £1.57 billion support package to the creative industries but this pales in comparison with the £77 million predicted loss in turnover the sector is expecting this year. 

Caroline Norbury, the film producer and chief executive of the federation, said: “What the pandemic has exposed is that the very things that make the creative sector so profitable — our flexibility as mainly small businesses, our agility, the high level of commitment from so many self-employed people, and the key role we play in entertainment — have become the very things that have left us so vulnerable.” 

A report by the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee criticised the government for its lack of support for the sector. It emphasised the performing arts, live music and digital arts. 

A footnote, however, stated that it defined creative industries as: advertising and marketing, architecture, crafts, design of products, graphics and fashion, film, TV, radio and photography, IT, software and computer services, publishing, museums, galleries and libraries, music, performing and visual arts. 

The artists, fashion designers, photographers, jewellers, florists and other creative workers at Regents Studios feel like footnotes in the chancellor’s calculations too. 

The Crafts Council says that most of its members made an annual profit of less than £30,000 before Covid-19. 

A survey held during lockdown showed that orders in the sector were down by 67 per cent with further losses anticipated, while 60 per cent of artists had low or no financial reserves. 

In the studio next to Mr Ward, Valery Demure, the owner of a wholesale jewellery business and gallery, said that turnover halved during the pandemic. 

“I have been here 17 years,” she said. “I have seen this neighbourhood go from very dodgy to very bohemian and very trendy. I worry though, so many people are closing and in trouble. 

“It’s wrong that rich people have been able to put staff on furlough when they have multimillion pound houses but artists, designers, freelancers, photographers, journalists get nothing. And the issue of rent has not been managed well by the government — that is a big issue for everyone.” 

Peter Guenzel, 49, a freelance photographer on the top floor of Regents Studios, said that he had sublet space to a PR agency and sold some equipment. 

“The government has been very focused on the leisure industry with grants for pubs, hospitality and retail,” he said. “Why not photographers, artists and other creatives?” 

Athena Duncan and Mairead Curtin of Rebel Rebel florists

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER: RICHARD POHLE

Athena Duncan, 60, and Mairead Curtin, 57, co-founders of Rebel Rebel, a floristry business, were putting together bouquets for online orders. The duo, whose turnover is 90 per cent down, have put five members of staff on furlough: “Our income has gone from perfectly lovely to virtually nothing. We used to do all the big events — Chelsea [Flower Show], Baftas — and it has all vanished. I just hope we survive this.” 

Out of adversity comes creativity though. Mr Guenzel has shot a series of time-lapse pictures of London in lockdown which he hopes to exhibit, while Ms Demure is working on some jewellery collaborations. Mr Ward has devised his first perfume and Ms Luu has had a cookery book commissioned. 

She also lent her workshop kitchen to George Williams, 26, a furloughed chef, and Joel Price, 30, a furloughed sound engineer. They have launched a food delivery service with Olivia Le Andersen, 30, an actress and Mr Williams’s girlfriend. They hope that @fedbygeorge will help them to make ends meet. 

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