How much does a podcast studio cost in South East London?

A podcast studio in London costs anywhere from £40 to £250 an hour. The huge spread is not random. It tracks four things: location, equipment, who is in the room with you, and whether you walk out with a finished episode or just a folder of raw files.

This post is the honest, no-fluff version of that question. We are a working studio — currently between Deptford and Greenwich, moving to Woolwich in July 2026 — so we know exactly what the costs look like from inside the room.

The short answer

Here is the realistic range across SE London right now:

- Self-service rooms (you bring your own kit, no producer): £40–60/hr

- Producer-led sessions (mics, cameras, in-house producer): £50–110/hr

- Day blocks (half or full day with kit + producer): £175–500/day

- Full-production episodes (recording + edit + clips + transcript): £150–500/episode

- Weekly retainers (recurring cadence with deliverables): £600–2,500/month

We charge from £50/hr for hourly bookings (with a producer in the room), £175 for a half-day (4 hours), £270 for a full day (8 hours), and £170 per fully produced episode — dropping to £150/episode when booked as a 4-pack (£600 for four).

Why SE London is meaningfully cheaper than central London

A podcast studio in Soho or Shoreditch starts at around £100/hr and routinely climbs past £200/hr for the same kit. SE London hovers in the £50–110 range. The reason is not quality — the rooms here are often newer, the equipment identical, and the people running them are at the same level. The reason is rent.

Studio operators pass through their own square-foot cost. A central London studio is paying three to five times the rent of an SE London studio for the same square footage. That cost reaches you as the booking fee. If the kit and the engineer are the same — and they usually are — you are paying for the postcode.

For most podcasts, the postcode is not adding anything to the recording. Your show sounds the same recorded in SE8 as it does in W1. The argument for paying central rates is convenience for guests who work in zone 1, and that is sometimes a real factor. For everyone else, SE London rooms are the better deal.

What changes the price

Hourly rates vary inside SE London too. Here is what actually moves the number:

Equipment tier. Two Shure SM7Bs and a mid-range interface is the entry point. Three or four mics, broadcast preamps, a multitrack interface and acoustic treatment is the next tier up — that is the £75-plus range. If you need four-camera video sync with HDMI capture, that is another tier above.

Engineer in the room. Self-serve rooms expect you to know how to plug in a mic and hit record. A producer-led session has somebody monitoring levels, swapping cameras, fixing a mic that drifts, prompting your guest if a thread tails off. That changes the recording you walk out with — and what you are willing to pay per hour.

Edit included. This is where the per-hour conversation breaks down. A two-hour record + edited episode + show notes + social clips is not a 2-hour booking; it is a half-day or full-day production deal. Studios that quote per-hour for "everything" are usually quoting for the recording and pushing the edit into a second invoice. Be careful.

Off-peak vs peak. Most studios are 30-50% cheaper after 6pm and on weekends. If you can record outside business hours, the cost halves.

Cancellation policy and minimum hours. Read these carefully. A "£50/hr" room with a 3-hour minimum is a £150 starting point.

Travel. If your guest cancels and you need to reschedule, what is the policy? Most SE London studios are flexible on rescheduling within the same week.

What we charge

Transparent pricing is a stance, not a feature. Here is the rate card.

Hourly — £50/hr

2-hour minimum. Producer in the room — that part is not an upcharge.

Right for: established shows, voiceover, internal comms, B-roll days. You walk out with the raw audio + video files at the end of the session.

Day Block — £175 / half-day · £270 / full-day

Same kit and producer as hourly, just better value on longer shoots. Half-day is 4 hours, full-day is 8.

Right for: video podcasts wanting two episodes in one sitting, multi-guest interviews, brand content days.

Full Production — £170/episode (or £150 in a 4-pack)

Per fully delivered episode. Recording + multi-cam edit + audio mastered to broadcast standard + three short-form social clips + show notes + transcript. Same-week turnaround.

The 4-pack drops the per-episode rate to £150 — £600 total for four episodes. That is the most cost-effective way to run a season or a quarterly cadence.

This is what most podcasters actually want quoted at when they ask "how much per episode" — they don't want the per-hour studio rate; they want the cost of an episode as a deliverable. Same-week turnaround is the part most studios cannot match.

What's actually in the room

Pricing only matters if you know what you are paying for. Here is the full kit list, included with every booking regardless of tier.

Audio capture

- Shure SM7B (broadcast dynamic — the gold standard for podcasts)

- Rode PodMic (broadcast dynamic)

- Mackie EM-99B (vocal condenser)

- DJI Mic 3 (wireless, used as backup or for mobile recording)

Mixing & recording

- Mackie DLZ Creator (digital mixer with broadcast presets)

- Rodecaster Video S (audio + video routing for video podcasts)

- Multi-track recording

Video

- Sony cinema cameras

- Blackmagic cameras

- Up to 4 × 4K cameras for multi-cam setups

- Direct 4K output

Capacity

- Setup for up to 5–6 guests

- Acoustically treated room

- Studio lighting

- Producer in the room every session

This is the same equipment whether you book the £50/hr hourly slot or the £600 4-pack. There is no "premium" tier of mics or cameras you have to upgrade to. The differentiation is in time and post — not gear.

Hidden costs to watch for

When comparing studios, the headline rate is rarely the full picture. Things that quietly add to the bill:

- Engineer fees on top of room rate. Some "£50/hr" rooms charge an additional £30/hr for the engineer.

- Edit invoiced separately at editor's day-rate. A "fully produced" quote can become two invoices: the studio booking and the editor's time. £400 for a 2-hour recording session can become £700 once the edit lands.

- Cancellation fees. Same-day cancellations are usually 100% chargeable; 24-hour notice is usually 50%; 48-hour and over should be free.

- Equipment rental separately. Rooms that quote a low base rate sometimes charge for "premium mics" or "additional cameras" as extras.

- Storage. Some studios charge a monthly fee to keep your raw files on their server. We send everything via WeTransfer or Dropbox at the end of the session.

Always ask for an all-in quote that names every cost. A studio that hesitates to give you one is telling you something.

How to budget for a typical podcast project

A few realistic scenarios:

12-episode pilot season (Full Production, in 4-packs): 3 × 4-pack at £600 each = £1,800 for 12 fully delivered episodes (recording + edit + clips + transcripts). Add a single full-day planning shoot at the start (£270) and you are at ~£2,070 for a launch-ready season.

Weekly show (one Full Production episode/week): Single episode rate × 4 = £680/month. Or a 4-pack covers the month for £600. That is £600/month for a fully produced weekly show with social clips and show notes.

One-off branded series: 4-episode launch as a 4-pack (£600) + ongoing 1/month at single-episode rate (£170) = £600 launch + £170/month. Useful for B2B brands testing podcasting before committing to a season.

Solo monologue show (DIY edit): 1-hour monthly recording at hourly rate (with producer in the room), you edit yourself: £100/month (2hr minimum). The cheapest legitimate way to run a show that sounds professional.

Self-led video podcast (no edit): Half-day £175 every fortnight = £350/month for the studio time, raw 4K + multitrack delivered same-day. Right if you have an editor in-house already.

FAQs

Is £50/hr really enough to record a broadcast-quality podcast?

For a self-led recording with a guest who knows what they're doing, yes — fully. The mics, the room, the recording chain are the same whether you book hourly or full-production. What you don't get at £50/hr is the producer in the room and the post-production. If you can engineer yourself, the recording itself is broadcast-quality.

Why do central London studios charge so much more for the same kit?

Rent. A central London studio is paying three to five times the rent of an SE London studio for the same square footage. That cost reaches you as the booking fee. The kit is usually identical.

Do I need a producer or can I run the session myself?

Depends on your experience and the show format. Solo monologue: no, you don't. Two-host conversation with a guest: usually yes, especially for video podcasts where camera switching matters. Interview-led shows with VIPs: definitely yes — you want to focus on the conversation, not the technical setup.

What's the difference between podcast and video podcast pricing?

Audio-only sessions are usually 30-40% cheaper than multi-camera video sessions. The kit and the time required for video are both meaningfully more. Most studios quoting "podcast" rates are quoting audio-only.

Can I bring my own equipment?

Yes — most SE London studios allow it. We don't charge a "BYO kit" fee. The room, the lighting, and the acoustic treatment are still the value you're paying for.

What to do next

If you're shopping around, ask three studios for an all-in quote for the same brief — same recording length, same deliverables, same turnaround. The headline rates will look similar; the all-in quotes will not.

If you want to see what we work like, [book a session at our SE London studio](/services/podcast-studio) — same-day or next-week availability is usually fine. Or [see our pricing in full](/pricing) — every rate that exists is on the page.