Wednesday bits & bobs
Photography: Gigi Cifali
Did we mention we now have a Facebook page? It’s somewhere we can post the bits, bobs, out-takes and curiosities that we haven’t found time to blog about. Think of it like The Xtra Factor or I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here… Now. And if you don’t get those references, well done. You’ve obviously been watching Broadchurch instead.
We’d love you to join us there from time to time. This week, for example, you may have missed…
- A wonderful photo series by Gigi Cifali on the top-floor residents of London’s most unloved high-rises (image above).
- Jill’s trip to see some post-punk feminist art rock
- A revisit of our first ever post, three years ago. It was a rant about ‘Keep Calm…’ What else?
Come on over, have a look, have a ‘like’. We’d love to see you.
Ros x
Margate blog
Margate week. Completely by accident, but anyway. Here’s a recent blog discovery, The Curio in Margate, by photographer, art director and stylist Jo Willis, who quit London for the seaside with her film maker husband Dom. Jo’s blog is a series of nicely shot shop and house tours. Including her own place…
Designer Jenny Duff’s place…
And a couple called Andrew and Adrian’s place…
A lot of her subjects seem to be ex Londoners and a lot are writers, artists, designers etc.
Which fits with the research I’m compiling for a feature about living on the coast. Top tip, The Modern House reckons the areas around Hastings will be pretty expensive in five years time. And apparently Dungeness is a massive hit with, you guessed it, writers artists, designers etc. I’ve already wasted half a morning on Right Move.
Welcome to Dreamland
I went for a quick visit to Margate at the weekend, my first in two years. I saw the finished Turner gallery for the first time, and took a turn along the beach, before picking up the daily local newspaper. On the cover was a story about Wayne Hemingway, who had been in the town outlining his ideas for the reopening of Dreamland.
Dreamland was a Coney Island-inspired funfair opened in the 1870s. Although it closed some years ago, the Grade II Listed wooden rollercoaster, built in 1912, still stands, albeit damaged by a recent fire. This is an image from the 1980s, taken from the big wheel.
The site is now subject to a CPO (legality of which is being tested in court currently I think) by Thanet Council, and the plan is to restore the rollercoaster and add new rides for a grand reopening. This site, with lots more details about the project, also has fabulous details on the old rides, including the Haunted Swing, which even I don’t think sounds very scary.
Anyway, I’m so pleased that it seems the ‘new Dreamland’ scheme may finally get off the ground. It’s great that Wayne’s involved, and the local response to his down-to-earth presentation seemed, so the Thanet Gazette said, very positive. It can be very hard to get local support for development projects in any town, especially one with the economic problems of Margate, so the idea that the town is behind this scheme is exciting.
Not for the first time I find myself keeping my fingers crossed for Margate, that the town is able to make the most of a golden opportunity. I look forward to having my own photo taken on a stuffed tiger there soon.
Beat up Creations
It came to light pretty early on in Ros and I’s friendship that she is a fancy dress enthusiast. When we met, I was the sort of person to groan about costume parties. So, when my new boyfriend (now husband) invited me to one with the theme ‘Hollywood’ I knew who to turn to for help. To cut a long story short, at different times both Ros and I have dressed up as Mr T using her awesome home made costume. And now I have to share this…
LA artist Angela Rossi of Beat Up Creations, works with recycled and broken items to create her reworked antique plates collection. If Mr T is not meaningful to you, there might be something else that is.
For example, I know someone who will be stirred by this one…
Barbara Hepworth and John Lewis
Barbara Hepworth’s Winged Figure sculpture is 50 years old this week. It’s the sculpture that graces the side of the John Lewis store in Oxford Street.
I love this sculpture. It’s always been a reminder of home to me in the Big Smoke. In May 1961 Barbara was invited by the John Lewis Partnership to design a sculpture for their headquarters. They asked her that the work ‘have some content that expresses the idea of common ownership and common interests in a partnership of thousand of workers’. What a sentiment. How can you argue with that?
The sculpture was built in her workshop in St Ives, then hauled through the narrow streets to be transported to London.
I know this street in St Ives so well. You can barely fit a car down it, so this photo fascinates me on a logistical level. I think of it every time I pass John Lewis on the bus.
And I just love that this 19 foot tall aluminium figure, sitting above the fumes of Oxford Street, made it all the way from a granite studio at the far end of Cornwall. Hepworth said, of the ‘stringed’ sculptures she was making at this time, “‘the strings were the tension I feel between myself and the sea, the wind and the hills.” If you’ve ever visited West Cornwall you’ll know what she’s talking about. And by taking a trip to John Lewis, you can access that feeling here in the city too.
Chocolate pop-up: Cocoa Hernando
I wouldn’t deny that I like a bit of chocolate – for reasons I won’t go into I’m currently living like a king on an seemingly endless supply of Kinder Eggs that are in the fridge. But what I like even more than chocolate is nice packaging. Combine the two and you’ve got my attention.
This gorgeous specimen is from chocolate brand Cocoa Hernando, who for this week only have a pop-up shop on Monmouth Street.
Open until April 27th, more details of times, here.
NEWS JUST IN…. Jill has been busy setting up our first Facebook page. We’ll be updating it regularly with extra stories, shopping and trend news, plus our own photos that were just too bad to post on the blog. Please, please, if you have a moment, go on over to Facebook and ‘like us’.
Ros
Scandi recipe book for health nuts
Is it an age thing? I used to only care about being thin, now I want to be fit and strong. I used to think a meal was only a meal if it had fish or meat in it, last night I made quinoa for dinner. I also bought this vegetarian cook book last week. Really, it’s a present for a quinoa-loving family member, but I don’t think she’ll mind me showing it here first.
It’s by Scandinavian power-food-loving couple David Frenkiel – a magazine art director by day – and Luise Vindahl – who’s studying to become a nutritional therapist. Don’t you feel good just looking at the front cover? Am I basically Goop’s target reader now?
In the intro to the book, the Stockholm couple explain that when they met, David was an unhealthy vegetarian living on pizza and pasta and Luise (who is Danish) was a health-conscious meat eater. They realised that to live together they’d both need to compromise, and that resulted in them finding a shared love of wholegrains and lentils. Some of us can only dream of being that mature about compromise, but end result is good – a blog and lovely looking cook book.
I’ve already eaten that salad and it was good. Raw broccoli folks, raw.
Side note: I bought my (signed) copy in Heal’s last week and discovered at the till that I’d missed a live book signing and cooking demo with the authors by a few nights. Are you aware that Heal’s has been running some pretty amazing evening and weekend events at its TCR shop, including a live upholstery demo with SCP and life drawing classes run in conjunction with the London Drawing? Check here for details of upcoming classes.
Jill
