Geoff Stow initially worked as a telephone engineer, volunteering at a youth club in his spare time. After leaving the Post Office he worked on various adventure playgrounds in South East London. During this time he worked with the Albany Video Project, who were working in Deptford recording events on the playground. He later joined Albany Video on a full-time basis. His initial work at Albany Video was with the local community; continuing to work with kids on art projects and making tapes around issues of local concern such as housing conditions. Gradually the work of the project expanded to include campaigning tapes on issues such as Transport, health services and current issues such as The New Cross Fire and the Blair Peach campaign. As part of his work Geoff helped a Lewisham group make a tape about a local self-build scheme. This fired his imagination and he went on to build his own house in Lewisham. Geoff left Albany Video in 1987 and went on to be involved in The Self-Build and Eco-Housing movement.