12 best places for developing film in London

Digital may well have overtaken film photography in recent decades, however, there is still a wide community of loyal film photographers keeping this traditional technique alive. In fact, statistics show that film photography may be entering a renaissance, with 57% of photographers having returned to or tried film photography for the first time in the past 5 years. Whether it's film's nostalgic appeal, or the forgivingness and charm of film grain when compared to digital pixelation, it's clear that there's something worth holding onto.

As a result, film labs and darkrooms across London have maintained demand, and there are even new ones popping up all over the city. To help you find the best place to develop your film, we've put together a list of the 12 best places for film processing in London:

Contents:

1. Bayeux
2. Photofusion
3. Blaze Image
4. CPC London
5. Artful Dodgers
6. Black & White Basement
7. Labyrinth Photographic
8. Master Mono
9. Rapid Eye
10. Aperture Printing
11. Traia Photolab
12. West End Cameras

1. Bayeux

Bayeux is a professional photo lab in the heart of the West End, offering a wide range of bespoke services, serving a range of customers from fine art photographers to fashion photographers working for global brands and magazines. They offer generous discounts to students and are an invested in supporting aspiring artists and creatives.

Bayeux brags one of the only dip and dunk processing machines in London, which "make no mechanical contact with the exposed emulsion, thereby ensuring safe, clean processing".

Processing: Colour; black & white

Printing: Digital C-type and pigment printing; darkroom printing; Mini-lab printing

Scanning: Drum scans; CCD scans; flatbed scans

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Address: 78 Newman Street, London, W1T 3EP

2. Photofusion

Located in Brixton, south London, Photofusion is a creative community hub and photography resource centre, offering a huge range of services, from darkrooms to adult learning courses and educational resources.

As well as film development, Photofusion also offers courses and creative development programmes, including one for young creatives (16-24) which gives them access to free studio space and mentorship. They offer another free 10-week artist development course to creatives living in Lambeth and either on low wages or unemployed.

Processing: Colour; black & white

Printing: Digital printing inc. digital negative printing; darkroom printing

Scanning: Drum scans; flatbed scans

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Address: 27 Brixton Station Road, Brixton, London, SW9 8QQ (Gallery Address)

International House, Canterbury Crescent, Brixton, London, SW9 7QD (Postal Address & darkrooms)

3. Blaze Image

Blaze Image is a photo lab in West London, offering "Premium craftsmanship and forensic attention to detail", as well as free consultations and bespoke one-to-one assistance. They also offer passport and ID photos, headshot photographer referrals and most notably, a specialised retouching and restoration service that can restore torn, damaged and colour-faded photographs.

Over the years, Blaze Image has served a number of high-profile photographers and artists including Ian Davies Rock and Darren Black.

Processing: Colour; black & white

Printing: Giclee pigment ink prints; minilab printing; canvas prints

Scanning: Flatbed scans; film scans

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Address: 111 Talbot Road, Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 2AT

4. CPC London

A little different from the others on this list, CPC London specialises in producing affordable 35mm motion picture film prints for cinemas and distributors. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, CPC London can transfer your film direct to positive from your data source, ensuring a smooth and straightforward development process.

On top of this, they also produce film art and souvenirs by printing photographs and other media onto 35mm film strips. It's a little outside London but worth an honourary mention for their novel services.

Processing: 35mm film

Printing: 35mm film prints; film art posters and gifts

Scanning: Truegrain scanning

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Address: Black Hangar Studios, Alton, GU34 5SR

5. Artful Dodgers

Artful Dodgers is an imaging studio in Clerkenwell, central London. Offering a range of services across analogue and digital film, Artful Dodgers promise turnarounds of just 24 hours for film development. The development of black and white film is slightly longer due to processing being done off-site, but should be no more than 48 hours.

Artful Dodgers also offer photo editing, retouching and repair of damaged digital and print photographs, including dust spotting and print rewashing.

Processing: Colour; black & white; push pull processing

Printing: C-type hand printing; C-type digital

Scanning: Drum scanning; flatbed scanning; roll film scanning

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Address: 68 Hatton Garden, Lower Ground Floor, London, EC1N 8JY

6. Black & White Basement

Black & White Basement is an analogue photography darkroom in St. John's Wood, north-west London. Supervised by expert photographers and equipped with state-of-the-art enlargers, scanners and image processing machines, Black & White Basement are masters in the film development game.

Black & White Basement also offer one-to-one photography and darkroom tuition for photographers who want to learn more about darkroom techniques and best-practices.

Processing: Black & white

Printing: Fibre base prints; silver gelatine prints; RA4 machine prints; darkroom printing

Scanning: Full-roll film scanning

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Address: 16 Blenheim Terrace, St John’s Wood, London, NW8 0EB

7. Labyrinth Photographic

Labyrinth Photographic Printing is a film development lab in Bethnal Green, London, offering an analogue darkroom and other specialised photographic imaging services.

Processing: Dunk processing; colour; black & white

Printing: C-type hand printing; black & white fibre and resin prints

Scanning: Flatbed scanning; flex tight scanning

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Address: 121 Roman Road, London, E2 0QN

8. Master Mono

Master Mono is a custom-built darkroom in London, offering a range of black and white film services and exhibition-quality prints. Owned by Melvin Cambettie Davies, an expert in silver-gelatin printing, Master Mono leans on Davies' over 50 years of experience in image processing.

Master Mono offers free consultations, as well as in-house retouching and hand colouring services.

Processing: Black & white

Printing: Silver-gelatin printing; printing from glass plate negatives; split printing; lith printing; darkroom printing

Scanning: Copy negatives; internegatives

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Address: Second Floor Studios, Studio CA04, Moulding Lane, London, SE14 6BN

9. Rapid Eye

Located in Shoreditch, East London, Rapid Eye Darkrooms offers darkroom and scanner hire as well as classes, workshops and photographic products such as film stock and darkroom consumables. You can also post your film for more convenience and have it mailed back or pick it up in-store.

You need to complete a darkroom workshop before hiring out a darkroom, but once you have you'll have access to affordable membership plans that give you discounted access from just £20 per month. Students and disadvantaged members get free membership and exclusive discounts.

Processing: Dip and dunk; colour; black & white

Printing: C-type printing; hand printing; darkroom printing

Scanning: Flatbed scanning; Imacon scanning

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Address: 79 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS

10. Aperture Printing

Aperture Printing is a film processing shop in central London, offering in-house and mail-order film development services. Serving beginners to professionals, Apeture Printing offers a high quality, friendly service for those seeking film processing, scanning and printing.

Aperture Printing's Marylebone shop also has a cafe with outdoor seating so you can relax with a cup of coffee while you browse one of the widest selections of film, from Cine Still, Portra, Ektar to Lomography.  

Processing: Colour; black & white; push pull processing

Printing: 35MM film prints

Scanning: High resolution scanning

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Address: 27 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1JE

11. Traia Photolab

Traia Photolab is a film processing lab in London, founded by photographer couple Tristan and Maia in January 2020, who met in their darkroom printing group during their time at Falmouth University.

You can either send your film by post or drop it off in person at their Woolwich location, where they have a dropbox located outside in case you want to deliver when they're closed. Turnaround times range from 4-5 working days to 10-12 working days.

Processing: Colour; black & white; push and pull processing; souped film processing

Printing: C-type printing

Scanning: Imacon scanning; high resolution scanning; flatbed scanning; flex tight scanning

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Address: U5-09, Thames-Side Studios, Harrington Way, Warspite Road, SE18 5NR

12. West End Cameras

Finally, West End Cameras is a film development lab and film stock and camera shop in West London, who have been providing film photography services for 25 years.

Stocking one of the largest stock collections of film in the UK as well as a range of second-hand film cameras and lenses, which all come with a 3-month warranty and full technical support. If you're looking for more places to hire photography equipment in London, we've got you covered.

Processing: Colour; black & white

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Address: 75 Longmore Ave, London, New Barnet, Barnet EN5 1JZ

Wrapping up

So there you have it - 12 of the best placing for developing film in London! London is home to a diverse and vibrant community of film labs, darkrooms and image processing studios, each offering unique services and expertise to cater to the needs of filmmakers and photographers.

Whether it's preserving the traditional craft or pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, these film labs continue to play a crucial role in supporting the analog movement and helping photographers build their film photography portfolios.