The BBC ran the next instalment of its Business Boomers series on the evening of April 14th, 2014. This well respected programme succeeds the well respected and popular Money Programme on BBC 2. Self storage is a booming industry in the UK. Originally imported as a concept from the United States, as the trend towards ever smaller properties has accelerated in the UK, the demand for storage space has grown. Home owners are desperately expanding in to their cellars, garages, attics and gardens with loft conversions, extensions and other property extensions in a bid to claw as many square feet of storage space out of their existing property as possible. With this boom in home expansion comes a rapid reduction in our traditional sources of storage space. We are now storing ourselves in that space, not our belongings. So where have all the belongings gone? From the pioneers of storage in the UK offering the original lock-up garage, through to the latest multi-million pound facilities gleaming in the sun overlooking the A40 on your way to London Heathrow, self storage has provided the answer for millions of domestic customers and small businesses alike. The BBC commissioned the programme to focus on this new and growing sector, and its resilient performance through the recession, in order to try and understand where self storage came from, and why it has proven successful in the UK and, in particular, in London. As part of its report, the BBC visited Attic Self Storage in Bow, East London and interviewed the managing director, Frederic de Ryckman de Betz. Filming a variety of clients on site, the BBC also filmed Attic engaging in a unit inventory for a defaulting customer, a process not entirely dissimilar to, but with a very different outcome from, the popular (stateside) television programme storage wars. The show is available on iPlayer, but you can see an excerpt (which features Attic Self Storage) from the programme by clicking here:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01x84l9
Posted on 17th August 2016 by Sophie Bagnall | Last updated on 17th July 2022
