Mission

A four-storey Truman Brewery warehouse became the flagship home for Europe’s largest yoga and movement studio

Mission was founded during lockdown by yoga and movement practitioners determined to build a new, more accessible framework for practice – one rooted in community rather than yoga’s more elitist, dogmatic reputation. Turning that vision into Europe’s biggest yoga and movement centre meant finding a building that could carry the brand: optimal location, real character, generous floor-to-ceiling heights, exceptional natural light, and a price a first-time operator could still make work.

The Challenge

The requirements worked against each other in a way a standard search brief rarely has to reconcile: optimal location, real architectural character, generous floor-to-ceiling heights and exceptional natural light, all at an economical price for a start-up. Buildings with the scale and character to suit a brand-defining flagship space – ultimately five distinct studios, treatment rooms, a sauna and a restaurant – are rare in London at any price; finding one within budget drastically narrowed the market options.

Our approach

We ran an extensive and thorough search over several months, treating this as much as a brand-fit exercise as a property search: every building candidate was tested against character and light as rigorously as against size, location and cost. Rather than confining the search to conventional retail and leisure pitches, we widened it to the Eastern City Fringes, where former industrial buildings could offer the scale and warehouse character a standard office or retail search would have missed.

The solution

That search identified 7-9 Fashion Street, Spitalfields – a four-storey former Victorian warehouse in the old Truman Brewery, in the heart of the Eastern City Fringes. Its exposed brick, tall industrial windows and generous floor-to-ceiling heights gave Mission the character and natural light the brand needed, with its flagship studio overlooking the historic, Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed Christ Church Spitalfields. The building’s scale let Mission fit five distinct studios, two treatment rooms, a sauna and a restaurant into 13,600 sq ft – becoming Europe’s largest yoga and movement centre, at a price point that was staggeringly competitive for what it offered.

The Outcome

After extensive and complex negotiations we secured entirety of the 13,600 sq. ft building for our client to commence their new operation at 7-9 Fashion Street, opening in March 2023 as Europe’s largest yoga and movement studio – a property

that perfectly aligned with the brand’s aspirations, in the location, character and price bracket the search had been built around.

‍