Distil Coworking Somerset
Discover Distil Coworking Somerset—an inspiring rural coworking space set in a restored mill with gardens, café and community. Ideal for creatives, freelancers and small business owners looking to feel more connected and work well in beautiful surroundings.
Perfect For
Creatives, freelancers, small business owners, remote workers — or anyone craving a more inspiring alternative to working from home.
Why You’ll Love It
Housed in a beautifully restored former mill, Distil Coworking Somerset offers a calm and inspiring place to work with beautifully restored wooden floors, abundant natural light and views out to a landscaped courtyard. It’s the kind of place that makes you exhale as soon as you walk through the door.
Whether you're a small business owner looking for an inspiring workspace for your team, a parent looking to be super productive around the school run or you want a change from the commute to the city — Distil Coworking Somerset is designed to make your working day better.
With plenty of free parking, choose the scenic route and work from a beautiful location in the heart of the Somerset countryside.
What Makes It Special
Set within the wider Kilver Court development, Distil offers more than just a desk. Booking a coworking space here includes access to the lush 3.5-acre gardens — perfect for stretching your legs between meetings, taking a walking call or a giving yourself a moment of pause under the trees.
You’ll also find fashion and homeware outlets like Toast and Mulberry and a newly renovated café with a wellbeing-focused menu. It’s all part of what founder Sam Cunningham envisioned when he transformed this site: “a thriving creative business ecosystem that drives growth, sparks innovation, and encourages collaboration.”
Whether you're looking for a quiet corner to enjoy a warm cup of tea, to scribble ideas in a notebook or simply to close your eyes and let the gentle rustle of leaves spark fresh inspiration, this is garden coworking.
The If Lost Take
We often think of coworking spaces as urban hubs — but Distil is part of a growing movement to bring creative, connected workspaces to rural settings. While countryside living has its charms, working from home in remote areas can sometimes deepen feelings of isolation and disconnection. Spaces like Distil shift that story — offering a place to come together, connect and work alongside fellow creatives, freelancers and entrepreneurs who also call Somerset home.
Founder’s Go-To Wellbeing Advice:
“You spend a third of your life at work — choose environments that nurture your wellbeing and people who help you thrive. The right environment can do more than just support productivity; it can restore calm, spark creativity, and invite genuine connection.”
Some Practical Details
Book a desk, meeting room or the podcasting studio. Facilities include free parking, superfast WIFI, private call booth, shower and kitchen with coffee and tea.
During every booking, receive 10% off at the café and access to the stunning Kilver Court Gardens — the perfect place to recharge during the working day.
Distil Coworking will soon have an events programme up and running, including the option of remote attendance at some events. For anyone visiting the area, they also offer day passes as well as the option of booking by the hour.
Kilver Court, Kilver Street, Shepton Mallet, BA4 5NF, United Kingdom
hello@distilcoworkingsomerset.co.uk
If Lost Reader Benefits: Use code 'InnerCircle' for 10% off your first month when signing up to a monthly membership.
If you prefer to book on a pay-as-you-go basis, use code InnerCircleHotDesk for 20% off your first day pass.
Glove Factory Studios
Glove Factory Studios in Bradford on Avon is a beautifully designed coworking space set in a restored Victorian glove factory. Home to a thriving community of creatives, freelancers, and entrepreneurs, it offers inspiring workspaces, events, and even a wild swimming pond.
Perfect For
Freelancers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who want a unique workspace—somewhere that encourages focus, connection, and maybe even a mid-morning swim.
Why You’ll Love It
Tucked away in the Wiltshire countryside, Glove Factory Studios is far more than a workspace—it’s a hub for creativity, collaboration, and connection. Set in a beautifully restored Victorian glove factory, it’s home to independent businesses, freelancers, and creatives who want more than just an office—they want a space that inspires ideas, fosters community, and embraces work-life balance in the best way possible.
With light-filled studios, a rural setting, and a café that feels like a creative meeting ground, this is a workspace designed for people who think differently, work independently, but love being part of something bigger.
What Makes It Special
An inspiring setting – A heritage industrial building meets modern design, creating a workspace that feels both professional and creative.
A built-in creative community – More than just a place to work, it’s a network of like-minded people, with regular talks, events, and collaboration opportunities.
Surrounded by nature – With open countryside, walking trails, and even wild swimming nearby, this is a space that understands the balance between productivity and wellbeing.
The Story Behind It
Glove Factory Studios was founded with the belief that where you work should inspire you, not drain you. Over the years, it’s evolved into a thriving community of designers, writers, makers, and entrepreneurs, all drawn to its unique blend of rural calm and creative energy. From its history as a glove-making factory to its reinvention as a workspace for modern independents, its story is one of transformation, creativity, and new possibilities.
Something Else We Love
Their onsite wild swimming club, the Glove Dippers—yes, really. With a natural swimming pond, members can take a dip before, after, or even between meetings. It’s the kind of workplace perk you don’t know you need until you try it.
We also love it for coworking, dropping in when working from home gets a little lonely. Oh and the gorgeous cafe on site, Wild Herb at the Field Kitchen is the perfect any-time of day pick me up.
The If Lost Take
We love Glove Factory Studios because it proves that work doesn’t have to happen in dull offices or overrun cafés. It’s a space that prioritizes both creativity and wellbeing, offering a place where people can build businesses, spark ideas, and create their own version of that illusive work-life balance.
Some Practical Details
Holt, Bradford on Avon, UK
Gather Round
Discover a family of creative workspaces in Bristol built by creatives for creatives. Now we’ve experienced life without each other, Gather Round restores real-life interactions that no amount of Zoom can replace.
With its first location in Southville’s Cigar Factory and now a second location in Brunswick Square, Gather Round was created to make space for community and collaboration as much as for our everyday working lives. We asked the people at Fiasco, the design studio behind it, to tell us more about what makes their creative workspace different, how they bring ideas to life and how they have created a positive culture centered on people.
What is it: Gather Round is a growing family of unique creative workspaces, designed to foster a positive community of like-minded creative people through an open and supportive culture.
Why do people need It? Gather Round was set up in 2018 by us, Ben Steers and Jason Smith, Bristol-based business owners of Fiasco Design. We had struggled to find a workspace for our design studio that wasn’t an office, didn’t tie us into a long-term contract and crucially, didn’t charge obscene rates. After chatting to other creative business owners, we soon realised that we weren’t alone. It was time to shake things up. And so Gather Round was born. Built by creatives, for creatives.
What do you offer? Across two locations in Bristol, our considered workspaces are designed around the needs of those who work within the creative industries. Made up of flexible areas with fixed and casual desks, private studios, meeting rooms, production studios for hire, hang-out areas, communal kitchen tables, quiet rooms for headspace and event spaces. At Gather Round you can do your thing, your way.
What makes Gather Round different? As creatives ourselves, we know what makes a great workspace. No indoor caravans, tardis-style meeting rooms or artificial grass in sight. Just thoughtfully designed spaces. We provide the right ingredients for creative professionals to flourish; we’ve had businesses born from Gather Round and creative collaboration between people is a natural part of everyday working. So whether you're musing over an idea, hashing out a project, or launching your plan for world-domination - we’ve got it covered.
Our beautiful coworking spaces are nothing without the community of creatives that call them home from home. Filmmakers, designers, writers, publishers, art consultants, brand strategists, photographers and more… Our members are an eclectic and talented bunch. They’re also excellent people that make our special workspaces unique.
What do our readers need to know? Gather Round is fully open and accepting new memberships at both Bristol locations. As an independent business, we are able to be reactive to the changing landscape. We have adapted to new ways of working, putting our members and their needs first. Now more than ever, people appreciate the value of human connection. Zoom, Slack and the like, are fantastic but they don’t compensate for real-life interactions. We’re proud that our spaces help to bring people together, whether that’s via a project collaboration or enjoying one of our events with a post-work beer.
Tell us a little about your story: The pandemic was a really trying time for the creative industries. As agency owners of Fiasco Design, we were in the thick of it. Multiple projects fell through for us and we witnessed first-hand businesses fold, redundancies happen and talented creatives struggle to support their families. Throughout this, our members were there for one another; supporting each other through the tough times. Our community really pulled together. Many of us were thrust into working from home, often in less than ideal circumstances. Working from home for months on end can be lonely and particularly in the creative industries, it can lead to fatigue and burnout. It’s not surprising that since the end of restrictions we’ve seen an increase in people looking for somewhere to work away from home.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? We are passionate about supporting creative endeavours and we have a blog on our site that is dedicated solely to this. Whether it’s learning how to bake sourdough bread, or reading about essential tools for freelancers, you can find it all on the Journal section of our site. You can also follow us on social channels to keep up to date with what our fantastic members are up to.
Gather Round
Cigar Factory
127-131 Raleigh Rd,
Southville, Bristol BS3 1QU
&
15-16 Brunswick Square
St Pauls, Bristol, BS2 8NX.
Gather Round now has a space in Bath. Check out their new location at Trinity Church here.
The Generator Hub
Discover a coworking space in Exeter that has become a place where people can come and escape their own four walls, and meet other like-minded individuals (maybe even friends for life).
Located in a historic building in a stunning location on Exeter’s Quayside, the Generator Hub was the city’s first independent coworking space. Elizabeth Finnie, one of its three founders, takes us through how the Generator Hub has been helping its members shape both their businesses and their lives since 2012, and how it’s very much a coworking space with soul.
What is The Generator Hub? We are more than just bricks and mortar, we are a coworking space where people can work flexibly in a professional manner while being immersed in a diverse, interactive, and supportive community.
How did your space get started? When Neil Finnie (one of the founders) started a new business aimed at abolishing the status-quo of traditional and uninspiring internship schemes, he recognised that the participants attending his Corkscrew programs also needed to be immersed in real-time businesses to better grow their skills. At that time there were no co-working spaces in Exeter, so Neil launched not one, but two businesses simultaneously in order for them to complement each other. This is when The Generator Hub began, making Corkscrew one of its first members. Since then, The Generator has gone on to support hundreds of local businesses in many different capacities as well as the community where it is located.
How is your space different? Having grown organically we remain a very small team. Three out of four of the directors are based in the coworking space and play an active role in the community and day-to-day running of the space. We’ve also progressed approximately ten apprentices through business admin and event management roles, giving them the skills to move on to further employment. We also recognise that individuals and businesses are all unique and we will always take each situation on a case-by-case basis to give them a chance to grow and be successful.
We offer discounts for CICs, social enterprises, charities, and the NHS and adapt to people's ever-changing needs. We also like to get involved in the local community — attending local meet-up groups, supporting local networking groups by offering free space, and highlighting local events on our internal slides, newsletter and social posts.
Why is your space needed now? For many freelancers working alone, the Generator Hub has been a place where they can come and escape their own four walls, meeting other like-minded individuals and friends for life. Everyone is viewed as equal and, for many, it's a place to come and talk about issues both business-related and in their personal lives.
For small businesses, we are a great space to offer a more hybrid way of working — many companies now rotate larger teams so there is the flexibility to work from home some days and be part of the team others — again, this has really helped people’s health and wellbeing, This is particularly poignant after Covid and we feel with have maintained many people's mental well-being by just being here.
What do you offer people? We offer flexible working space options (hot desks, permanent desks, private offices), meeting rooms, registered addresses, a postal service, a reception service, and even showers on site. We organise Lunch & Learn events whereby we invite external speakers to promote their business/charity/initiatives, we hold internal talks to showcase our own members’ businesses and skills, and we arrange regular charity fundraising events. We have a meet-the-members wall and within the community, other events have grown, such as a curry club, a biscuit club, a running club, a CrossFit club, and 5-a-side football — the list is ever-growing.
How can people be inspired by your space wherever they are? We have regular social posts on Instagram and Facebook, alongside promotions of things going on in and around Exeter (on LinkedIn). We also have a monthly newsletter that highlights all the things that have been going on in the space and future things to come — as well as a community insider highlight to introduce our members to others.
What do people need to know? We are fully up and running again after Covid and we welcome any business to talk to us about their needs.
We also have a big emphasis on sustainability, people, and the planet. Having very recently started on the B-Corporation journey, we hope to make our business better for the people that work for us, the community and the environment. We are looking at trialing a 4-day work week for our employees, alongside ways to become net-zero.
Where inspires you? Nature — anything sea, river, stream, countryside.
Clayground Ceramic Studio
Feel like playing in the analog world? Clayground brings the co-working concept to ceramics.
What is it: A co-working space for ceramicists of all levels.
Why you’ll love it: Take the coworking concept — flexible access, a supportive community, thoughtful design, and the provisions necessary to thrive — then apply it to the practice of ceramics, and you arrive at Clayground.
What you need to know: Whether as a hobbyist just getting started or a professional looking for the space to create, Clayground has put in the investment — in space, tools, and community — to support ceramicists. A cozy space, memberships are on application and provide 24/7 access not only to the studio space but also to all aspects of production including wheels, tools, and glazes. During “normal times,” check out the workshop schedule and studio sales.
How to bring this into your life: Ready to play in the analog world? Purchase one of their clay kits to do at home, with all the tools and materials you need to get your hands muddy.
Why we think it's different: If you need it and can’t find it, build it. Clayground was founded by architect Jonas Klock and user researcher and service designer Caitlin Delphine, after she moved from Stockholm to Berlin and couldn’t find the kind of community space she needed in which to make her ceramics. She found that others shared that need too, with Clayground soon having an active membership (which you can also shop on the site).
As we’re increasingly looking for ways to bring creativity into our lives, to make with our hands, to produce something material, places like Clayground stake out vital space for exactly that. It’s been designed to make creativity happen within a community of support and takes the intimidation factor out of claiming to be a creative person.
We also love how ceramics as a practice can feel like a return to form, a much-needed antidote perhaps to the functionality that dominates our modern lives. Making visible something through clay is something that we can grasp onto as life starts to feel more and more about the intangible.
In their own words: “Clayground is a ceramics co-working studio for ceramics memberships and ceramics workshops. Our thoughtfully designed space in a quiet corner of Friedrichshain, Berlin brings together a collaborative community, with clay creatives of all levels helping each other. We believe in having time and space to focus on your craft, without navigating around drop-in hours.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram
Second Home
Second Home is stretching the definition of what coworking can be and what it can look like.
“Second Home is a social business with a mission to support creativity and entrepreneurship in cities around the world.”
Coworking is no longer just about finding a place to plonk your laptop. Now it’s about so much more: finding alignment with your values, finding your tribe, finding the brightest people and the shiniest ideas, and yes, finding ways to support your mental wellbeing in ways that fold into such things as design, community and culture. That’s where Second Home steps it. It’s coworking as more than the seat you occupy; it’s coworking for a better-designed life.
We’re been in thrall to Second Home since we visited London’s Spitalfields branch with our kids, who thought it was a play space—which in a way it is. Maybe it’s the colors (that blazing brand orange), the fun textures, the transparent curvilinear walls, the sunken lounge space, the wavy ceiling. Maybe it’s the table that drops down when needed or the rooftop terrace where you can stand amongst ponds while taking in the cityscape. Maybe it’s all the green on green on green in the thousands of plants, the attempts to bring in natural light, the mix-mash of different furniture. It doesn’t feel like the kind of office space that you know, and my kids got that as they rushed through its spaces wanting to climb the chairs rather than the corporate ladder.
But it’s all been very, very intentionally designed to be this way—the playful appearance is its serious intent—to create the most positive environment for our wellbeing and productivity. The Spitalfields branch (Second Home’s earliest, opened in 2014)– and all but one of its other outposts—are the work of architect SelgasCano whose approach is deeply influenced by biophilia and evolutionary psychology.
SelgasCano also designed the recently opened, template-shifting Hollywood coworking space, which has a cacophony of yellow islands (that top tubular pods), a magic ballroom and a dense urban forest. The firm was behind the brightly colored Serpentine Pavilion purchased by Second Home and moved to La Brea Tarpits to be a pop-up/love letter/ ‘Coming Soon’ announcement to Los Angeles. At the Holland Park branch, the firm designed a space where trees grow out of the floor and a courtyard roof fills with bubbles; at Clerkenwell Green there’s a subterranean event space; in the Lisbon space an Yves Klein Blue ceiling and signature 1,000 indoor plants and trees. Only the London Fields space is designed by someone else, and then by sister company Cano Lasso, but it shares the same bold design credentials—see its impossible to miss futuristic façade – and maybe equally as radical on-site nursery and childproof café?
But beyond the outward design co-founders, Rohan Silva and Sam Aldenton had two other major principles in play: community and culture. The people who get to populate this environment are as important as the pot plants and pops of color. Second Home curates its community, aiming for a mix of start-ups, not-for-profits (it offers charity memberships), corporates, creatives, and entrepreneurs. Each inspiring, supporting, and collaborating with each other. Then there’s the culture piece, the third angle to this design-community triad; Second Home gets how ideas sustain us as much as people and place. Overlapping its space as workplace is space as creative venue, with an active cultural program that puts authors, podcasters, thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in front of its members and the public.
Collectively that greenery, the doing good piece, the feeding of curiosity and connection, are all about sustaining our wellbeing, in the same ways as the yoga sessions, running clubs, and even surf lessons on offer depending on the venue. Second Home weaves in all the multiple threads of our working lives—the design of our environment, the people we get to connect with, the culture that gets to feed us—and throws them out into as much as a real-world context as its principles allow. But there’s some fantasy at play too when you enter its doors.
(NB: There’s a special place in our heart for Second Home’s tightly curated bookstore Libreria (in Spitalfields & LA) and the poetry bookstore at the Holland Park branch. Check them out too. They probably shouldn’t be in brackets.)
Bite Unite | A cook and share community
Bite Unite is one of the co-working cooking spaces popping up in the new world of shared kitchens.
“Modern facilities, a fully equipped commercial kitchen, business support, and a neighborhood cafe for foodie folk.”
We’re all now fully on board with the idea of co-working, of sharing work space for our laptop lives, but there’s a new idea in town, for co-working kitchens, shared cooking spaces for entrepreneurs who are happier holding a whisk and making creations of the edible kind.
The concept behind Bite Unite was first launched by amateur chef Patta Arkaresvimunin in Hong Kong in 2014, and four years later she brought it to San Francisco. Her co-working kitchens in both cities respond to a really pressing need: the huge cost barrier to creating commercial food enterprises. The set-up of just the cooking area can be prohibitive and rents, particularly in these cities, are in the make-up-numbers realm.
Bite Unite offers food entrepreneurs the chance to give it a low-risk-go by providing all the things: a licensed, insured and fully-equipped kitchen, as well as crucial software, business and community support to go along with this.
Kitchen Memberships—which work exactly like co-working ones with full-time, part-time and day pass access (there are even food storage options)—also offer a readymade community in which to test out products, dishes and techniques.
At the SF location, there’s a pick-up service, with chefs making to order options like lunch and cookie sets and anti-inflammatory veg soup, and they get to host community dinners and pop-up events in the space—like Hawaiian food, Borek rolls, and sushi making. Current chef members we have our eye on include Prep School, a wellness cooking club and Kristie Chow of Sip Therapy
But Bite Unite extends its work beyond that of the incubator kitchen: it offers more on the public facing side too, like a pop-up series of eating focused events such as that recently offered by A Hard Pill to Swallow, a roaming dinner series that supports people of color in the culinary space. And Bite Unite functions quite simply as a community café: you can stop by the light filled space for the tastiest of mini-donuts and matcha nitro.
There’s a ton going on mostly behind the scenes but some of it is visible through light-filled windows and while seated at the central farm-table; with Bite Unite you get to choose how far you go on this food journey, all the way from creation to consumption.
To find out more: Website www.biteunite.com / Facebook @biteunite / Instagram @biteunite