This September marks ten years since the unlikely beginning of BSMT Gallery. What started in a disused Dalston basement has grown into one of London’s most recognised independent spaces for Urban and Contemporary art.

 

Back in 2015, Lara and Greg - strangers then, now partners in both life and work - met through chance, a shared love of art and a passion for the new wave of Urban artists painting London’s streets at the time. With no direct gallery experience, no audience and no plan beyond fierce determination and naive optimism they transformed an empty basement into a gallery. The early days were chaotic, raw, and relentless- exhibitions ran while they lived in the basement, their ‘front room’ thrown open to the public. It was intimate and wholly unpolished but it was alive. One show at a time, BSMT carved out its place, persevering through challenges that would have seen off a less stubborn endeavour.

 

A decade on, the journey has been anything but straightforward. The gallery has opened and closed countless times in response to life’s unpredictability: the birth of their child, the turbulence of the pandemic, the upheavals of moving spaces and economic changes. BSMT has been in constant evolution, each setback has only deepened the resolve to continue, each milestone a reminder of how far this little family-run space has come.

 

Yet with each challenge came evolution. By year five BSMT had relocated above ground to Kingsland Road, cementing itself as a fixture in Dalston’s cultural landscape.

 

Now, in disbelief and in gratitude, BSMT stands ten years on cementing itself as a fixture in London’s cultural landscape, still rooted in Dalston and still propelled by the same energy that lit up that first basement.

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