Finally Artisan, Five Guys and three others..

I have frequently decried the number of coffee shops in my locality (and I know the rise of them is a widespread phenomena) but that does not stop me trying and enjoying many of them.

Artisan - More of a designer outlet.

This week we finally paid a visit to Artisan just by Ealing Town Hall - on entering I was immediately reminded of what one of the people I'd met at recent photography class had told me her child had said -words to the effect 'Why isn't it finished'.

The child had been fairly perceptive a la 'The Kings'new clothes - the style is distressed/un-finished but it does have charm and attracts a clientèle that relishes a little edge.

Coffee good and appeared that plenty of people use it as a business meeting place.

I enjoyed the place but might not make it my regular it does have a one-off style but worth noting like so many others it is part of a chain - no loyalty cards and the regular is quite a small cup.

And Five Guys

Friday night and we fancied a burger and I wanted to try the recently opened place by Ealing Broadway station.

It's open now

The feedback is that I'm Not totally convinced by the 'Five Guys' place it has something of a feeling/vibe  of A New York Burger joint but menu is very limited (perhaps a strength) and while admitting I'm probably some-way from their target demographic it did feel a little too noisy and fluorescent.
Quality of ingredient  is undeniable but not the place to have a romantic meal or a business lunch and on the 'high-side price-wise' for this (to me) edgy experience.    

And Three Guys (perhaps more women next time?)

Well election post mortems very much the order of the day and days.
Personally while not welcoming the result I recognise that it is haw the country voted - one (of a few) good news points is the rejection of George Galloway (he'll be back though).

All the parties need to reflect on how the UK has changed and meet aspirations of the electorate - Scotland looks like an emergent one party state and this will probably evolve.

Well done to Ed, Nigel and Nick for they way they handled the result

The Subject of Style at The Design Museum and bye bye to Simon Hughes

The tension was palpable 

Yesterday evening I went to hear a conversation around an architectural  book on the Function of style by Farshid Moussavi the speaker was introduced  by  the Design Museum's Deyan Sudjic and a rebuttal was made by the American architectural historian Charles Jencks.

To kick the evening off Deyan reminded us to vote - little did I know that the MP for the area (Simon Hughes) who had been the MP there for the last 32 years was to be unseated.

Bye-bye Simon

Anyway back to the talk - Farshid spoke well about the end (perhaps) of the various '-isms' my interpretation of the  idea of her book was was that the Architect as an author was history and they are now more like a ring leader and the 'Starchitect'  figure is dead, we've moved from solo to group practice.

Farshid  believes that technology has made a fundamental change to the way architects work both as a  result of using computers and also by the sharing that takes place over the internet.

There's also an idea that globalisation has changed the way nationhood applies, an example was made of the way that the bicycle does not seem to belong to one country and continues to evolve.

Farshid spoke about projects she'd been involved with including Libraries, Schools, Offices and particularly the Cleveland  Museum of Contemporary Art.

There was also talk about how buildings signify and can be subverted and the feeling of 'people' that all airports (for example) look and feel the same

What made the evening slightly tense was a rebuttal of much of what Farshiod had proposed by Historian of Architecture  Charles Jencks -there seemed to  a real tension between their two conceptions of Style and when Jencks chose to describe Iranian born Moussavi as an Iranian Architect, she felt that she had to reject this label and a concept of nationality that presented her in this way

Perhaps surpringly for someone who is not knowledgeable about the particulars of the debate  I did feel involved and   I was very pleased to hear E H Gombrich  being referenced.

Kensington Gardens and Election 2015

You can be alone...

Walking through Kensington Gardens is in my experience pretty much always a pleasure a massive Green space, dog walkers, tourists and wildlife abounds - this week I was struck by the near intimidatory manner of squirrels - tame doesn't really describe, they seem to have gone beyond that.

Have picked some snaps from the walk here.

in a crowd

Or walking with  friends

There's more from Henry

The Arch by Henry Moore

An overly friendly squirrel 

And Edward Jenner the Doctor behind Smallpox Vaccine is rightly remembered

A worthy person is recalled

Vote 2015

UK electorate -Don't forget to vote if you can.

Serpentine visit - A game of two halves, Pascale Marthine Tayou

The arrival of the Sackler Gallery (Opened in 2013) to the Serpentine's armoury  has been a really positive addition to its capabilities - giving an unusual 'space' a great purpose and enabling artists to create an experience that can delight and stimulate  visitors there.


My last trip to the Gallery in January had been fun and yesterday after the Golub visit I took a stroll to see what the artist Pascale Marthine Tayou had to show.

The good news is that the exhibition is varied and intriguing, Pascale is Cameroon-ian by birth and his work, it seems to me is  chiefly involved with Colonialism, Globalization and African/developing world life -but the issues not confronted are not attacked in a po-faced way and there's a joy and intelligent humour much on display in what are mainly three dimensional works.


I liked the Neon works and also the atmosphere generated by the constructions and large photo of market that made you feel you were there,

But not all was 'light' there were difficult images too, of men and the impact of bullets

A comment on the troubled legacy of oil?

A neon work -David Crossing the Moon

you can almost walk into these evocations of markets