UP CLOSE: With Luke Cullis, director of co-working venue Club66

Godalming Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We profile some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Godalming'.

We caught up with Luke Cullis, director of Club 66, the co-working venue in Godalming High Street.

Were you among the millions of people told to work at home if you could during lockdown?

Were you secretly rather pleased at the prospect of working in your pyjamas, relieved not to be making

the daily commute to the office, looking forward to a bit of a lie-in? Have you subsequently discovered that WFH isn't all it's cracked up to be - your home invaded by

laptops and files, your children/dog/other half interrupting important phone calls, your working hours

stretching because you simply don't have that dividing line between home and office anymore? If so, you're not the only one. Luke Cullis, Director of Club 66, the co-working venue in Godalming High Street, says that has become a familiar refrain from clients over the past few weeks as people frazzled by the ever-blurring line between work and home life have looked to him for the solution. Club 66 offers hot desks, superfast WiFi, charging points, a meeting room, a secure working environment, and, possibly most valuable of all, the opportunity to draw a line between work and home

life. Oh, and there's free tea, coffee and biscuits as well.

Dominic Cullis has owned number 66 High Street since 2005, when it was a bakery called Granny's Pantry. Since that time it has had a brief existence as a Subway store, but had stood empty for some time before he and son Luke came up with the idea of a co-working venue.

The father and son team also run Casa Court Business Club in Great George Street, which offers

permanent desk space and office facilities. "We thought we would try something new," Luke told Nub News. The venue opened on January 3rd this year and enjoyed slow but steady growth until lockdown reared

its ugly head in March.

"We had only been open for seven or eight weeks," says Luke.

But since the restrictions were lifted and people began to tire of working from home, business has

picked up again. The venue reopened in July, once Luke was certain the premises were Covid-safe. "Nobody wanted this to happen. I would rather have gone out of business than have had Covid happen,"

Luke says.

"But it is what it is, and it has been good for our business."

The initial couple of weeks after reopening weren't at all busy, he says.

"It was so quiet. A lot of people were scared to go outside. There was no way anyone wanted to commit

to anything." But he persevered, opening up the venue each day. "It was just about making sure the place was warm, and we would be here if people wanted to use us." But as confidence grew, and people tired of working from home, they started coming through the door. And they're all saying the same thing: "They can't stand the family any more," Luke laughs. "A lot of it is not being able to switch off. When you look at the living room and see your office you can

develop the anxiety and stress that goes along with that. We get a lot of people saying that."

People using the premises come from all sorts of backgrounds: entrepreneurs, solo workers and former

commuters who have given up the train and the car to work from closer to home. "We have a few small business owners and a few directors of large corporations, and a lot of people who would otherwise be commuters," he says. One of the great benefits of working in shared space in the town centre is the opportunity to network. Luke says working and business relationships have been forged in the venue's stylish surroundings. "I don't want it to just be a place to work," says Luke.

"I want it to be a place where people can connect."

He prides himself on building good relationships with the people who use the space.

"And I come from a background of managing the Godalming branch of Costa for six years, so I know it's good coffee," he points out.

The venue is completely Covid-compliant, with the desks separated by perspex screens and cleaned with antiviral and antibacterial cleaners between each user. There are also several hand sanitiser stations.

The hi-tech security door means that a call log is generated each time somebody enters, meaning people can be traced if necessary: guests' details need to be logged with Luke 12 hours before arrival.

There are three ways of accessing the Club 66 facilities: through a Day Pass, a block of six passes, or full membership.

The most popular sale is the block of six, which is available at a discounted price: a Day Pass is £15, whereas your first block of six will cost you £60.

Blocks of six have to be used within three months of purchase. Full membership costs £95 per month, equivalent to £3.10 a day: the price of a cup of coffee, as Luke points out. And as you will be getting your daily caffeine fix free of charge at Club 66 it's a no-brainer for those who need to be in the office most days. It's also a 'place on the High Street' from which to conduct business: clients can bring in one guest at a time, so it is a chic and convenient place for business-related chats and networking. "We are also closed to the general public, which means we are safe," says Luke. The entry door is controlled by a locking system which is activated by users' mobile phones. "We give you a number to call, and when you phone the front door it recognises your number and unlocks for you," Luke explains. "The space is available 24 hours a day, so if you want to work at 3 o'clock in the morning you can do so perfectly safely, as long as you are a member." And he jokes that he knows there is demand for very early morning working: he was woken recently by someone entering the building at 3am ready to start work for the day. He knows, because he has an alarm that tells him whenever someone is there. "I was woken up at 3am, and yes, it was somebody going in to work, I could see them on the monitor," he says. This is the first branch, but Club 66 is aiming high: "We have a plan to open up 25 more branches," Luke says. "We're very ambitious. We think that over the next two to three years this kind of working will become very common." "We believe that in about five years' time the High Street will be all service-based: our plan is to be at the forefront of that. "The whole purpose of this place originally was for meeting clients, but now it's turned into more of a co-working place where people meet." "I want this to become a familiar place that people get to know and feel comfortable in. I want to build a relationship with people." So if your relationships at home are becoming strained it might be worth popping into Club66 and enjoying the peace and quiet – and the great coffee. Click here to visit the Club66 website.

Click here to visit the Casa Court website.