![]() The reason I keep coming back here time and time again is that their processing is exceptional. A roll of film costs £9.50 + VAT for dev only of colour neg, though the owner Terry will negotiate if you’re a regular customer and especially if you’re bringing in a bundle of films time and time again. It is not a place to go if you’re penny pinching. It offers an absolutely bewildering array of services, especially when it comes to printing and framing. It’s been in business for more than 20 years and does a lot of high-end work for commercial photographers, magazines and galleries. I know these three are but a half-handful of the labs available, so I’ve also listed a few more that come recommended from fellow photographers who left comments on the Kosmo Foto Facebook page.īayeux is a professional lab on Newman St in the heart of London’s West End. The labs listed below are the ones I personally use – I develop my films there and I’m happy with the results and service and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them. I’ve often thought of writing a post like this and was finally persuaded after reading this excellent piece by Jim Grey on Down The Road in August, where he listed the US labs he sends his film to. ![]() New labs are opening as a generation exposed to film cameras through Instagram dabble with film. While some continued to close, the most recent trend has been far more positive. Enough people still shot film regularly enough to keep a fleet of labs still open. All of these labs have now gone.īut London has fared better than a lot of places thanks to its population – 8.13 million and counting. I used to dev and print my LOMO LC-A shots at the legendary Joe’s Basement and develop test rolls at a friendly local lab in West Hampstead, 15 minutes walk from my house. I used to love Metro Imaging on Great Marlborough St and Panther Prints off Theobalds Road. Some have closed – several of my favourites fell casualty to the race to digital in the mid-00s. Over the last quarter century I’ve used a bunch of different labs. In a good year I’ll shoot between 150 and 200 rolls of 35mm and 120 film. I’ve lived in London for a few months short of 25 years, and for a good 20 of those years I’ve been an enthusiastic film photographer. Decent scanners cost decent money, and getting the best out of negs and slides often takes time and patience. Even after the development there’s the scanning. Many of us don’t have the space or time to develop our own films at home. They need to be turned into something else – housing, more services for people.”Īmid surging wage costs, Timpson said the business, which offers staff perks including company holiday homes and mental health support, had found a way to operate with just one person running many outlets, with support from regional managers who could step in to cover time off.Finding the right lab is as important as finding the right camera. People see empty shops, but some need to be empty as we have got too many. “People have got the wrong vision for the high street. “Some of our highest-turnover shops are on the high street.” he said. The group plans to open 40 new outlets this year – the vast majority of which will be “pods” in supermarket carparks which offer watch and shoe repairs and key cutting – but Timpson said he did not think shoppers had deserted high streets, where the group has more than 800 outlets. The best part of the shoe repair business is people wearing really nice shoes to go the city, and that’s still not back as it should be.” “I was at a concert on Sunday and 100% of people were wearing trainers or some sort of leisure shoe and they don’t get those repaired. “Look at what people are wearing,” he said. It now only makes up a “modest part” of the group’s trade. The service has been in long-term decline because of competition from cheap footwear and the switch to more casual dressing. ![]() However, Timpson bemoaned the fact that shoe repairs had not seen a similar revival because of the surge in popularity of trainers during the pandemic. Car-key cutting is one of the group’s fastest-growing businesses. The return of holidays abroad has caused a surge in demand for passport photos at Snappy Snaps, while the group says watch repairs are big business again as people want to make sure they keep their appointments. “We had a fantastic year last year and it is going just as well this year,” he added. There was no reason to get anything dry-cleaned apart from a duvet.” Sir John Timpson, the company’s chair, who took the business from shoe shops into services, said sales of key cutting, watch repair and photo processing had all bounced back after being hit during lockdowns when “no one was going to work, parties or getting married. ![]()
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