Saturday seemed to have snuck up on us on Blogtour. How did the time pass so fast? With the morning free to do as we pleased, Corey Klassen and I hopped on the Tube and headed to Westminster Abbey. After waiting in the que for a while we had jus enough time to make a quick run through before we needed to meet up with the group. Too bad photos aren’t allowed to be taken inside.
Westminster Abbey is a treasure house of paintings, stained glass, pavements, textiles and other artifacts, Westminster Abbey is also the place where some of the most significant people in the nation’s history are buried or commemorated.
We made our way to the Old Truman Brewery at 91 Brick Lane, Spitafields, where we were confidant we would be able to find good food for lunch. I selected Pad Thai and it was just what I needed after my breakfast on the go. Along the way we collected some photos of great graffiti work.
The Old Truman Brewery houses more than 200 small, creative businesses and a bar. It encompasses 19 buildings, linked by a series of alleyways and courtyards, but the main area – the Boiler House – is easily identified by its 160 foot chimney with ‘Truman’ written up the side.
We met our BlogTour group at Tent London and sister show Super Brands, part of the London Design Festival, in its seventh year at the Old Truman Brewery.
Tent London and Super Brands are often described as one of the most creative parts of the London Design Festival. It’s a place where you can see smaller one-off designers who are creators showing their best in contemporary design next to temporary showrooms for big names like Jacuzzi and Ligne Roset.
Tent London also contained smaller shows within the show itself such as 100% Norway, Super Design Gallery, Brink, Vernacular by The Crafts Council of Ireland and The Craft Market.
This is another show where I gravitated toward lighting – especially the hand-made fixtures. A few show stand-outs included Welsh weave designer Louise Tucker‘s hand-woven lighting collection from sustainable veneer, Eco artist Sarah Turner who makes incredible lighting from recycled plastic bottles and Glass artist Péter Borkovics.
Our design filled day was capped off with a quick walk to a Electra House, famed designer Lee Broom‘s first dedicated retail space. We were graciously welcomed to the showroom by Broom who shared his adjacent design studio with us. The design boards were incredible – especially the one for Christian Louboutin’s posh new boutique at Harrods.
During last year’s London Design Festival Lee Broom launched his Crystal Bulb Shop – a general store complete with a sawdust floor. This year the Crystal Bulb Collection includes a frosted version, a table lamp, and a cluster chandelier that features varying bulbs suspended at different heights. A new wooden pendant and table lamp are slated to launch soon.
“The shop is actually in my own studio and it’s become a tradition now to totally transform the space each year. The building’s called Electra House and it used to be an electro-plating factory where they used to do a lot of the Corbusier pieces.”
