Beyond the Bikes: BikeSoup is a Space for Music, Culture and Community

How the BikeSoup cycling space at Westfield London has become a place for music, creativity and community

Walk into BikeSoup at Westfield Shopping Centre in London, and the first thing you might expect to find is bikes. Spend a little longer there, and another side of the space begins to emerge.

BikeSoup describes its Westfield location as a cycling clubhouse, bringing together retail, servicing and social space under one roof. There is a café, seating areas and room for people to spend time rather than simply browse and leave.

And that wider use of the space is where things get interesting.

BikeSoup has hosted a range of activities alongside its cycling operation, including talks, screenings, club meet-ups, workshops, group rides and family events. Its programme has also included yoga and bike-maintenance sessions, while outside organisers have used the space for community and cultural events.

More Than a Cycling Space

The variety of activity gives BikeSoup a different identity from a conventional retail space. It can be a place for a workshop one day, a community gathering another, or somewhere people come together around a shared interest.

That flexibility has also opened the door to music.

The Westfield space has hosted live performances and open-mic events, giving emerging performers a chance to get in front of an audience in a setting very different from a traditional music venue.

Independent label and promoter Accelerando Records has also used the space for recurring live performance nights, adding another dimension to BikeSoup‘s growing role as a place for live music.

Music, Culture and Community

Music is only part of the picture. BikeSoup has also been used for events that bring different communities together.

A Habesha Easter celebration, for example, brought music and community into the space, showing how the venue can take on a completely different character depending on who is using it.

That variety is what makes BikeSoup interesting. Artists, audiences, community groups, cyclists and creative organisations can all use the same space in different ways.

Rather than being defined by one type of activity, the venue can adapt around the people who walk through its doors.

Itch Radio at BikeSoup

Itch Radio has been part of that story too, using the BikeSoup space for live radio, DJ sets.

DJs including DJ Sammy Jay, DJ Paydro, Lick Shot, 210 Presents, KAT, Daron and P.CAT have all played at BikeSoup at different times, bringing the station’s music and broadcasting into the space.

Rather than being a one-off appearance, BikeSoup has become a space that Itch Radio has returned to several times. It gives the station another environment in which to bring DJs, music and conversation together outside the traditional studio.

A Space That Can Change

That ability to change with the people using it is one of BikeSoup‘s most interesting qualities.

The physical design of BikeSoup at Westfield helps too. When the Westfield flagship opened, the two-level space covered around 5,500 square feet, combining the showroom and workshop with café and social areas.

There is room to sit, meet, talk and stay. That makes a difference when the space is being used for a live performance, workshop, community event or radio broadcast.

It becomes more than somewhere people pass through. It becomes a backdrop for whatever the people using it want to create.

Why BikeSoup at Westfield London Matters

Culture does not always begin in places designed specifically for it.

A music venue does not have to start life as a music venue. The same is true of community spaces, creative hubs and places where people come together.

Sometimes the important thing is simply having somewhere that is open to the possibility.

BikeSoup offers that possibility by allowing different types of activity to exist alongside its core cycling operation. That has created room for music, conversation, creativity and community to develop in an unexpected setting.

For Itch Radio, it has also provided another way to take broadcasting outside the traditional studio and connect with people in a different environment.

Beyond the bikes, BikeSoup has become a place where music, culture, creativity and community can meet. That makes it a rather interesting space in West London.