Butler's Wharf was a former riverside warehouse dating from the late 19th century, within the complex of streets and buildings immediately south and east of Tower Bridge.

In the early 1970's many of the buildings in that area had been cheaply purchased by property speculators with a view to re-development. In London at that time, many housing associations and cooperatives were being formed to negotiate cheap rents for derelict properties in the interim period before demolition or redevelopment took place. Many artists lived
and worked under these kinds of arrangements, and it was a group of friends who had met while at art college in the Isle of Man and Brighton who together rented a floor of Block 2B, Butlers Wharf in late 1975, later joined by recent art graduates from Newcastle, Leeds and Maidstone.

From 1975-78, the artists' space at 2B Butler's Wharf was a key venue for early UK video art and performance art, used among others by Derek Jarman and the artists and dancers who subsequently founded Chisenhale Studios and Chisenhale Dance Space, including Philip Jeck.