43 O-pinion

Culture that’s worthy of your time

A new hotel pays tribute to London’s most musical thoroughfare

around the clock

London has plenty of famous roads. But few are more iconic than Denmark Street.

Leading from the perennially-dodgy neighbourhood of St Giles to Charing Cross Rd – Soho’s eastern border – it’s been the home of the UK’s music industry since the early 20th century when music publisher Lawrence Wright relocated his business here in 1911. It was here Bowie hung out with Lou Reed, Hipgnosis designed the covers of rock’s most iconic albums, and artists such as The Kinks, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley all recorded in its numerous studios.

And now it’s home to a Chateau Denmark, a hotel that’s not only an incredible place to stay (and play) but which pays tribute to a road that’s still crammed with musical instrument shops, bars, clubs, studios and management companies.

Though to call it a hotel doesn’t really do it justice. The property comprises 16 buildings – which go from previously hidden Georgian mews houses to grand Victorian arcades – with 55 ‘Session Rooms’ and ‘Apartments’ for guests.

And while this is a luxury hotel in the most contemporary sense of the world, it’s one rooted in the history of Denmark Street – something you can see in the decoration and fittings. One mews house is now called ‘I Am Anarchy’ which pays tribute to its former residents, the Sex Pistols (witness the tartan decoration and graffitied chairs), while the Flitcroft Apartments are a goth’s dream with a hand-carved, four-poster bed and stand-alone bath tub.

As befitting an area that also played hosts to numerous live venues, including musicians’ hangout the Gioconda Cafe, Chateau Denmark has its own performance building, Outernet – which boasts a 2,000-capacity underground venue called Now Trending.

All these features add up to a property that’s a must-visit for locals and tourists alike. You might even bump into a Sex Pistol or two while you’re there.

chateaudenmark.com

The Edge: it’s all in the mind

The docmentary

The Edge

Cricket might be the ultimate slow

sport, but – like its American cousin, baseball – it’s always inspired excellent writing: from CLR James’s Beyond The Boundary to Mike Brearley’s The Art Of Captaincy.

You’ll find great writing (and more) in The Edge, a documentary about the rise and fall of the England team between 2009 and 2013: the only England side to reach the number-one spot in the ICC rankings.

The Edge isn’t just a film about cricketing success: it’s a deep dive into the efforts players and coaches go to to be the best – and the toll this has on their mental health.

Featuring contributions from the likes of captain Andrew Strauss, players Kevin Pietersen and Sir Alastair Cook, plus coach Andy Flower, the film mixes behind-thescenes footage with candid one-on-one interviews.

Like golf or tennis, the difference between success can be a matter of millimetres – add in the relentless tension of a five-day test and the heat of the sun – and it’s little wonder that so many players eventually run out of steam: mentally and physically.

The Edge is available on all streaming channels

The exhibition

Cézanne, Tate Modern

It’s difficult to imagine, but there was a time when impressionism was the world’s most revolutionary art form: as Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Degas and Renoir dragged painting kicking and screaming toward the 20th century – and placed light and colour at the centre of every work.

While you can find paintings by the acknowledged masters on the print/coaster/tea cosy of your choice, one of their number is usually left out: Paul Cézanne: a painter who Claude Monet described as “the greatest of us all”. Now you can see his finest paintings, watercolours and drawings at a once-in-a-generation exhibition this autumn at Tate Modern, London.

Using blocks of colour to denote depth and using multiple perspectives in one work, Cézanne (1839-1906) bridged the gap between impressionism and experimentation that would follow with Picasso, Matisse and Braque.

Works like The Basket of Apples, The Card Players and Mont Sainte Victoire bring to life the south of France in a way that had never been done before – with realism and abstraction in tandem. This has sealed his reputation as one of the most influential painters of the modern era, and why this exhibition is the must-see art event of the autumn.

Core appeal: Still Life With Fruit Dish

Paul Cezanne runs from October 5th, 2022 – March 23rd 2023, Tate Modern, London

The day out

Lockdown Zoo

Longleat has long been known for its safari park – the first to open outside Africa in 1966.

But now a new selection of ‘animals’ is drawing visitors to the venue in WIltshire.

The ‘Lockdown Zoo’ is a collection of creatures made from beads and buttons by graphic designer Julie Thomas from Malvern in Worcestershire.

“Before lockdown they were just a collection of buttons and beads,” she says. “I had experimented with making things like charms to hang on trees, but I had never attempted to make an animal before.”

The ‘zoo’ began life on the first day of the Covid lockdown in March 2020 when her grandsons, five-year-old Ralph and seven-year-old Seb, asked if she could make a giraffe for them.

Julie continued to make more

animals – taking in everything from donkeys to sloths, and racoons to hedgehogs (a hedgehog called ‘Norman’ to be exact).

After putting them online, Julie got in touch with Longleat who agreed to put it in a more fitting setting. The result is a menagerie of animals that delights adults and children alike.

For Julie, the collection also shows what can be done with items which we’d normally throw away.

“The buttons and beads would otherwise have been destined for landfill,” says Julie. “And that as time went on, local charity shops saved broken and tangled jewellery for me, which, again, would have gone to landfill.”

Animal magic: Lockdown Zoo

‘Spelunker’: try saying that a mile underground

Let’s hear it for the ‘spelunkers’ – the heroic subterranean explorers of the 1970s. And the inspiration behind ‘GMT-explorer’ watches, which provided 24-hour timekeeping for light-starved cavers. Now we’ve resurrected the genre with the C63 Sealander GMT. Not only does it boast a twin timezone movement, a hi-vis 24-hour hand and a dial that’s as legible as it is beautiful, but you don’t have to be a spelunker to wear one. Want to know more? Do your research.

christopherward.com