[LONDON] Publicly Accessible Darkroom for Film Processing?

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

I'm moving to London for a year starting in September. In Edinburgh (my usual residence) the Stills gallery offers a darkroom for developing C41 and B&W for £2.50 a roll - madness

Is there *anywhere* within the London city bypass that would offer me a similar space?

Looked at Photofusion but they don't allow film processing.

Ian Grant · Aug 24, 2017

Try Ilfords Local Darkrooom site, there's a lot of Darkrooms in London.

Ian

Svenedin · Aug 24, 2017

If all you want to do is develop film (not print it) then you could easily do that at home, especially black and white. A darkroom is not necessary with a large changing bag for loading film onto reels. Once the film is safely in the daylight developing tank you can do the rest in the bathroom or kitchen.

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

Ian Grant said:
Try Ilfords Local Darkrooom site, there's a lot of Darkrooms in London.

Ian

Ah thanks for reminding me - I'd checked 'CommunityDarkroom' but had forgotten Ilford had a similar thing : )

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

Svenedin said:
If all you want to do is develop film (not print it) then you could easily do that at home, especially black and white.

I've written that off in the past because I don't want to worry about the chems going off and using it all before this happens.

B&W would totally be doable though, and might give me the opportunity to use some developers beyond ID-11!

Svenedin · Aug 24, 2017

What area of London are you moving to? (I am in South London). I used to live in Edinburgh and I had a darkroom that I'd set up in the kitchen. There were no windows in the kitchen so that was handy. The other handy thing was my flat mate was also into photography and as we were both students we hardly ever used the kitchen for its intended purpose anyway!

ID-11 is good because it has a long shelf life as a sealed dry powder and comes in small packets. I now use Xtol but that only comes as a packet to make up 5 litres at a time. Having said that it keeps really will in brim full green gin bottles and I am still using some Xtol I mixed up 10 months ago. Acetic acid stop keeps almost forever as a concentrate too. The developer for absolutely renowned keeping qualities is Rodinal but I've never actually used it (though I do have a bottle somewhere).

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

Svenedin said:
What area of London are you moving to? I used to live in Edinburgh and I had a darkroom that I'd set up in the kitchen.

ID-11 is good because it has a long shelf life as a sealed dry powder and comes in small packets. I now use Xtol [...] it keeps really will in brim full green gin bottles and I am still using some Xtol I mixed up 10 months ago.

Living near Waterloo train station so I don't imagine I'll find any within walking distance of me (unless the houses of parliament have a basement one??)...

Yeah, I've only used ID-11 because that's what we use in the student darkroom at Edinburgh. I'm excited to get to use D-76, Xtol, Caffenol, Rodinol, etc. and see how each acts!

Svenedin · Aug 24, 2017

D76 is Kodak's answer to ID-11 or vice versa, they are essentially the same thing. I'm not sure about the area around Waterloo. Although I am less than 20 minutes by train from central London I very rarely go there.

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

Svenedin said:
D76 is Kodak's answer to ID-11 or vice versa, they are essentially the same thing. I'm not sure about the area around Waterloo. Although I am less than 20 minutes by train from central London I very rarely go there.

Do you home process? It would most likely be feasible but my student accommodation is a shared kitchen and so would rely on roommates being amicable.. Similarly, I would assume the university would very quickly try to discourage me using chemicals in the kitchen

Svenedin · Aug 24, 2017

Yes, I home process and print all my black and white. I send colour negative and slide film away because I don't use enough of it to make it worthwhile to do at home (but I used to do slide film at home). I've never printed colour. I have a Kaiser multigrade enlarger than can enlarge up to 120 6x7 negatives (it could do 6x9 with the right condensers but I don't have a 6x9 camera). My darkroom doesn't have water so I have to put prints in a bucket of water and then take them to the bathroom to wash. For that reason I only print on resin coated paper (which is much faster to wash than fibre). I don't actually develop films in the kitchen, I use the bathroom.

If you can't find a public darkroom at all and can't process in your student digs either then PM me. We can probably work something out.

clingfilm · Aug 24, 2017

Svenedin said:
If you can't find a public darkroom at all and can't process in your student digs either then PM me. We can probably work something out.

Wow, very kind of you for offering : )

I'll see how it goes - I would imagine film development would be fine but there's definitely no possibilityenlarging in there so I'll keep you in mind!

Thanks, William

Alan Johnson · Aug 24, 2017

http://thecameraclub.co.uk/facilities/darkrooms/
You have to join the club, it is near Kennington station, Northern line.

BrendanD · Oct 29, 2017

Try Photofusion in Brixton. They have a public darkroom that members can use.

Ian Grant · Oct 29, 2017

BrendanD said:
Try Photofusion in Brixton. They have a public darkroom that members can use.

I think Photofusion only now have a print darkroom, it's accepted that it's very easy to process film at home B&W, E6 and C41.

Ian

[LONDON] Publicly Accessible Darkroom for Film Processing?

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