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Winter 2011 Issue 14 of your FREE guide to everything that is anything in Covent Garden cgjournal.co.uk

FREE

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COVENT GARDEN Journal

RUNNING HEAD

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For more information, please contact our Food & Beverage department: t: 020 7497 4158 | e: restaurants@strandpalacehotel.co.uk Strand Palace Hotel 372 Strand, London WC2R 0JJ 02 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Winter 2011 Issue 14 of your FREE guide to everything that is anything in Covent Garden cgjournal.co.uk

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02 64 04 08 38 50 60 EDITOR’S LETTER

DIRECTORY

PLACE

LIFE

TASTE

ARTS

PAST

04—Winter garden The CGJ guide to the best of Covent Garden’s Christmas celebrations.

08—Try on Eileen Eileen Fisher, the New York based designer whose elegant aesthetic proves the antithesis of throw away fashion.

38—Canteen culture Canteen co-founder Dominic Lake on pop ups, pies and pleasure.

50—Cast against type How did a man who doesn’t like musicals come to write the biggest West End show of the year?

Mark Riddaway meets playwrite Dennis Kelly.

60—A plague on all your houses How the winter of 1664 brought a horrible visitation to Covent Garden.

12—Gift guide All present and correct.

42—High notes Notes Music & Coffee —the Opera Quarter’s calmest retreat.

16—Courtyard theatre Glamour and glitz at St Martin’s Courtyard.

44—Playing the tuber How Spud is improving the humble potato.

20—Heightened awareness A Patagonia mountaineer.

46—Crumbs of comfort Cinnamon Tree Bakery.

57—George’s marvellous medicine A touch of Gershwin.

48—Skinny Thai A recipe from Suda.

58—Exhibit Forthcoming exhibitions.

24—Skullduggery The amazing story of Armand Serra.

28—My fashion life Seamus McClintock, owner of McClintock Eyewear.

30—Ripping yarns Introducing Brora.

34—shoe in The beautiful shoes of Oliver Sweeney.

36—Raising the bar Drew Gladwell of Hawksmoor Seven Dials.

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49—5 of the best Christmas menus.

56—Reigning men Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse.

Useful websites coventgardenlondonuk.com operaquarter.co.uk sevendials.co.uk stmartinscourtyard.com

EDITOR’S LETTER /Mark Riddaway

One of the key cornerstones of my personal philosophy is that all musicals are inherently awful.

I would rather watch a bear being savagely baited than see some tired former boyband member wrinkling his brow for the big, warbled emotional number, or hollering out the big, shiny, happy love song through a rictus grin. And I really like bears.

So meeting the writer of Matilda: The Musical for this issue caused me some philosophical problems after I left our extremely enjoyable interview desperate to see a musical (what’s more, a musical with kids in it, and I usually rate performing children somewhere below Serbian warlords on my list of must-sees).

Then there’s the cocktail thing. I always thought that these were just sweet drinks for ladies who don’t drink wine, or for men who drive convertibles.

I tried a few when I happened to live opposite some god-awful sub-TGI chain bar which had a very reasonable happy hour, and only then because it was cheaper than buying supermarket sherry.

So Hawksmoor’s bar manager, with his beautifully balanced, witty, highly researched repertoire has caused me to have another major re-think.

Even laying out our gift guide gave me problems.

I started actually looking forward to Christmas shopping—a response that borders on the perverse.

I’m now expecting future issues to force me to question all of my established bugbears one by one —homeopathy, SUV drivers, barbecue sauce, Boris Johnson. I can sense a personal crisis brewing.

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Editor Mark Riddaway 020 7401 7297 mark@lscpublishing.com Deputy editor Viel Richardson 020 7401 7297 viel@lscpublishing.com Assistant editor Clare Finney 020 7401 7297 clare@lscpublishing.com Advertising sales Donna Earrey 020 7401 2772 donna@lscpublishing.com Publisher LSC Publishing Unit 11 La Gare 51 Surrey Row London SE1 0BZ lscpublishing.com Contributers Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu Shannon Denny Joseph Fox Angela Holder Stevie Martin Jackie Modlinger Caroline Roddis Design and art direction Em-Project Limited 01892 614 346 mike@em-project.com Distribution Letterbox Printing Cambrian NEXT ISSUE: February 2012

Designer of the Year, Winner Editor of the Year, Shortlisted

KAREL KUMAR LOCATION NOTTINGHAM COURT WHY ARE YOU HERE? SHOPPING WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COVENT GARDEN SHOP? POP BOUTIQUE

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PLACE

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PLACE

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PLACE

WINTER GARDEN

A Very Covent Garden Christmas coventgardenlondonuk.com Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard Christmas Shopping Event sevendials.co.uk/standard

open from 10:30am to 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays and from 10:30am to 6pm on Saturdays, providing the perfect setting for buying fine ingredients for the annual Christmas food binge, or just enjoying a mince pie and a cup of hot, spicy cider.

Seven Dials

The Nativity

A Very Covent Garden Christmas While Christmas in most of the country rapidly goes to hell in a tacky, corporatesponsored, neon-logoed handcart, Covent Garden remains one of the last great bastions of tasteful traditional celebrations, with not a single X Factor runner up or Transformers movie tie-in anywhere in sight. Over in the Piazza area, the festive proceedings have been given the name A Very Covent Garden Christmas, and the emphasis is on good old fashioned winter fun, but with a pleasingly surreal edge.

A hand-picked, British grown Christmas tree lights up the West Piazza, while a 15 foot topiary reindeer (that’s a reindeer shaped from a hedge for those of you unversed in the more niche of traditional British crafts) once again provides a centrepiece for the East Piazza. Giant red baubles and mirror balls fill the halls of the Market Building, the historic arches of which are festooned with lights. Every Saturday in the run up to Christmas the Piazza will echo to the sounds of festive music as some of London’s best loved choirs sing traditional carols. It will also echo to the sounds of children being by turns exhilarated and terrified by the real live reindeers (smaller than 15 foot) in the reindeer petting area. Proceeds raised from A Very Covent Garden Christmas will go 06 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

towards Teenage Cancer Trust—a charity whose laudable aim is to build enough specialist units to treat every teenage cancer patient in Britain in an environment designed to meet their very particular needs.

The Nativity At the other end of the technological scale to a reindeer made from a hedge is The Nativity—an extraordinary piece of animated art created by SLOimage, helmed by acclaimed British film director and artist Martha Fiennes. Created in partnership with leading international post-production company MPC and utilising some radical new technology, The Nativity is a mesmerising moving image which changes and evolves at a glacial pace in a completely self-generated way. It will be screened in the Piazza throughout November and December. It is worth checking in regularly to see what unfolds.

Covent Garden Christmas Food Market From 27th November all the way through to the evening of Christmas Eve, the much loved Covent Garden Real Food Market will be out on the Piazza for three days a week, selling its usual blend of high quality food and drink. Decorated to exude the very essence of Chritmassiness, the market is

Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard Christmas Shopping Event From 5pm until 9pm on Thursday 1st December, over 120 stores and venues in Seven Dials and St Martin’s Courtyard will be offering a special 20 per cent discount to anyone in possession of a special voucher. There’s a huge range of shops involved, so the potential exists for anyone with a bit of foresight, a turn of pace and a sharp pair of elbows to get all of their Christmas shopping completed with time still remaining on the clock for a celebratory drink. Seven Dials boasts seven streets of independent boutiques, heritage brands, vintage stores and beauty salons, while St Martin’s Courtyard is a beautiful open air shopping destination with a unique mix of stylish fashion, beauty and lifestyle retailers. Cafés, restaurants and bars from both areas are also involved, so the cunning among you might even be able to put your feet up while your partner does the shopping. A pop up bar will be serving complimentary drinks in St Martin’s Courtyard to those bearing the special voucher, while a free, luxury gift wrap service will be available for the first 100 customers to bring an item purchased at the shopping evening to 36-38 Earlham Street.

One hundred shoppers will also be randomly presented with a golden ticket entitling them to a prize from a special lucky dip.

The first 25 people to arrive with a voucher at Mexican restaurant Cantina Laredo from 6pm will be able to enjoy a free meal worth £25. To qualify for all this, shoppers need a Shopping Voucher, which they can download free at sevendials.co.uk/standard along with a list of participating stores and venues.

Seven Dials lights Seven Dials, with its historic streets and unusual layout, always looks amazing when it is lit up, and this year’s Christmas illuminations are no exception. The streets are decorated with over 20 twinkling light curtains, complete with vibrant pink and purple light sticks as well as pretty holographic snowflake motifs, suspended high above the shops, bars, cafes and restaurants. The permanent chandelier housed within the Thomas Neal Centre has also been transformed to complement this twinkling light scheme with the addition of brightly coloured light sticks and snowflakes.

30%off

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*Offer available in store only until 29th February 2012. Discount applies to first purchase of full price Kathmandu products. Offer conditional to joining Summit Club which offers 20% off full price Kathmandu products – free to join. Not available in conjunction with any other offer

LIFE

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It’s a scenario with which many modern woman are all too painfully familiar: in need of a new outfit and with a tight hour between meetings and the school run, you dash into your nearest store and scour the rails for that perfect combo—only to conclude (two hours and 28 panicked phone calls from estranged offspring later) that “nothing works! Nothing!”

For most of us the only realistic next step is to go home, don track suit bottoms and feast on ice cream. Young Eileen Fisher, however, had a rather more constructive response. Armed with her sewing kit and a basic grounding in Home Economics, she set out for the fabric shops of her hometown of Des Plaines, Illinois, secure in the belief that “it was easier to design clothes myself than figure out what I wanted”.

The result—40 odd years later—is Eileen Fisher Inc, a brand whose trademark mixture of simplicity and elegance has seduced hundreds of thousands of women 08 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

whose idea of a good outfit is one they can put on at half past five while simultaneously juggling babies and Blackberries.

Her mission is simple: to put design ahead of fashion, and her legacy thus far has been a collection renowned for its versatile lines, quality fabrics and its valuing of colour and texture over pattern.

Of course, it hasn’t all been plain sewing.

She might be the queen of classy minimalism now, but when she first started making her own clothes Eileen wasn’t always so averse to loud patterns. “I remember going to my prom in—I don’t know what it was,” she laughs. “I liked flowers, I cut out pink fabric and added flowers. Hysterical.” Yet while shuddering now at the thought of herself in a flowery fuchsia dress, she admits it was valuable in forming her aesthetic.

“I’m sure it helped me think about simplicity and how it worked—because when it is patterned, the pattern becomes the thing,” she explains. Instead of the polka

dots and leopard prints used by certain shops to disguise the poor quality of their clothes, Eileen’s ‘thing’ is fabric: organically grown and ethically sourced. “When you feel it, you feel quality, not 99 per cent polyester—and when you wear it, you know it will stand the vagaries of fashion for many seasons to come.”

For Eileen this sense of timelessness is the acid test for any piece of clothing, be it jumper or evening belt—“I don’t like waste, I like my good things and I want to have them all the time”—and to explain, she cites the school uniform she wore for years.

“It made life easy knowing what you’re going to put on every morning,” she remembers. “It made life about life not just about clothes.” That she didn’t like the uniform proved irrelevant: it was the ease of it that stuck, and when she travelled to Japan later in pursuit of a career in graphics and interior design, the seed for fashioning simple clothing began to grow.

LIFE

TRY ON EILEEN Clare Finney talks to Eileen Fisher, the New York-based designer whose simple, elegant, ethically sourced aesthetic is the antithesis of throw-away fashion

tbc

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LIFE

TRY ON EILEEN

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LIFE Eileen Fischer 4 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard London WC2E 9AB 020 7395 0550 eileenfisher.co.uk

“I was so influenced by the way of life there, and by the naturalness and organic simplicity,” she explains. “Everything was about fabrics—both the type, and the way it was made”. Studying the world of ancient Japan she became fascinated by the history of the kimono—a long, sash-tied robe that has been worn there for centuries—and by the way it still influences fashion today.

“1,100 years, and that was the only shape they used,” she says, her admiration audible over 3471 miles of phone line from New York. “I knew I wanted something of fashion in my clothes, but I also wanted to use some of the principles that made Japan timeless.”

Sure enough, the kimono became a formative influence on Eileen’s aesthetic, adding lines, loose shapes and even sash belts to the catwalks of her new collections.

The secret to avoiding repetition, she says, is balance and understanding what makes simple things work: “It must be something you want to wear every day, and there must be a number of ways to wear it.” Yet as right and honorable as this sounds, it sits strangely with her working in an industry that depends on people buying new clothes.

How does she square the circle?

Intriguingly, part of the answer lies here in London—the first European city to be blessed with new stores. “When I went to London when I was younger I noticed that people would talk about only having a small wardrobe of a few nice pieces, and feeling comfortable to wear the same pieces several times in a week,” she recalls.

“They wore them in different ways, but in ways that was their style.” In America the opposite was true—“we tend to take a ‘I wore that last Monday so I can’t wear that again’ kind of approach”—and she realised there was money to be made from encouraging her countrywomen to “have a few things and look good in them too.”

First, of course, there are the fabrics, and the reassuring way they appear year after year: first as a cardigan, then perhaps a year later as a snood. “Customers come to recognize the fabrics. They say ‘Oh that’s the same yarn of the sweater I wore every day last year and I loved, and now you’ve made me a new big sweater in it—great!”—and with this in mind, Eileen imbues each range with a sense of familiar continuity.

She understands the woman that says 11 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

“I got a great pair of pants there, just give me another like them in the same fabric and I’m happy” because she is one, having juggled two children and a demanding job for years.

The reuse of fabrics ticks the sustainable box, because there’s less waste—“you just change the proportion and make it skinnier, shorter or longer”—but it serves another, equally important purpose too: the customer. “Women are busy today and we want to serve them,” Eileen says simply, “and if we can make shopping simpler while making them feel good in clothes they love by having that kind of continuity then we will.” As frustration at finding garments she liked led Eileen to change careers from interior design to fashion design, so latter day accessories rage made her develop that side of her brand too, adding scarves, jewellery and even shoes to her range.

“Next to come is underwear,” she laughs, “that’s the only thing left that drives me crazy!” Joking aside however there is far more to this range than Eileen’s hang-ups.

EIleen Fisher is probably not the only clothing label to spurn patterns—but it is certainly the only one I have heard of to count a human rights leader, a director of sustainability and even a director of social accountability among its employees.

That they and their departments constitute such a large part of the company shows how dedicated Eileen is to working in an ethically and environmentally sound way: “It’s in the very fabric of our company,” she explains, no pun intended. “The supply chain, the people we hire and their passion about using the company to do great things for our customers and our suppliers.”

To prove it, she cites a Chinese dye house which under their influence cut in half its use of water and energy, then dramatically reduced the toxicity of its waste. It is just one of numerous examples of good deeds.

Now, though, her sights are set on becoming a “global community” for women—and that means making the new St Martin’s Courtyard store, and its sister store in Marylebone, a success.

“Have you been in the store yourself?” she asks, with real curiosity. “Do you like it? What do you think?” Having never before been asked for my opinion by a fashion designer, I hesitate for a moment—but Eileen assures me she’s sincere.

“I’m always interested in how people from others countries and cultures see our clothing. I can’t stand that I’m over here and can’t see people respond.” Charmed, I assure her (truthfully) of her likely success.

It will be an easy win in genteel Marylebone, I explain, but Covent Garden’s harder to call because it’s slightly edgier and younger.

Immediately the phone line floods with her relieved understanding. “Ahh, so Marylebone’s like Madison Avenue and Covent Garden’s New York’s SoHo? You know, we’re in both those places in NYC and both do well.” While the Madison Avenue branch took off immediately, Eileen remembers the younger shoppers of SoHo were slower to cotton on—yet when they did, they loved what Eileen was about.

“My daughter’s 18, I’m 61 and she’ll still take things from my closet,” the designer tells me, “but when she wears them it’s completely different to how I would.

The tops are hanging off the shoulder, or they’re belted and with shorts. Each person wears my clothes in different ways.” Inspired as she was by uniform and a shape that hasn’t changed for centuries, nevertheless Eileen Fisher’s sense of self remains unchanged: “All of us are individual.

Our clothes should compliment that, and make us shine, not take over our lives.”

LIFE

GIFT GUIDE 1—Silver Hairclip, Banana Republic, £25 2—Outer Space Kids School Satchel, Cath Kidston, £30 3—LIVE 2 Bike, Specialized, £599 4—Chester Shoulder Bag, Desa, £275 5—Microphone T-shirt, Kid Robot, £22.40 6—LED Light Stick, Kathmandu, £9.99

7—Breakfast Express, Magma, £20 per carriage 8—Réglette Macarons, Laduree, £11.60 9—Multistripe Cricket Ball, Paul Smith, £105 10—Emma Red Patent Shoes, Pretty Ballerinas, £109

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1—Deer Intarsia Flap Hat, Rugby Ralph Lauren, £69 2—Crystal Click Bangle, Jaeger London, £90 3—Anorak Kissing Stags Flask, Urban Outfitters, £18 4—Salt & Pepper Shakers, London Transport Museum, £15 5—iPad2 16GB, Apple, £399

6—Sugar Mice, Hope and Greenwood, £3.50 per box 7—Christmas Swimming Trunks Age 8-12, Villebrequin, £110 8—Red Bicycle Seat, Paul Smith for Kashimax, £160 9—Jeff Koons Limited Edition Balloon Flower Creme de Corps, Khiels, £27 10—Ivy Leaves Earrings, Tatty Devine, £27 11—Aftershave Balm 100ml, Murdock, £36

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COURTYARD THEATRE /As this sumptuous, sophisticated photoshoot plainly illustrates, St Martin’s Courtyard has provided a fantastic addition to Covent Garden’s retail landscape this year. Everything shown here is available to buy from a collection of stylish boutiques, all in one beautifully presented space. Except for the horse.

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LIFE

—Pink Dress with gold embellishment, Hoss Intropia, £232.50 —Gold bow ballet pumps, Pretty Ballerinas, £130 Location: Pretty Ballerinas

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COURTYARD THEATRE

—Brown printed dress, Twenty8twelve, £375 —Blue scarf blouse, Desa, £169 —Leather dress, Desa, £525 —Black wedge over the knee boots, Duo, £205 Location: Duo

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LIFE

Mount Hunter’s incredible north buttress. The audacious journey— The Cartwright Connection—took them across the steepest and coldest section of the buttress.

Even though I’m standing on solid ground, while Matt speaks I toy with the idea that I could at this very moment be developing vertigo; his line of work can’t actually be safe can it? “Ah we can make it quite safe, we can make it reasonably safe!” he laughs.

“We got quite committed at one point and the weather got really bad,” he admits, as though only now realising it wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. “We’d almost finished the climb and we had two days of really bad weather. There were lots of avalanches pouring over us and our little tent. It got to the point where we either go up or we don’t; and we went up, we did it. It was a massive 13-hour day to go all the way up, finish the climb and come back down. We were on the face there for six days bivouacking. It was quite exciting.” Clearly, what Matt lacks in fear he makes up for in understatement.

He does admit that Alpine mountaineering is “a total lifestyle” though.

“All I do is climb and ski, and if I didn’t have that in my life I don’t know what on earth I’d do. I left school at 16. I was hopeless at school—I never went. Basically, I’d leave home with my school uniform on.

My parents used to think I had all my books in my bag, but actually I just had my climbing shoes!”

In this way Matt’s story parallels the one belonging to Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, who set up the outdoor gear and apparel company in California in 1973.

As a child, Chouinard had moved with his father, a French Canadian blacksmith, to Southern California with only a tenuous hold on English and hardly any money. The language and cultural barriers made him a bit of a loner and he disliked school, so he was happiest escaping into the thenunspoilt surroundings of the Los Angeles River. Rock climbing was a fledgling pursuit in the US in the 1950s, and after Chouinard finished high school he would spend weekends and holidays

©posingproductions.com

The average elevation of London is just shy of 14 metres. From here, it’s about 800km to the Alps. And tonight in Covent Garden, it’s dry without a single snowflake in sight.

But right now I’m staring into a tiny mobile phone screen that depicts a massive white vertical plane of snow and rock. I pinch, I scroll, and I decide: it looks cold, it looks tall, and it looks very, very big.

The iPhone in question belongs to Matt Helliker, who is in town for the launch party for outdoor clothing brand Patagonia’s first London store in the listed building that once housed the Watney Combe & Reid brewery.

Along with his climbing partner Jon Bracey, Matt is a Patagonia ambassador. For much of their time the pair are based in Chamonix, where they work as mountain guides.

Five months of their year are spent on skis, and in between the guiding gigs they hurl themselves up and down mountainsides all around the world. Just months ago they completed their first ascent on the hallowed Moonflower Buttress on Mount Hunter in Alaska.

Apparently, this is the huge chunk of ice that I’m gazing upon. Their Alaskan adventure is the subject of a film sponsored

by Patagonia—titled Moonflower—and this project is the source of the iPhone image.

“A guy came to base camp with us with a very long lens,” Matt explains. “And me and Jon had cameras on the mountains. The cameraman, David Reeves, then got picked up in a glacier plane, and he’d do fly-bys and take these amazing shots.”

He points to the vast whiteness on the phone’s digital screen and I notice two figures trudging upwards across it.

“So that’s me and Jon; I’m in the orange one-piece and that’s Jon there. So our new route went up here and through this mountain here...”

Matt and Jon embarked on the climb as a way to honour their late friend Jules Cartwright by following his original vision of making a stunning, formidable new line on

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M tal ount an ks to aine d e S er nvi han an ron no d P me n D ata nta en gon l de ny a ia a clin bou mb e t a ass dve ad ntu or M re, at ava t H lan ellik ch er es

HE AW IGH AR TE EN NE ES D S

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HEIGHTENED AWARENESS

Patagonia 6A Langley Street 020 3137 6518 patagonia.com

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CHOUINARD LAUNCHED THE CLOTHING LINE PATAGONIA, AND PROTECTING NATURE HAS STAYED AT THE CENTRE OF THE AGENDA

scrambling through Yosemite, where only a few of the big walls had been climbed.

To facilitate his own mountaineering and to fund his growing habit for heights, Chouinard bought a forge and an anvil and started to make climbing hardware which he sold out of his car. He slept in an army surplus sleeping bag for 200 days out of the year and fed himself all of one summer in the Rockies on a couple of cases of dented cat food purchased from a damaged tin outlet in San Francisco. When he was called up for the draft and posted abroad, he put up first ascents all over the granite outcroppings north of Seoul. Upon returning Stateside, he made the first ascent of the North American Wall on El Capitan, which remains one of the brightest constellations in the climber’s universe.

By 1970, Chouinard Equipment had become the largest supplier of climbing hardware in the US, but things weren’t entirely rosy. As the popularity of climbing grew, so did the environmental impact of the pursuit. Climbers at the time used pitons, which they drove into the rock to act as temporary steppingstones, but these hard steel spikes were disfiguring the pristine natural environment.

Although pitons were the mainstay of Chouinard’s business, he opted to phase them out rather than contribute to the destruction of the mountains he loved.

Inspired by what he had seen in use among British climbers during a trip to Snowdonia in the late 1960s, he introduced aluminium chocks that could be wedged in by hand rather than hammered into cracks.

Within months, climbers had completely switched allegiance to the new equipment, which sold faster than it could be made.

Three years after shutting down the piton operation, Chouinard launched the clothing line Patagonia, and protecting nature has stayed at the centre of the agenda ever since. Since 1996, the company has used only organic cotton in its clothing, and a new initiative facilitates synthetic fibre-to-fibre recycling, forever capturing the petroleum used in making virgin fibre. The company dedicates one per cent of its sales to environmental protection, and an internship programme allows employees to work for two months for environmental groups and still collect their paycheques.

©posingproductions.com

Moonflower Produced by Alistair Lee, Moonflower is the film that follows top British alpinists Jon Bracey and Matt Helliker as they complete a new first ascent of Mount Hunter’s incredible north buttress.

Patagonia’s customers are climbers, skiers, snowboarders, surfers and fly fishermen, many of whom are as apt to align their outdoor activities with art or religion as they are to classify these pursuits as sports. According to Matt, it is their position on nature’s front line that makes them such advocates for environmental preservation.

“I think because you’re there all the time, you see the effects on the glaciers, the snowfields,” he explains. “This summer in the Alps it was incredibly dry. Through July and August it was a heatwave. The rockfall was horrendous. All the permafrost on the side of the mountains was melting, causing more glacial erosion.”

For those who live in the mountains, sometimes teetering there in a flimsy tent, global warming is no scientific abstraction; it’s a day-to-day reality. “It makes the mountains a lot more dangerous. Rocks are a lot looser, the approaches are a lot more dangerous, the crevasses are more open

because they haven’t had the snowfall to fill them in. You can actually see a raw, physical effect because we’re always there.”

But for the minute of course, we’re situated in cosy WC2 where the band is about to start downstairs and both the beer and canapés are flowing thick and fast. We’re surrounded on all sides by other people, and so here it could be easy to avoid thoughts of the perilous state of the planet—except that the photograph of Matt and Jon’s vertiginous feat sticks in my mind.

Their position on the side of a titanic hunk of icy earth puts into context the small size of the human body compared to the vastness of our host planet. It’s an image that might remind us to tread just that little bit more gently, wherever we may find ourselves upon it.

BEN COSTER

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Y R E G G U D L L U K S the , the s r a a e er h nd Serr gns g n i l i a s od e M y of Army Pig De i k c Ja g stor Craz ind zin ama an beh m

It was seeing a silver ring shaped as a wing and a heart that led me to beat a path to Crazy Pig Designs in Shorts Gardens. This little hole-in-a-wall of a shop with an amazing vintage cash register is a veritable treasure trove for statement jewellery pieces with a biker or rock ’n’ roll touch. Rings, bracelets and necklaces are embellished with skulls, stars, crucifixes, feathers, spiders’ webs, reptiles, horseshoes and playing cards.

Not surprisingly, the shop has an enviable following whose roster boasts the likes of Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Johnny Depp and Ozzy Osbourne. In short, the place rocks.

The Crazy Pig is the brainchild of one Armand Serra, whose life-story transpires to be a fascinating and somewhat eye-opening saga of re-invention and re-incarnation.

Serra, whose physique belies his 51 years, is sprightly and reed-slim with long, raven-black hair. A veteran guitarist, he was recording until 3am the day before we met.

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He is, too, a survivor.

Born in Toulouse, Armand was the only child of Catalan immigrants. His father, Joseph, was a classical painter and his mother, Antoinette, was a seamstress who made clothes for wealthy customers.

“I wasn’t interested in jewellery when living in France,” he says. “I found it boring and too traditional.” The only thing that did interest him as a child was the guitar.

What was it like growing up as an only child in France?

It was brilliant. I got my sex education really early on—we lived in a tiny flat full of nude paintings. My artist father, who worked in the style of Goya and Velasquez, painted mainly nude women, so from the age of 10, I’d often come across a naked woman lying on the table! The girl models became like my sisters and I had a really good time. My dad did portraits of Germaine Corblet Coty, the wife of Rene Coty, the French president, and

also the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, which I still have at home. He didn’t want me making any noise—he would listen to classical while I wanted to play Black Sabbath! He was very strict, old school, hated long hair and rock music. When I was 16, I found a guitar for £25, but my dad refused to buy it for me, so I worked in a pizzeria in the evenings for a few francs and a free pizza—I’d spend my time cleaning anchovies by hand. I saved up and bought my guitar.

How did you come to move to England?

I wanted to play an electric guitar, but my dad wanted me to work in a factory. When I finished school at 18, I was supposed to do National Service. I couldn’t face it. I went to the gates of the camp and just walked out, hitch-hiking all the way home, where I had a major argument with my parents and told them that I was leaving France for England. I was sentenced in absentia as a deserter.

LIFE

SKULLDUGGERY

Crazy Pig Designs 38 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 4305 crazypigdesigns.com

the day outside the squat and asked him to wait as I had a few things to collect. He took me to Streatham where I had rented a room in a house in a leafy street. I later became manager of the Grunts pizzeria on Maiden Lane, but I hadn’t come to London to work in a restaurant, so I quit. I was giving guitar lessons to students and going to three auditions a week—I auditioned for Ozzy Osbourne. I wanted to play heavy metal.

So how did you end up a jewellery designer?

I was walking around in search of a part time job, and I stumbled upon a small shop called the Great Frog on Carnaby Street. It was 1982. I know because I still have my diary I sold everything, raised £1,000 and left for from then, where I wrote: “It’s run by an old hippie and I am not going to stay very long.”

England. At the time, my parents were not They had a small workshop making married—the police actually turned up at turquoise jewellery, feather earrings, stuff their wedding to try and find me, but I was like that. One afternoon a guy came in and already in London! The whole saga took 10 asked, “Can you make me a little skull years, but eventually I received an amnesty ring?” I knew nothing about jewellery, so I and my prison sentence was cancelled. went downstairs to the workshop and said, “There is a guy in the shop who wants...”

How did you start life in London?

“Tell him to fuck off,” came the riposte, When I arrived, I had nowhere to live. I lived in so I returned to the shop and told the chap, a squat in Vauxhall. I had £1 a day—I would go to the fish and chip shop and get a portion “Yes, no problem,” wrote out an order and took his £50. After closing time, I asked of chips every night. Once a week I’d have a ‘grande bouffe’—egg, bacon, chips, beans the Kiwi in the workshop to show me all his tools, then every night after we’d shut I went and bread. Now I am vegetarian. down and worked on the skull ring, which I made out of a ball of silver on a shank. A How did you manage to survive? month later the guy called asking whether One day I went into the Job Centre and told his ring was ready and came to collect it. them I was up for anything. The following week I started a six night a week job, with a pizza meal thrown in, working for Bob Peyton And it grew from there?

A 3D wolf was then commissioned, so I at The Chicago Pie Factory. With my first bought a book on wolves, making the mould pay packet, I stopped a cab in the middle of 26 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

in wax. I’d brought in 100 quid on a skull and wolf, so the owner had to concede that we could sell my designs in the shop.

I was making all these rings and I was getting busier. I was there six days a week, making and selling the stuff. I got no holiday pay, I was cycling to Streatham and back every day, working 52 weeks of the year.

Then we struck a deal—£90 a week, plus the flat on top of the shop, rent-free, in return for my designs.

My wife Jeannette was working in the shop next door to the Great Frog.

We’d meet for coffee, then we got talking on a regular basis, then dating. I gave her a job downstairs, and we were living together upstairs. We have been together ever since and have been married 10 years.

How did you start the Crazy Pig? I went to the bank with Jeannette and my design portfolio and borrowed the money to open my business, Crazy Pig Designs.

Why Covent Garden?

When I was looking for a shop it was my first choice. Covent Garden was more than just a single street, but a whole community.

This was the best deal in the best location.

When we opened, there were a load of individual shops and we wanted to be part of that. All the other shopkeepers came by wanting to see what we were doing; one said he would give us six months! I have been here almost 19 years. We worked 10 times harder than before.

Where did the name come from?

I originally chose it for a rock band I put together, but the other guys didn’t like the name so we called it Panama instead.

I decided to use the name Crazy Pig for the business instead—not Armand Serra, designer, which I found too pompous.

Where do you get the inspiration for your designs?

Music, old movies. Clockwork Orange was my starting point. Sci-fi, comic books, whatever. I don’t like traditional jewellery— I couldn’t work with that.

Have you ever designed a pig?

Two pigs and a piglet. A big pig. Oh, and a pig’s head with a policeman’s helmet on it!

LIFE

McClintock 29 Floral Street 020 7240 5055 mcclintock-eyewear.co.uk

MY FASHION LIFE /Seamus McClintock, owner of McClintock

CGJ: Why glasses?

SM: It’s another accessory, like your bag or your shoes. Granted, this was never something I thought I’d go into, but I was always obsessed with them as a kid.

My mum used to take me for eye tests and I’d always come away disappointed that I didn’t need glasses. When I first started wearing them, they weren’t hugely necessary—I could definitely have done without. Even now, I wear glasses but could probably get by without. I can tell where a pair of glasses have been made, the type of plastic used, the quality of the frame, just by looking at them or feeling them. I just love glasses—is that weird?

McClintock is almost like a boutique for frames. What’s the concept behind it?

Everything here is handmade, exclusive and high quality. In England, glasses are based on the eye test and the frames come second—they’re quite functional.

In France and Italy, there’s a sense of frames completing an outfit, of being just as important as any other accessory. I went to Paris and it just completely vindicated my decision to open something similar here—people like the handmade thing.

It goes hand in hand with the boom in artisan food, fine wine and vintage clothing.

Why don’t you stock the big brand designer labels?

Why would people come to me when they could go to a hundred other places? I’ve even got rid of a few brands that have sold well just because they’ve got too big. Once they start being stocked in other stores, I’m not interested. Three years is about the longest time a brand stays in the shop —I’m always on the lookout for something new, and that’s what drives the market.

Championing small designers keeps the industry creative. In saying that, the Paul Smith store down the road doesn’t have room to stock their entire range, so I’ve 28 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

struck a deal with them and they direct their customers to me, which is great. But that’s my limit—one mainstream brand! No more than one!

How many pairs do you own?

Not a lot—I’ve got a really odd face. I can appreciate that they look good on other people, but I’m fussy about what I wear, so finding something that fits, and that I like, doesn’t happen that often. I’m a typical man, though. I like routine. My clothes don’t change hugely from day to day either—I don’t wear bright colours or crazy prints.

Someone I used to be in business with would go to trade shows and wear bright suits with matching glasses. That’s not very me.

The shop, though, is bright green...

Well, I bought this originally from a guy who sold a brand of eyewear but didn’t want financial responsibility anymore. It was bright orange. About a year and a half ago I took over, put my name on the door, and wanted to redecorate. Apparently green is the colour that most attracts people, because it reminds them of nature.

Since I’ve gone green the amount of customers I get went up a ridiculous amount. Orange is also a hideous colour.

You designed the shop—have you ever thought about designing frames?

At the moment I could definitely do that.

I’d love to have my own range. I go to trade shows three or four times a year to spot new talent for the shop, and so have built up quite a lot of contacts, I know the best manufacturers, and I’m aware of the trends.

In fact, I’ve been drawing some designs recently. There are a few other things I want to sort out before I take it seriously, though.

What needs to be sorted out?

Well, we’re getting eye testing equipment for the shop, so that we can offer customers the whole package. And then I want to

open a second shop somewhere, maybe Spitalfields. But then I’d definitely like to design. It’d be a muted, more Danish-like, range of muted tones—blacks, greys, clear, tortoiseshell. Nothing garish. Glasses tend to reflect the personality of the designer.

You get the younger guys who see it as a creative outlet, and it’s very high art and off the wall. Then, as the designers get older, they have kids to feed, mortgages to pay.

They realise it’s important that they actually sell some frames.

London is renowned for being fashion forward. Do you not find more sartorial diversity here?

It’s such a big city and it’s true that people are turning their back on commercial brands, certainly more so than anywhere else in the UK. Fashion-wise, everyone wants to look a little different here. I know I do. Although the other night I went to a bar and they were playing all the music I usually listen to, thinking I’m incredibly alternative.

Turns out I am considerably less alternative than I thought. It’s difficult to know what different is, but it certainly can’t be found in the mainstream stores and the big labels.

That said, my English customers are actually the least ambitious—they always go for the safe options.

Do countries and nationalities differ in style?

Italian designs tend to be flamboyant, Danish and German designs are more staid.

French designs are always interesting —it’s all to do with demand. In France, for instance, the cat eye frame is what every older, sophisticated woman wears. Here, people think it’s a bit Dame Edna Everage so they don’t sell so well despite being really flattering. Glasses are, however, a lot more popular here than they used to be. There’s a high demand for frames without prescription and people are starting to realise how a good pair of frames can complete a look.

LIFE

29 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

LIFE

LIFE IN BRIEF

RIPPING YARNS /Victoria Stapleton, owner of Brora

Born in rural Scotland but with an enthusiastic appreciation for all things London, Victoria Stapleton’s big break in life came when she decided to bring her home town’s traditional cashmere products to the King’s Road, which had been her stomping ground while she was studying art history at King’s College. Town met country, tradition met fashion, and the contradictions inherent in Brora’s origin became part of the fabric.

Today, Victoria’s company has a reputation for aligning style with comfort—no mean feat in fashion—which has placed it in the hearts and wardrobes of urbanites and country folk alike. After making its name with beautiful cashmere woolies, Brora has now successfully extended its range in other directions— shirts, trousers, Liberty-print dresses—all of which share that same balance of classy aesthetics and beautiful materials.

CGJ: What with its age-old mills and contemporary design team, the Brora brand seems to have a bit of a yarn in its own right. What’s the history?

VS: It’s a long old story. My family got involved with a wonderful tweed mill that had been going since1901 that had gone into receivership. My dad thought the product was so beautiful that he got a consortium of people together to take a stake in it. At the time, there was this empty shop in the village owned by the factory, and he had this lovely vision of making it a Scottish emporium filled with tweeds and cashmere. When they went into receivership again a few years later the shop had to go to save the factory—but I so loved the essence of the product that I said I would like to continue it as my own business, financed by myself. So they gave me the mailing list of 10,000 people and off I went, aged 25. I had no idea what I was doing really—the first ‘brochures’ were my friends modeling, and I just learnt on the job—but I had guts and I had nous and a feel for the 30 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

product and I understood what I liked, and what my customers would like.

What’s in the name?

Brora actually is the real Scottish cashmere milling town. The whole thing is built up around the history of cashmere and people have worked there for generations: grandpa, father, son all working through the mill, passing on their skills—it’s something they’re completely passionate about. They’ve been going over 200 years, although it’s not an antiquated mill. If there’s a machine that can make the process quicker they’ll have it, as they’re always up against it with us—particularly in the winter.

How British is Brora now?

It’s very much a British-made product.

Sometimes we struggle with that because there’s so much British manufacturing gone with people taking it abroad, but we try our hardest. Not in a goody-two-shoes way— I actually really like making clothes in this country. If we have a particular dress and we run out in size 14, the factory can just shoot out a few more and they’ll be back in stock a few weeks later, so we do maximise stock. Of course we pay more for being British, but Brora’s not all about margins.

That said you must be benefitting enormously from the whole ‘homemade’ revival happening at the moment?

The funny thing is, it’s what we’ve always done. I’ve never been a big one for blowing the trumpet or using it as a marketing tool, because it’s just what we do. Besides, it’s terribly convenient. I don’t want to go on a boat to China. I don’t want my clothes arriving on a boat either, all in bags, all full of condensation.

My things come on the overnight lorry, straight down from Stevenage. And it’s lovely.

What will they be busy with this winter?

Some things are synonymous with Brora—we always sell a lot of cropped cardigans and no

LIFE Hosiery and Holland Pretty Polly, fashionable purveyor of what your grandmother would call ‘nylons’, has just opened a pop up shop in Covent Garden’s Market Building. Spanning two floors, the store stocks a wide variety of tights and lingerie, including Henry Holland’s eye-opening House

of Holland for Pretty Polly range. These attention grabbing ‘statement tights’ are embellished with stars, ladders, bones, letters of the alphabet or suspender designs. The shop is decorated with colourful comic book-style vinyls reading ‘Pow’ and ‘Whaam’, and there is also plenty of visibility for helmet-haired pop

princess Jesse J, who became the face (and, more pertinently, legs) of Pretty Polly after she was seen repeatedly grabbing the crotch of a pair of the brand’s statement tights in the video for her exuberant reworking of Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch—Do it Like a Dude. prettypolly.co.uk Inner Space 36 Short’s Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7836 6688 innerspace.org.uk

Brora 42 The Market Building 020 7836 6921 brora.co.uk

EXPERT EYE /Relaxation

matter how many years we’ve been doing it and no matter how many people try to copy us, it’s still a Brora cropped cardigan that people want. Then there’s the accessories, which are perfect gifts. We sell thousands and thousands of pairs of mittens and socks and beanies.

I’ve noticed cheap cashmere goes bobbly within minutes. What’s the secret to keeping Brora bobble-free?

It’s all to do with the fibre, the raw material.

We buy the cream of the cream of cashmere.

It’s terribly expensive—we’re talking over $100 for a kilo of cashmere which maybe makes three cardigans. We buy long, fine fibres rather than short, stubby fibres.

If you use short fibres and you twist your yarn—well you can imagine it bobbles a lot, because you have lots of ends coming out very quickly. Then there’s the eddying process, which is much more sophisticated than what is happening in China or the Far East, and the fact we can use Scottish mineral water in the washing too. A cashmere jumper gets washed about 10 times before it comes to your door. The milling is a delicate process too—if you overmill a jumper it will feel really soft on the shelf but within minutes will be simply a heap of balls. And if you undermill, it almost doesn’t feel like cashmere.

That is where the expertise of the mill is quite extraordinary. It’s no coincidence that all the big French couture houses get their cashmere from the same mill as me.

So Cashmere by Chanel is made in Brora I see cashmere coming through for Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada—and I know I’m making the best. I think the customer knows that too.

31 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Arti Lal of Inner Space offers advice on how to make Christmas as relaxed and pleasurably as it really ought to be.

Meditate for 10 minutes at the end of the day. This will help ensure restful sleep. Pack up your worries and let go of the conversations and stories from Christmas is meant to be a time of fun the day. Slow down and put your mind and relaxation, but with all the pressures to rest. of last minute shopping, spending too Balance all the partying and festive much money and high expectations dinners with plenty of exercise and of the ‘perfect’ Christmas, it can leave fresh air. Alternate the indulgent days you feeling overwhelmed. Fortunately with healthy eating. Drink plenty of it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are water to prevent dehydration from some tips to make your Christmas a little alcohol. less stressful this year.

Give yourself a dose of ‘me’ time Minimise the stress by simply to re-charge your batteries. Curl up being organised. Plan ahead. Be with a book or pour soothing oils into realistic about your energy levels and a bath and have a good soak. the time you have available. See if Laughter also relieves stress, so why you can delegate or even reduce your not book a pantomime. to-do list; instead of making your own And if you need some help you can mince pies, buy them and save time! always visit the bookshop and Quiet At the start of the day, or whenever Room at Inner Space, or join our free you feel overwhelmed, take two courses and talks on meditation and minutes to de-stress. Breathe slowly personal development and deeply. Relax all the muscles in So don’t get so uptight when things your body, from your feet to shoulders, go wrong. Let Christmas just happen. neck and face. Relax your mind and Remember what it’s all really about. like clouds, let your thoughts drift by.

So, go on, celebrate and enjoy! Here’s Let your mind become clear and calm. wishing you a very relaxed Christmas!

LIFE

LIFE IN BRIEF

Rabeanco 25 Long Acre rabeanco.com

BRIGHT IDEAS

Links of London linksoflondon.com

FRIENDS IN NEED

/Rabeanco

/Links of London

That a high end, international handbag label should come to London is no surprise. That it should choose Covent Garden for its flagship store is easy enough to understand.

Even the hallmark appearance of Rabeanco’s offerings—bright, jewel colours and clever functionality—is no shock, given the world’s current surplus of completely impractical brown bags. Nevertheless I am willing to bet that even the most experienced of bag ladies will raise a well-groomed eyebrow when they discover that Rabeanco’s starting price is a mere (if that’s the right word) £199.

Yes, that’s right: less than two hundred smackers for a designer handbag in soft lambskin Italian leather, mesmerising colours and designs so distinctive you are guaranteed not to see them anywhere else.

32 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Founded in Hong Kong in the 1980s, Rabeanco’s lucky break came when ladies around Asia alighted upon this covetable combination of fashion and functionality, and became hooked. Now, with 16 stores worldwide and a plan for several more next year, Rabeanco is well and truly an international brand —as its recent appearances on the arms of Netherlander Lara Stone, Frenchwoman Carine Roitfield and Australian Abbey Lee Kershaw clearly demonstrate.

Play it safe with a satchel in bright red, or go out on a limb with an envelope clutch that’s been jazzed up with a woven rainbow twine—and if the choice proves too arduous then get two. After all, it’s not every day in the bag world you get the chance to look a million dollars without actually having to spend it.

Jewellery is a wonderfully unpractical thing. Unlike clothing or footwear, it has no purpose other than to decorate and embellish—to bring a touch of sparkle to whatever you’re wearing. Other than that, it does nothing worthwhile. It may glitter under lights, but no bracelet ever filled a hungry stomach or quenched a person’s thirst.

Until now, that is.

Links of London, that highly successful London-based purveyor of classy jewellery, has teamed up with the charity FEED to produce a range of friendship bracelets which not only decorate but also bring real tangible benefits for some of the world’s poorest citizens. Founded by Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson, the charity’s work is predicated on the idea that meeting the basic nutritional needs of young schoolchildren is an important step in the fight against extreme poverty, as it allows them to get the most out of their education. “Ultimately,” the charity’s mission statement reads, “we believe that everyone has the right to basic human necessities, such as healthy and nutritious food.”

There are six colourful cord bracelets in the range, each of which has a different motif that represents a different intervention in the fight against hunger.

For example, a silver leaf provides 50 school meals in areas that have been affected by natural disaster; a silver heart provides 50 school meals in areas with HIV/Aids rates; and a waterleaf provides 500 days of clean drinking water for one child.

Links of London opens its new Covent Garden store on 3rd December.

A visit there before Christmas could provide a gift of jewellery for someone you know and a much needed lunch for someone you don’t, but who will be no less grateful.

And there’s nothing in the least bit unpractical about that.

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33 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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LIFE

LIFE IN BRIEF

Albam artwork Quality fabrics. Classic colours.

Quintessentially English designs. Not for nothing has menswear clothing range Albam been declared Best for Men’s Fashion at the Telegraph’s Best Small Shops in Britain Awards—a feat made

AFTER DARK /Gilda’s Tryst

all the more impressive by the brand being only five years old. Its tagline is Modern Crafted Clothing, and its clothes are exactly that: casual blazers, chinos, collarless shirts, and crew tees in soft muted checks and pinstripes, and (if you’re feeling particularly macho) a

Gilda’s Tryst 53 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials gildastryst.co.uk

with cat’s eyes. And while Duke of York Square in Chelsea might not be the most likely place to start celebrating “that bold, unfettered self that emerges after dark”, there’s more than a touch of riggishness behind the founding of this store, and its new counterpart in Covent Garden.

Born in London and raised on the city’s thriving after-hours scene, founders Shireen Jayyusi and Amanda Waterstone describe themselves as “friends who are inspired by the drama and daring of the night-time world with its hedonism and decadence.”

At first glance there seems Of all the great Shakespearian to be an element of costume characters, it is Cleopatra who about the pieces, which are would find herself most at home bold and bright. But Shireen in London today. Not only would and Amanda use only the most she delight in the bacchanalian classic of materials in their leanings of the city’s clubs work—freshwater pearls, semiand bars but her keen taste in precious stones, silver, gold jewellery would be well served and so on—and even the most by the rings, bracelets and outlandish pieces can be tamed necklaces of Gilda’s Tryst. by a simple black outfit and a From Alexandria gold earrings and onyx and silver rings to quartz smile. Of course, if you’re a real hedonist feel free to go heavy and gold brushed warrior cuffs, Gilda’s Tryst’s luxury accessories on the black eyeliner. In the meantime however, you will find looks like they could have come there is still fun to be had in buying from the great queen’s jewellery a few statement pieces and still box. Even the campaign images being in bed before midnight. feature a heavily be-fringed lady 34 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

staghorn whistle keyring. That it should alight upon the cobbles of Monmouth Street for its new Covent Garden based store seems, like its Telegraph nomination, just so. albamclothing.com

SHOE IN

/Oliver Sweeney

Here at the Covent Garden Journal, we’re often accused of talking cobblers. Now, for a change, we have a legitimate reason— Oliver Sweeney, one of Britain’s finest shoemaker’s, has opened on King Street.

Oliver Sweeney was a teenage runaway who arrived in London at the age of 16 and spent his days sheltering on the Circle Line.

He says that his life was saved when he walked past the window of a shoemaker who was advertising for an apprentice. Oliver would learn his trade under the guidance of the legendary Alan McAfee, whose beautiful London shoemaker’s was a magnet for well-bred young men seeking to revisit Brideshead in well made brogues. In 1989, Oliver left McAfee to start his eponymous brand, bringing with him an impressive body of knowledge and a deep-seated love of shoes, bordering on the obsessive.

All of the brand’s footwear is created around the Anatomical Last—Oliver Sweeney’s trademarked template, which has been sculpted to give support to the arch of the foot and features a gentle twist. This makes his shoes that rarest of beasts—footwear whose unquestionable stylishness is matched by a remarkable level of comfort.

Although the brand has grown considerably in recent years, with the Oliver Sweeney signature etched into the soles of many a dapper celebrity’s shoes, that traditional artisan approach to shoemaking is still central to the company’s ethos. Crafted from the highest quality Italian leathers, the mainline collection is created and hand finished in the famous footwear-making region of Marche in Italy, in the same family-run factory that Oliver first began using in the 1990s.

Oliver Sweeney’s good taste now extends to a women’s footwear collection, as well as a range of classy swimwear, polos and knits. All of it can be found at the beautifully appointed new King Street store.

Does that sound like cobblers to you?

LIFE

Oliver Sweeney 14 King Street oliversweeney.com

35 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

LIFE

NIGHT LIFE

RAISING THE BAR

/Drew Gladwell, bar manager at Hawksmoor Seven Dials

Tell me about yourself.

I’m a London boy, born and bred. I was born in Tooting Bec, but spent my early years living in Brixton. Mum was born in London, though her background is Nigerian, while my dad is from Durham, hence my bizarre accent. I moved to Bristol at the age of 10. Bristol is maybe the most laidback city in the world. It beats San Francisco hands down.

How did you get into the bar industry?

When I was 18 I was working in a cool clothes shop. My mate and I both fancied this girl who worked in one of the clubs, so we applied for a job and both ended up working there. He ended up copping off with her and I looked after the bar—not sure who got the better deal.

How long did you remain in Bristol?

Until the age of 24. I did various jobs, including teaching music technology and video production to kids with attention deficit disorder. It was fantastic work, but very hard.

I did that for a year and then realised I needed to get back behind a bar. The first cocktails I made were at a little place in Bristol called Bar Humbug. I became the manager there when I was about 21, which was an amazing experience. I made about a zillion mistakes, but really enjoyed it. After that I worked in lots of bars in the city and a fantastic pub that did cocktails.

What prompted a return to London?

I moved to London very specifically to work for the Match Group. Match was a fantastic place for learning cocktails—a cocktail school almost. If you wanted to learn how to do stuff well, high end, it was a great place for bartenders to go. And I was at All Star Lanes for a while, the one in Bloomsbury, and most recently The Ivy Club, just around the corner.

Why did you join Hawksmoor Seven Dials?

Because this place does a level of drinks that I was enamoured by. I was already a regular here and had worked with some of the guys before. What they did behind this bar was so creative and so very different, while also hailing back to the past. This is a team of people who really know what they’re doing— bar professionals. I really wanted to be part of that team. I started here in August.

36 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

What are the biggest secrets to mixing a great drink?

The first and most important thing is balance.

If something’s either too sweet or too sour then it won’t be a great drink. I know that sounds very simple, but it is actually one of the big mistakes that a lot of places make. Another thing is to make sure your ingredients are right. For example, we make all our own syrups. This is something that was lost for a long time. Many people just bought them in, because it’s cheaper and easier, but when you make fresh syrups using fresh sugar and fresh fruit, the flavour is insanely good and makes a huge difference to what you are getting in the glass. The other important element is fun. Our new menu shows even more of the fun side. We’ve got a whole section of what we call Disco Drinks, like the Pina Colada, which is a great drink and has been around for years. So that is the launch pad to a great drink—balance, the best ingredients and lots of fun.

Tell me more about your new Hawksmoor drinks menu.

The inspiration behind it was a day in the life of a cocktail, and includes both the forgotten classics and also drinks from us. The day begins with the Anti-Fogmatics such as the Corpse Reviver. These are from the 18th century when people would wake up needing a drink to get them going after the night before. Then comes the Pre-Prandials, drinks to get your palate going before a meal, while the Post-Prandials are a little richer and more developed. The concept of Bridging Drinks began in the Edwardian period, where the moneyed classes basically had nothing to do between 4 and 7pm—that was where the cocktail hour really came into being. After dinner you’ve got your Cards and Cigars, where you sit back, relax and really dwell on the drink in your glass and, finally, Disco Drinks for when you go out to have a little fun.

They’re just about celebration. Cocktails should be about celebration.

But what if I accidentally do too much celebrating?

Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew is one of the best hangover cures ever. The drink was devised by our very own Pete Jeary and is perfect for anyone suffering from the night before. It contains gin, homemade ginger syrup, fresh

LIFE

Hawksmoor Seven Dials 11 Langley Street 020 7856 2154 thehawksmoor.co.uk

lemon juice and lots of London Pride. And it really works, for a hangover it’s amazing.

That and a fried egg—genius!

What is your favourite cocktail era?

Punches have been around since the 1600s and are one of my real favourites. They are an absolutely British thing and were probably invented by us out in India. We went there and discovered Arrack, their native spirit—being British if we needed booze we’d get booze.

There’s a famous saying from about 1608 which goes something along the lines of: “Wherever the Spanish go, the first thing they set up is a church. Wherever the Dutch go, the first thing they set up is an almshouse. But wherever the British go, the first thing they set up is a tavern.” And Punch, as a communal drink, was part of the glue that held society together during the 1700s and 1800s. The idea of the flowing punch bowl is such an evocative image, and some of these drinks really are among the best you can ever have.

Where in the world would you most like to sip a cocktail?

I’ve got two answers for that, the first being that anywhere hot wins, obviously. But if I wanted a great cocktail the chances are that I wouldn’t get one somewhere hot.

The best cocktails at the moment are in London, absolutely. I mean there are some other great cities. There are great cocktails in Berlin, Moscow, the States and Tokyo, but I’d always come back to London. From first thing in the morning through until five the next morning, there’s always going to be somewhere to get a great drink. And there are few places in the world that can say that.

37 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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CANTEEN CULTURE Canteen co-founder Dominic Lake talks to Viel Richardson about pop ups, pies and the pleasures of showcasing British food to millions of people 38 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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39 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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CANTEEN CULTURE

The concept of Canteen was born back in 2004 when three foodie friends had an idea.

They wanted to do something a bit different, something very accessible, and something that—above all else—celebrated the pleasures of British ingredients and British cooking. “Back then, British food generally had a pretty bad press, especially abroad,” Dominic Lake, one of those three friends, tells me, buzzing with the kind of happy energy that suggests he is still having fun. Now, partly thanks to Dominic and his friends, that reputation is enjoying something of a renaissance.

When the first branch of Canteen opened in Spitalfields Market in 2005 it boasted such simple, fundamental British classics as bacon sandwiches, meat pies, devilled kidneys and roast chicken. This was a place where the full English breakfast was treated with the reverence and care usually reserved for foreign dishes with fancy names; a place of malt vinegar, brown sauce and truly exceptional gravy. “It’s good to be able to take familiar British dishes that people know from their childhood—foods that have so often been over-processed or badly cooked—and remind people how good they can be,” says Dominic.

“Everything we sell is made by us, making it easier to keep the quality high. We change the menu three times a year, based around the British food seasons. Some of our pie fillings change every day, so we can offer whatever happens to be at its best.”

Canteen seemed an ambitious undertaking back when the phrase “high quality British food” was considered by many to be a contradiction in terms. Move forward seven years though and the restaurant is a firmly established favourite on the London restaurant scene, with premises sprinkled around the city, and Britain’s food reputation firmly on the rise. What had seemed a risky idea has become an unqualified success, thanks to the quality of the cooking, the warmth of the atmosphere and the accessibility of the pricing.

Now these champions of British food have leapt on board one of the other great culinary trends of recent years; a concept which would have seemed as strange in 2004 as that of a high quality bubble and squeak—the pop up restaurant. This phenomenon has been at the heart of the London restaurant scene for a while, with top quality eateries appearing for brief but spectacular stints in disused spaces from empty shop units to market squares to old car parks. The movement has now begun to take on the appearance of a permanent revolution rather than a passing foodie fad, offering restaurateurs the opportunity to 40 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Canteen co-founders Patrick Clayton-Malone (left) and Dominic Lake (right)

reach out to new customers quickly and economically, and Canteen has not been slow to recognise its possibilities. Being a London based group, Dominic and his colleagues decided that there was only one place that could possibly play host to their first foray into the new arena—Covent Garden, one of the busiest and most famous districts of the capital.

As well as millions of British shoppers and tourists to whom the idea of a top quality pie or Welsh rarebit would be like manna from heaven, the area hosts a huge influx of people from all over the world—a fact that appealed strongly to Dominic.

“Covent Garden represents such a very rich environment for visitors to the UK, and obviously what Canteen does is great British food,” says Dominic, “so the marriage is a very obvious one. Internationally, British food has a very mixed reputation, certainly at the high street level. One of our original goals at Canteen was to showcase the best of what British food has to offer, and that hasn’t changed—whether it is fish from the south coast of England, or grass-fed lamb reared in small family groups in Sussex.

We buy great produce and serve it simply.

Britain really does compete on a global scale in terms of the sheer quality of some of our produce, and we didn’t feel that anybody was really showing that off at a reasonable price. We saw the Covent Garden pop up as an opportunity to showcase that quality to a very high number of people from all over the world in the six months that we are going to be here.”

The installation of the restaurant in the middle of the historic Market Building took

One of our original goals at Canteen was to showcase the best of what British food has to offer, and that hasn’t changed—whether it is fish from the south coast of England, or grass-fed lamb reared in small family groups in Sussex.

TASTE Canteen Covent Garden Market Building canteen.co.uk

about five days, opening in mid-September, but a great deal of work had happened before the first toolbox was even opened.

Design is a very important ingredient in the success of Canteen, having helped to establish the brand as something high in quality but equally high in accessibility, so the look of the pop up needed to stay firmly within these parameters despite the limitations imposed by its unique surroundings and the short-term nature of the project. “Because we cannot provide the same menu and service as the full restaurant, the design has to suggest the temporary, trimmed down nature of what 41 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

the pop up is offering. But the core values of Canteen still have to shine through.

So using things like the bunting, the lighting and the bar, we have given it a festival feel, something that does not suggest permanence, but still has a real presence.

It means that the customers realise that there is much more of Canteen still left to discover.”

The food on sale at the pop up has been crafted from Canteen’s core menu.

The team tried to choose things that best displayed the main elements of what they do. So you will find the fish and chips, the pie and mash, the steak and chips. And you will of course also find the famous full English breakfast. “All of our signature dishes are there, and the menu will change with the seasons to reflect what is going on in the other restaurants. Also, if there is an idea that we think might work we’ll just put it in the menu and see how it goes down, like a little bit of a developmental platform.”

So after all the planning, training, building and occasional experimentation, I ask what the reaction has been. How is it going? After all, as Dominic himself pointed out, many of the people who give the Piazza its particular buzz are not Canteen’s usual customers, and introducing their restaurant to new audiences was one of the reasons behind this project in the first place. “People seem to really like it,” he tells me. “The atmosphere has gone down very well. What is interesting has been the response of our foreign customers. We do get questions like ‘What is a pie?’ A pie is such a British thing, so people have been quizzical about what it is, and what is in it. Strangely enough we are also getting asked a bit about roast chicken.”

So the question is would they do it again? Are pop ups the future for Canteen?

“The process has been a real education,” Dominic tells me with a wry hint to his voice that suggests a man who feels thoroughly educated. “We have learned a lot about what is required to make this kind of project a success and we would definitely do it again. The thing is we are a small company—there is not an events team that you can just throw at something like this, so it is all hands to the pump. Everyone has got involved in putting this thing together.”

Our advice would be to make your way over to Canteen to enjoy the comforting flavours of great British cooking before Dominic and his team all have to muck in once more in pulling the whole thing down.

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HIGH NOTES

Viel Richardson meets Alan Goulden, whose love of music, coffee and wine has led to a glorious collision of some of life’s little pleasures in one of Covent Garden’s most relaxing new retreats

42 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

TASTE Notes Music & Coffee 36 Wellington Street 31 St Martin’s Lane notesmusiccoffee.com

One of the great joys of city life is discovering a new place where you can go to sit down, relax and escape the whirlwind that is modern life. Now, for those whose daily routine takes them past 36 Wellington Street in Covent Garden’s Opera Quarter, a new haven is beckoning, one with a growing and increasingly loyal band of devotees.

The brainchild of Alan Goulden, Notes Music and Coffee is a place which brings together three of his personal passions to create something rather unique.

“Two things that I always thought went well together were music and coffee,” says Alan. “I always thought that they were a perfect match in terms of the sensory elements involved in appreciating both.

But I also thought that wine would fit in there as well, so we also have a licence to sell wine. So what we offer here is a mixture of coffee, wine and music.”

In a previous life, Alan spent many years running MDC—a specialist music and movies company which had premises all across London, including Covent Garden - so his experience of these three sensory pleasures is a long, and I suspect, pleasurable one. Both Notes premises —the sister café having opened last year on St Martin’s Lane—specialise in three specific types of music: opera, jazz and soundtracks from world cinema. While the same areas are covered in both branches, the stock won’t necessarily be identical.

The Opera Quarter café has entered into a couple of rather special partnerships Alan has established links with two highly prestigious companies: Universal Music and Artificial Eye. Universal includes the Deutsche Grammophon and Decca record labels which many people will recognise as two hugely respected opera music labels, while Artificial Eye is one of the best known world cinema companies around.

Such special sounds require special equipment. “Because of the importance of the music, we put in a very high quality sound system,” says Alan. “However we don’t want the music to override the other experiences, so it is a delicate balance between the style of music played during different times of the day and the volume it is played at. So far we seem to be striking the right balance.”

Plasma screens meanwhile play world cinema classics in the background. “The cafes are 43 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

through the door. “One of the main aspects about the music we sell is the price,” he says. “We decided not to sell the music at historic prices but to sell as competitively as we can, in some cases tracking online prices. Also, while we offer really excellent wine and food here, we are determined to keep it really keenly priced. You can come in, have a wine, some coffee and a sandwich and get away for under £10.”

As we enjoy the quiet strains of an aria that I spectacularly fail to recognise, staring not intended as cinemas and we set the at an empty cup that had once contained film volumes accordingly, but we have had some extremely good coffee, I ask Alan if he people come in and watch entire films.” has enjoyed the process of bringing Notes Given his background it is hardly to life. After all, enjoying the triple pleasures surprising that the bar is set high as far of excellent music, coffee and wine is one as the music is concerned, but his love of thing, but offering this combination to the the finer things in life does not stop there. paying public is something else entirely.“Oh “We take our food and wine very seriously yes, it’s very exciting—to open two of these here,” Alan continues. “It was my great good in 10 months has been a bit of a rollercoaster luck to meet two really great coffee guys, ride. There is no project on earth that I Rob Robinson and Fabio Enrique Ferreira. know of that has had a completely smooth Once we got together they have been hugely transitional period and if you’re going through important in helping to fashion the whole one then there is clearly something very offering around my original thoughts. Our wrong with the whole project. Our landlord sommelier, Marko Soda, has put together has been very supportive about bringing the a great wine list of about 60 wines, so we whole thing to fruition and that always makes will have some changes every month. The things easier. They have a genuine long term classics you would expect to find on any view of how they want the area to evolve.” really good wine list will sit next to less well Happily for Alan and the rest of the known, sometimes quirky wines that Marko crew, Notes appears set to be part of that feels will engage and even challenge the evolution for some time to come. With Notes drinkers. Our executive chef Iain Penhale has at St Martin’s Lane already established combined his southern hemisphere roots and Wellington Street fast gathering its own with Mediterranean cuisine and seasonal crowd, plans are already afoot for events British produce in a menu as diverse and based around wine and music. One style interesting as our music and wines. So the of event will see sommelier Marko pouring whole development has been teamwork.” wine while guests not only hear about the Another thing that Alan is extremely wines themselves, but enjoy the music of proud of is the accessibility of Notes— the region they were made. Now this kind offering all this quality and culture at prices of interesting sensory exploration is just that won’t draw a gasp once you have walked my kind of discovery.

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PLAYING THE TUBER

Spud 26 New Row ilovespud.com

/Paul Williamson, owner of Spud CGJ: Have you always worked in food?

PW: Yes. I started my career working in hotel restaurants in Melbourne, but before that I spent a fair amount of time in cafés when I was in school and university. In Melbourne there is a very large café culture, and I always found them very interesting, dynamic places to be: I liked the casual approach and the flexibility, and the way you could be very personable. When it came to setting up for myself it was always going to be a casual venue.

Jacket potatoes don’t strike me as particularly Down Under...

They are obviously much more of a British thing—the history of them goes back centuries, and Australia hasn’t really been around that long. However, I do think the whole casual dining, grab-and-go scene in Melbourne is at a really high standard. There are no chains, other than the inevitable ones like McDonald’s, so you rely on quality independents. Starbucks went into Melbourne and they were forced out of the market because the scene was so good.

I wish every city was like that—although I think in London the general standard of coffee and independent retailers has improved since the recession. A lot of operators were previously taking good money for offering a substandard product and actually the wake up call allows smaller operators to pop up. More site availability and lower rates allow someone like me to get a foot in the door—and if you can survive the recession, you can only be stronger for it when things improve.

Where did the idea for Spud grow from?

There is a real obvious trend toward casual dining in London now—fun dining, if you like—so for us it was just about finding a gap. Fancy burgers, fancy burritos, fancy sandwiches have all been done. Only the jacket potato hadn’t been enhanced, and we thought we could make it brilliant: finding the best potatoes, the best toppings, the best design for the store. There’s a lot of charm in taking something simple and run of the mill, glorifying it and making it a premium product.

Why Covent Garden?

I always thought Covent Garden would be a 44 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Heinz, but made a bit more interesting by the fact they have five varieties in a smoked paprika and tomato sauce. When people taste it they see it’s a step up from a tin.

Everyone loves baked beans and cheese on a spud because it’s not too complicated and not too much to think about: in fact, I’ve got some customers who only ever have that. We’ve got nine toppings and every time they’ll go for beans—but that’s fine.

good platform, just because the footfall and the diversity make it such an important part of London. If you have a look at the history of places like Monmouth Coffee and Neal’s Yard Dairy, you see that all these brands that have come to be so strong owe much of their success to starting here.

Opening in Covent Garden is a matter of great pride—and it’s a great address to have on your business card.

Who thinks of the fillings?

One of my business partners, Nick Carter, is a phenomenal chef who has worked at all levels: cafés, pubs, fine dining, Michelin star, you name it. We’re very responsive to feedback as well though, and that’s where social media is a great tool. We put out a request for ideas for vegan toppings or something for meat lovers, for example, and then we sit down with a bunch of responses that have come from Facebook, staff, customers and we come up with daily specials or new items.

Any seasonal stuffings for Christmas?

I think there’s probably room for a turkey spud somewhere, or brie and cranberry jelly... we’ll have to see. An American girl the other day was telling me they do sweet potatoes and marshmallows at Thanksgiving—but I thought that might be a bit too adventurous for Spud!

What do you say to those who say you can’t beat good old baked beans and cheese?

We’ve got that on the menu. Our spin on baked beans—smoked Boston-style baked beans—are very much along the line of your

Is Spud open for breakfast?

Absolutely. Not potatoes, of course, but we do really nice pastries and we’re going to do a bircher muesli soon too. We’ll keep it quite simple though. We don’t want to fall into the trap of being jack of all trades, and I’m a big believer in maintaining focus, which means spuds—and coffee of course, which we source from All Press, a roaster in Shoreditch who came over from New Zealand to try their hand in London. Their coffee is absolute amazing. We get a lot of Antipodeans coming because they know we serve All Press, and I think Londoners are starting to appreciate good coffee more too—although I still find it a bit heartbreaking watching people walk past holding a big Starbucks or Nero.

The poor potato has taken a battering at the hands of the diet industry. How does Spud sit with the low-carb brigade?

I actually think it’s a slightly old thing, the Atkins thing. People understand carbs are an important part of life now, and that it’s about how you have those carbs: potatoes are complex carbohydrates. If people work long hours, they need something to fuel the fire. We get loads of regulars who come in every day for a spud—mostly women as well, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. It seems people are more comfortable having a jacket potato with a substantial healthy topping than they are a burrito or a sandwich, which can be more unhealthy.

A jacket potato actually has zero fat, it’s about how you dress it.

Finally, potato skin—love it or leave it?

Definitely love it. It’s 100% the best bit because that’s where the nutrients are.

It gets me quite emotional when customers leave it, but you know — each to their own.

ZOE CARTER-MACKAY LOCATION ROSE STREET WHY ARE YOU HERE? WORKING AT REISS WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COVENT GARDEN SHOP? ANTIQUES MARKET ON A MONDAY

45 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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CRUMBS OF COMFORT

/Andy Geddes of the Cinnamon Tree Bakery

Who’s behind The Cinnamon Tree Bakery?

Myself and Anita Khawaja. Anita used to have another food business, Amesha Sweets, selling Middle Eastern sweets at Borough Market. I had no experience of commercial food production, but my mum was a dessert chef, among other things, and so I did pick up a few things from her.

I used to be a postman and had also done a degree in interactive arts. Anita and I first met as students in Manchester—that must be 10 years ago. We both went off and did our own thing for several years, then met up again eventually and became girlfriend and boyfriend.

When did you start baking?

Not long after that. We started it in 2008, seeing an opportunity to do something a little bit niche. There are lots of bakeries who do good bread, good cakes and maybe one or two cookies, but we couldn’t see anything in London that was dedicated specifically to biscuits and cookies. Our bakery is based in Camberwell. We started with the stall at Borough Market and pretty soon we took another one at Broadway Market.

Who dreams up your creations?

At first it tended to be me, but now we have a great little team in the kitchen and have 46 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

reached the point where things develop more collaboratively. The ideas come from anybody who works in the bakery.

How do you then bring these ideas to life?

We’re lucky, because you can trial things at a much earlier stage with a market stall than you would if you were launching a product to the mass market. You can bake 50 pieces and send them up to the market and immediately you have feedback for the next week. You know straight away whether they’re going to work—people just go for them —and if they don’t then you just don’t make it again, or you try to figure out what they didn’t like about it and then make it again a bit differently. I think that our core customers quite like to be included in that process.

Which is more important in baking, the creativity or the science?

We always start with the creativity, but it’s the process of working out exactly how to get there that’s always the challenge. The closing your eyes and imagining something really tasty is never difficult, the really hard part is setting about producing it, and then working out how to produce hundreds while keeping the exact same quality and flavour.

It can’t be so intricate that the price goes through the roof—this is another thing we always have to consider. We have to get our products out to the public at a price they can afford.

Tempt me with your range of biscuits.

I’ll start with the new ones, which I’m really very excited about. We have the almond macaroons—not to be confused with the French macarons. Ours are the old style macaroons with the toasted almonds in the middle. We also have a white chocolate and sea salt cookie. The rest of the range is more established and includes the shortbread owls; cinnamon elephants; cowboy cookies; tweet tweet cookies containing seeds and dried fruit; gluten and wheat free chocolate

©paulthompsonstudio.com

CGJ: What is the secret to great biscuits and cookies?

AG: Texture. Supermarkets tend to do the soft bake American style cookies, but everything we bake has a nice crunch and very often a mixture of textures. For example, we’ve just started doing a dulce de leche caramel crumble slice. The dulce de leche caramel is imported from Argentina and we get it from our friend Federico, the founder of Porteña. Our slice has a lovely soft caramel filling and then a crunchy rubble of crumble. And when it comes to something like a ginger snap—you want it to really snap.

brownies; ginger flapjacks; and gingerbread men. Each week we have around 11 or 12 products available.

Anything special planned for Christmas?

We’ve been working on a couple of things.

We’ve come up with a new gingerbread recipe, which uses orange zest and a different spice mix to the one we usually use—the mix includes cinnamon and clove, the Christmas pudding spices. And we’ll be making that into new shapes—possibly in the shape of a reindeer. I think reindeers look nice and festive.

Are most of your customers children?

No, not at all. We have a couple of things that are very orientated towards kids, our little gingerbread men, for example. But products like the white chocolate and sea salt cookies—an interesting combination— will appeal to anyone who wants to try a delicious cookie.

TASTE Icy weather The idea that winter weather and ice cream are not natural bedfellows is not one you’d be advised to share with the Icecreamists. Covent Garden’s ice cream iconoclasts see winter as less of a challenge and more of an opportunity —a chance to dabble in rich, dark,

wintery flavours such as Jamaican gingercake, mulled wine, dark chocolate orange, and even Ferrero Rocher.

And if it’s actual warmth you’re after rather than just the suggestion of it, try their amazing hot chocolate, or their steamy, sticky chocolate fondue. theicecreamists.com

The Cinnamon Tree Bakery thecinnamontreebakery.co.uk The Real Food Market Every Thursday (11am-7pm) East Piazza

/Coffee column I believe you even receive fan mail.

Aye, we do get the odd bit of fan mail.

We even receive emails from Japanese people telling us they are coming to the UK and can’t wait to meet us and see the stall.

The Cinnamon Tree Bakery was mentioned in a Japanese newspaper article and apparently we were also featured in one of their guides to London. And so these people fly over, with our stall being on their list of things to do while they’re in London.

I just can’t get my head around that really.

It’s amazing.

How are you taking to life at the Real Food Market?

We’re really enjoying being here and are also enjoying all the feedback we’re getting from customers. The other traders are great, a really friendly bunch of people, and the management are very supportive.

We’re even looking to bring out a couple of new lines exclusively for Covent Garden.

LISTMAS TIME

/Angela Holder lists the items on a coffee pro’s gift guide

It’s that time of year again. List-mas time.

If you are stuck for an idea, you can’t really go wrong buying good coffee as a present.

Just make sure you know how the recipient makes their coffee and whether they own a grinder. If you want to get them something a little more imaginative, a straw poll of what’s on my coffee colleagues’ wish lists turned up the following suggestions:

1—A coffee grinder. Probably the most important bit of kit in the coffee enthusiast’s armoury. This was top of the list and I admit to surprise that several people mentioned this, since I had held a fond belief that within a year of starting work in the profession, Do you have many fond memories of everyone buys a grinder. On top of this, Covent Garden? apparently, there is no Santa Claus!

My best experience of it was years ago 2—A knock box. This is not a box that you when the Cranks restaurant used to be practice knocking on. It is a little regarded here, one of the few vegetarian places at but extremely useful item for collecting the time. Cranks—you see back then that the spent coffee grounds from espresso was a cool name for a vegetarian restaurant. machine portafilters. It consists of a small I used to eat there quite often. Covent open box with a bar across the top, against Garden is a great area. The architecture is which the portafilter is tapped to dislodge fantastic and the market has a really good the coffee grounds allowing them to fall atmosphere. neatly into the box. Without this the budding barista is reduced to scraping the grounds As a couple, do you and Anita find it easy from the portafilter into an empty ice cream to work together? carton or the bin, which just doesn’t look We work together by trying not to work cool. Especially when the metal filter falls together too much really. Being a couple out and you are reduced to fishing around up gives you a sort of freedom to criticise which to your elbows in last week’s baked beans to you just don’t have with anybody else. And retrieve it. so the sensible thing to do—and the way 3—A cupping spoon. This is a specific we work—is to have a quick meeting over a spoon used only for evaluating coffee. With coffee, discuss what we’re going to do, and its small rounded bowl and elegant handle then go off and do it separately. Then we can it is a thing of beauty. It is often engraved come home and enjoy our evening together. with a logo and given as a gift within the 47 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

industry. For something so simple, the small variations in form, material and engraving can make it feel clunky and uncomfortable to use, or like an extension of your arm.

Usually at a coffee tasting session there will be a tub of these spoons for all to use, but cuppers become attached to their particular spoons and hoard them jealously.

4—A temperature controlled kettle or boiler. After the coffee grind, the brewing temperature is the next most critical factor in brewing a good cup. Since the ideal brewing temperature is around 90C, conventional kettles don’t cut the mustard.

Never underestimate the joy of just setting the temperature and pressing a button, instead of fiddling around with the kitchen thermometer. Some of us do that. Ahem.

5—A wet mill. This is not a fiendish new way of combining grinding and brewing. Rather it is an industrial facility in coffee growing areas which involves using water to remove the coffee beans from the fruit, and has a big role in the eventual quality of the coffee.

Yes, the person who wants this owns a coffee farm.

Interestingly, not one wanted to receive a coffee that had seen the wrong end of an animal’s digestive tract. A happy Christmas!

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Manhattan project Not content with being responsible for the West End’s sudden explosion of quirky, character-filled Italian-American osterias, Russell Norman and Richard Beatty, the duo behind the wildly successful Polpo family of restaurants have decided to try their hands at a

SKINNY THAI

/Classic spicy papaya salad with cherry tomatoes and roasted nuts (Somtam malakor) from Suda

Som tam is a classic Thai spicy salad made from shredded unripened papaya. The recently opened Suda restaurant in St Martin’s Courtyard boasts the UK’s first dedicated som tam bar.

Ingredients Serves 4-6 160g papaya, julienned 40g carrot, julienned 6 Thai chillies 6 cloves garlic 20 string beans, cut on the diagonal 20 cherry tomatoes, halved 60g Somtam dressing 2 tbsp roasted nuts 2 tbsp dry shrimps, blended For the dressing: Fish sauce Tamarind water Palm sugar Make the som tam dressing to taste. Start with a ratio of two parts fish sauce, two parts sugar and five parts tamarind water and taste as you go.

Put the fresh chilli and garlic into a mortar, then lightly smash them together. Add the string beans, cherry tomatoes and prepared som tam dressing.

Add the finely sliced papaya and carrot, followed by most of the dried shrimps and peanuts and mix well.

Sprinkle with remaining dried shrimp powder, taste and serve.

48 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

quirky, character-filled Jewish-American deli. Based on the classic New York melange of salt beef, pickles and snappy repartee, Mishkin’s will bring a whole new dimension to the Opera Quarter’s rapidly improving restaurant scene. Enjoy Brick Lane salt beef on soda bread, classic Ruben sandwiches on rye bread, oxtail

cholent, cod cheek popcorn and housesmoked beef brisket hash with eggs.

There is also a promise of classic New York cocktails from the city’s 20s and 30s glory days of hard liquor and sassy chatter. Mishkin’s is due to open at 25 Catherine Street by the end of November.

Suda 23 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 8010 suda-thai.com

TASTE

5

OF THE BEST /Christmas menus

Souk Forget dinner, proper Christmas binging should be all about feasting. It’s a word that brings to mind indulgence on an epic scale, with none of your modern worries about calorie counts and getting up for work in the morning. Congratulations to Souk then for naming its most indulgent Christmas offering the ‘Royal Feast ’. For £60 a head, partiers can enjoy a mezze selection, a Kir Royale, either a bottle of wine or four beers, a shot and a belly dancer. Now that’s a feast. It helps that the food is genuinely good, consisting of beautiful North African fare, including vine leaves, hummus, falafel, tagines and baklava, all packed with flavour.

cranberry yuzu relish, green mango and coriander; chestnut croquettes with tomato lime and chilli jam; cured salmon tempura nori roll, chilli dusted parsnip crisps, avocado and horseradish. The main courses riff less openly on Christmas but still provide a glimpse of Peter’s blend of madness and magic.

Kopapa 32-34 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 6076 kopapa.co.uk

Christopher’s Let’s not try to pretend otherwise—the classic British Christmas lunch owes a lot to America. Turkey? American. Cranberry sauce? American. Gluttony on a grand Souk scale? You get the picture. So where better 1a Short’s Gardens, Seven Dials for a taste of Christmas than London’s 020 7240 1796 soukrestaurant.net finest American restaurant, Christopher’s American Bar & Grill. There are several Jamie’s Italian Christmas menus on offer, including a £60 a What with the book launches and TV ads, la carte, featuring the sophisticated flavours Jamie Oliver has become as much a part of of Maryland crabcake, Harry’s Bar style the modern British Christmas as excessive beef carpaccio, and blackened salmon, drinking and travel chaos. So where better to and a £55 set menu which offers the almost enjoy a Christmas lunch than at a restaurant impossible choice of roast goose or run by the man himself? The £34.95 four slow-roast loin of pork for its main course. course menu starts with a selection of antipasti, followed by a mouthwatering choice Christopher’s 18 Wellington Street, Opera Quarter of Italian classics, from porchetta filled with 020 7240 4222 salumi and herbs, to steam baked sea bass christophersgrill.com with olives and tomato sauce, via turkey and Porters chestnut tortellini. Desserts include hot chocolate and amaretti pudding, lemon curd It’s all very well experimenting with the many flavours of the world, but sometimes all you tart and a selection of imported DOP Italian want for Christmas lunch is a Christmas cheeses. To finish, enjoy one of Jamie’s lunch—that insane blend of all Britain’s amazing peppered mince pies. It’s enough heaviest and most calorific dishes in one to make you forgive him those adverts. giant hit of meat, suet and booze. Rules on Jamie’s Italian Maiden Lane has an extraordinary 11 Upper St Martin’s Lane, St Martin’s Courtyard Christmas makeover every year, with lavish 020 3326 6390 jamieoliver.com quantities of gold and scarlet, but for a complete A-Z of British Christmas food head Kopapa to Porters on Henrietta Street. The £26.50 If Souk is authentically North African and set menu features liver pate, tomato soup, Jamie cooks authentic Italian, Peter Gordon’s turkey and trimmings, salmon, plum pudding, Kopapa dishes up nothing but authentic mince pies, paper hats, party poppers and Peter Gordon. The king of elegant, delicate, Christmas crackers. It could hardly be more perfectly balanced fusion cookery offers a traditional if Charles Dickens dropped by to three course Christmas menu for £37 per make you feel bad about your meanness. slightly bewildered head. The starters resemble classic Christmas fare in the same Porters 17 Henrietta Street way that Picasso’s paintings resemble 020 7836 6466 porters.uk.com women—panko crumbed turkey breast, 49 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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/14

50 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

ARTS

How did a man who doesn’t like musicals, who writes plays that leave audiences feeling ‘tortured’ and who bears joint responsibility for one of the most painfully funny sitcoms in TV history come to write the West End’s biggest, sparkliest show of the year? Mark Riddaway meets Dennis Kelly, the playwright behind Matilda: the Musical, to find out

51 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

ARTS

CAST AGAINST TYPE

It is unlikely that a conventional West End theatre company looking for a playwright to create a hit musical would consider Dennis Kelly to be the most obvious choice.

It’s true that his back catalogue is an unusually eclectic one, ranging from dark social realism to dark flights of fancy, and from dark adult humour to dark children’s theatre (there are, admittedly, some common threads), but there are no musicals anywhere on the list. And with good reason: “I don’t really like musicals,” he says. “I never have.”

So when the Royal Shakespeare Company approached him to write a musical version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, he was a little taken aback. Luckily for him—and for us—the RSC is not a conventional West End theatre company. “I told them I didn’t like musicals. And they said, ‘That’s fine; we actually think that’s a good thing.’

They felt that a lot of musicals are made without proper attention to the story— you’re just going from song to song to song, with the music coming first and the story coming second. They wanted the story to shape everything else, which is why they came to me.”

It was an inspired decision, and the resulting musical, with songs by Tim Minchin, enjoyed a sold-out run at the RSC’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon before taking root at Covent Garden’s Cambridge Theatre in October.

A man who doesn’t like musicals has somehow written a brilliant one. “It’s not that I don’t like musicals,” he clarifies. “It’s that I don’t like bad musicals. Which just happens to be a lot of them.” What is it that he dislikes so intensely? “What too many of them rely upon is that with music you can announce to your audience: ‘Feel this. Now.’ And I don’t want that. I want to be teased, seduced, nudged into feeling something that I wasn’t expecting to feel. A lot of musicals can’t be bothered with that. They just say: ‘This is the sad song. Be sad.’ I think a playwright should have to work harder than that to get a response.”

Dennis has been working hard as a playwright for just over a decade now, toying with different genres and styles with considerable success. The play that convinced the RSC of his suitability for the job was Our Teacher’s a Troll, which premiered at the Hull Theatre in 2009.

It was a play for children, but it was packed with unsavoury humour, gleeful language and no moral message whatsoever.

“When I was a kid, there was a moral message shoehorned into absolutely everything,” says Dennis. “At the end of every episode of He Man there would be 52 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

this bit where he would explain the moral of the story. Scooby Do used to be really good, then you got that twat Scrappy Do coming along and getting all moralistic. I didn’t get it. Tom and Jerry didn’t give a toss about any of that. But recently, if you look at things like Phillip Pullman, Harry Potter, the whole boom in animation, we do seem to be treating our kids a bit more like grown-ups these days, rather than just preaching to them.”

Thankfully, the only moral messages you can really draw from the works of Roald Dahl are that most adults are weak, stupid, pompous or cruel and that even Red Riding Hood is packing a pistol in her knickers.

“He doesn’t pull any punches,” laughs Dennis. “And that meant that I didn’t have to pull any punches either. There are some things in Matilda that are quite dark. There’s a death. The worst thing that could happen is you have an audience bawling their eyes out, all these little kids who’ve suddenly seen the darkness of life. But it doesn’t happen. Kids

can take a bit of darkness—they enjoy it.”

Dennis felt the pressure of working with the hallowed words of a man whose work is loved and revered by so many—“Dahl is like Shakespeare for kids,” as he puts it—and he knew that if he got it wrong, the villagers could soon be gathering at his gate wielding torches and pitchforks. “If you mess with a popular story and it works, people are very generous,” he says. “But if you do it badly you will be absolutely flayed.”

Many writers would have taken the safe option of slavishly sticking to the source material, but Dennis doesn’t really do safe options. This, after all, is a man whose most recent visit to Covent Garden saw him adapting Kleist’s The Prince of Homburg with such carefree irreverence that the more conservative critics were sent spluttering from the Donmar Warehouse ashen-faced at his gall. In his adaptation of Matilda, he was aided by the fact that Dahl’s book, while perfect for reading at bedtime, has an

ARTS

When I was a kid, there was a moral message shoehorned into absolutely everything.

At the end of every episode of He Man there would be this bit where he would explain the moral of the story. I didn’t get it.

Tom and Jerry didn’t give a toss about any of that.

53 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

episodic nature that doesn’t translate easily onto the stage, so a degree of intervention was clearly unavoidable. “I met the Dahl estate, and straight away they said they knew there were things that would need to be done,” he says. And things were indeed ‘done’. “I added a few characters, a dancer called Rudolfo, took out some big characters, added this whole new story that Matilda tells, even added this Russian mafia subplot for all kinds of bizarre reasons. When I’d done a first draft I showed it to Liccy, Roald Dahl’s widow, and the first thing she said to me was, ‘I love Rudolfo,’ and I knew then that she was giving me permission to do things my way.”

Did he try to write like Dahl? “That’s where this was easy,” says Dennis. “Dahl is in us all. We’ve all grown up with him, we’ve all been consumed by his language, so it really wasn’t that difficult to be a bit Dahl-ish.”

Dennis’s original plan had been to write the lyrics as well as the script, then find a

composer to set them to music. “I quite liked the idea of doing the lyrics,” he says.

“And I did try. I tried really hard. But they were absolutely terrible. Awful. I quite arrogantly thought, I’ve written plays, I’ve written for TV, written for film, how hard can lyrics be?

I realised it wasn’t working out, then I saw Tim’s first attempt and I just thought, ah, so that’s how you do it.”

It was the play’s director, Matthew Warchus, who first suggested involving Tim Minchin. The Australian comedian, one of around half a dozen people since the dawn of time to have written comedy songs that are actually funny, brought the same sense of relish to the music that Dennis was applying to script, and their collaboration proved to be a fruitful one. “We disagreed loads, but in a healthy way,” says Dennis. “Tim will fight his corner and so will I, but that’s a good thing.

The worst thing is when you work with people who won’t fight. If you don’t believe in it, why are you doing it?”

ARTS

CAST AGAINST TYPE

Unlike most of his plays, which were Dennis’s own immaculate conceptions, Matilda had many parents. “It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done, but also probably the most satisfying,” he says. “Chris, the musical director, said something quite wise—although it probably sounds less wise when I say it. He said that making a musical is like four tailors in four different rooms making the same suit.”

When that suit was finally shown to the critics at its Stratford-upon-Avon press night last winter, Dennis was on a plane to Hong Kong. “When Matilda opened, I was invited to fly out there to see a show of mine. I flew to Hong Kong for one day so that I would be on a plane for 18 hours when the reviews came out. There was no chance of me knowing what was going on. That’s my tip for any playwright—be on a plane for 18 hours, or in a fallout shelter, or maybe down a Chilean mine.”

So reviews matter to him then? “I would love to say they didn’t, but I would be totally lying,” he admits. “I try not to look at reviews but it’s almost impossible. That said, it’s dangerous to pay too much attention to them, and you certainly shouldn’t be thinking of reviewers when you’re writing. Plays are very delicate when they’re in their early stages, and all they have is you. If you’re distracted, you won’t be serving them.”

He pauses. “God that sounds poncy,” he grins. You’re a playwright, I reassure him, you’re allowed to be poncy.

He needn’t have worried about the reviews. Theatre critics were pretty much universal in their praise, and audiences voted with their backsides, filling every available seat. For Dennis, such a consistently positive response was an entirely novel experience. “I once went to see a play I’d written called Orphans, and as I walked out there was a woman in front of me who turned to her mate and said, ‘I feel like I’ve been tortured’,” he laughs.

“And I actually think she meant it in a good way! Some of the things I do are quite dark, so you either like them or you really don’t like them, and I kind of understand either way.

But with this, what was quite addictive was seeing 900 people who all really liked it.”

The reaction of the younger members of the audience has given him particular pleasure. “I love the way kids respond.

They just don’t give a shit about so many things. It’s hard sometimes understanding their response. They don’t react in the same way as adults. There’s a line in the play that every kid laughs at, and I just don’t get why.”

Dennis’s own childhood did not involve visits to the theatre. “It just wasn’t in my background,” he says. “I don’t think my mum 54 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

or dad had ever even been to one.” The Kellys had come to London to escape the crushing privations of Ireland. “When my mum talks about her childhood, it’s real Angela’s Ashes stuff—no shoes, sleeping on straw mattresses, real poverty in the arsehole of nowhere. So when they arrived here and got jobs and a council house it was incredible for them.” When Dennis suggested that he might stay on at school to do A levels, his father, a bus conductor, was genuinely baffled by the concept. “He just didn’t get it. He thought I should get a job on the underground in the booking office. Why not?

You get paid every week. You get a pension, security.” So Dennis, accepting his father’s logic, left school at 16 and threw himself half-heartedly into the wide and varied world of extremely crap jobs.

It was around this time that Dennis, who had never seen a play before, joined a youth theatre in Barnet. “I only went because my friend was going, and I fancied I would be brilliant at acting. Which I wasn’t.” It was the start of a love affair with the stage.

Eventually, Dennis found the confidence to return to education. “I remember not really knowing what a degree was until I was about 24,” he says, but he won a place at Goldsmiths nonetheless, studying drama and theatre arts.

Dennis met his close friend and collaborator Sharon Horgan at the Lost youth theatre company in Lambeth. “We were both acting at the time,” he says. “But she was very good. She actually could act. We would do bits of writing together. I showed my first script to her and to my surprise she really liked it, and it was Sharon who had the energy to get it put on—I was too scared. It wasn’t great. It was basically a soap opera with swearing, like most people’s first plays.”

As Dennis learnt the ropes, his work began to attract critical acclaim, packed audiences and, in the case of 2005’s Osama the Hero, a healthy level of controversy. Now in his thirties, he found himself able to finally extricate himself from the carousel of crap jobs and become a professional writer. He sees his late start as an advantage. “I look at a lot of writers who start when they’re 22, and I just think, how do you do that? I’m not that kind of writer.

I’m not naturally gifted in that way. I think I’ve got an ear for dialogue, but everything else I’m learning as I go along. But it means I’m not really scared of things. I’m able to just run at something and see what happens.”

He does however draw back from romanticising the value of ‘life experience’.

“I wasn’t researching life,” he insists.

“I was just being a stupid pisshead.”

Dennis and Sharon would go on to

co-write the sitcom Pulling for BBC3, the premature cancellation of which was an act of cultural vandalism not too far removed from the Taliban blowing up those Buddhas.

At its heart was the idea, oft-ignored in the sugar-and-spice world of TV comedy, that most women are a combination of slugs, snails and puppy dog tails, just like their bollock-bearing brethren. Unusually for TV comedy, the girls get all of the funniest lines, with the sitcom’s three heartbreakingly feckless and delusional female flatmates bringing to life Dennis and Sharon’s wasted twenties. “I did a lot of stupid jobs and I had no idea where I was going,” says Dennis.

“We drank too much and we did stupid things. And we lived in a crap area.

It’s supposed to be the greatest city in the world, but then you live in some shithole and you never even go to the good bits.

That’s where Pulling came from.”

Pulling really ought to have cemented Dennis Kelly’s reputation as one of the country’s finest writers, but it wasn’t to be.

Instead it seems that Matilda the Musical might be the work that makes his name.

If only he and Sharon had thought to shoehorn some show tunes into their sitcom, it could all have been different.

At least he’ll know for next time.

ARTS Matilda: The Musical Cambridge Theatre 32-34 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 0844 800 1110 matildathemusical.com

55 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

ARTS

ARTS IN BRIEF

Potted Panto First the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and now this: a pint-sized production of all that Britain’s panto tradition has to offer. The idea began, like all the best ideas apparently do, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where CBBC children’s TV presenters Dan and Jeff

Richard II 1st December—4th February Donmar Warehouse Earlham Street donmarwarehouse.com

REIGNING MEN /Richard II

It was as Mark Rothko’s wide eyed painting assistant Ken that Eddie Redmayne last walked the boards of the Donmar, directed

by Michael Grandage in the critically acclaimed play Red. His performance won him an Olivier for best supporting role, and a further award when it was reprised on Broadway.

Yet while Grandage has stayed on at the Donmar (to an endless torrent of awards and acclaim), his Red co-star has since rarely appeared outside of the television set.

Now though all this is set to change. Come the 6th December, Redmayne and fellow Donmar darling Andrew Buchan (of The Man Who Had All the Luck fame) will return to the warehouse once more, in William Shakespeare’s powerful history play Richard II. Poetic, unsettling and subtly provocative, Shakespeare’s first history will be Michael Grandage’s final production as the theatre’s artistic director —a fitting end to a tenure that has attracted great actors and directors and provided a launching pad for new ones.

Redmayne will play Richard, while Buchan will play Henry Bolingbroke. The play will end with the former banishing the latter to exile. Yet while many will foresee the end to which this aggressive king is tending, the treatment of it in the consecrated hands of Grandage and his glittering cast list means this will be a Donmar swansong not to be missed.

56 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

had the crowd in hysterics with Potted Potter, the duo’s dramatically reduced version of the boy wizard’s blockbuster.

Realising they were onto a good thing, they launched Potted Pirates—same principle but with pirate yarns—before deciding to take on the great institution of pantomime itself. Last year’s antics

saw them nominated for an Olivier award for Best Entertainment. One can’t help but think this year’s attempts to wake Sleeping Beauty and squash Snow White’s dwarf with Jack’s giant might see them convert that into a win. nimaxtheatres.com

ARTS Don Giovanni In a move that makes even the least organised journalist look like a paragon of punctuality, Mozart only completed Don Giovanni the night before its opening performance, whence he conducted it to thundering applause. Set in 17th century Seville, it follows the ghostly form of a

murdered Commendatore, who in turn pursues the roguish Don Giovanni.

Giovanni’s object is beautiful women, whom he ravishes with lyrical melodies before abandoning to the tune of their conscience stricken arias. Yet while his name may live on today as a byword for all things licentious, there’s no avoiding

his operatic sticky end. Bursting forth in January from the chambers of the Royal Opera House, this ear-rending production will drown out any postholiday blues. roh.org.uk

Strictly Gershwin 4th—15th January London Coliseum 33 St Martin’s Lane eno.org

GEORGE’S MARVELLOUS MEDICINE

/Inside Story Our anonymous West End insider gives a backstage view of life in Theatreland

/Strictly Gershwin

FROM THE CREW ROOM/ PLAYING LIVE When people find out about my job in the theatre, they will occasionally ask me about that other world where the technician’s role is paramount—that of the television techie.

Would I ever change?

The biggest difference between these two worlds is that one is always live and one is generally not. I once caused Russ Abbott to be plunged into a blackout just as he delivered a line that generally got one of the biggest laughs of the night—with predictably silent results. While understandably not overjoyed, Mr. Abbott was charm itself, accepting that everybody occasionally makes mistakes, and generally the technical standard of the show was excellent. The company manager was less sanguine about the whole affair, and I must admit that there was a slight tremor apparent in my wine glass during the usual after-show wind down.

As sets have got bigger and more ambitious, the chances of things going wrong have increased. So too have the stakes. We quite often hold the physical wellbeing of the cast and other crew in our hands. I remember one occasion when it all almost went very, very wrong. One of our truly great actors—whom I am genuinely not allowed to name—was required to sit in a chair that travelled downstage during a monologue. As the chair moved, a huge flying piece of scenery so heavy it took three fly-men to move it, was meant to descend gracefully from above, coming to rest on the stage just as the chair reached its mark.

A truly elegant scene change. However this did involve our leading man gliding along within striking distance of a moving structure large enough to kill him.

57 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

One night the stage manager got his call sequence slightly wrong. Most of us instinctively knew that it wasn’t quite right and the crew propelling the chair downstage sped up as the tension grew. Suddenly the voice of the lighting board operator came over the cans. “Funking close boss. Too funking close,” he shouted, or words to that effect. Everyone knew that the ‘boss’ being addressed was not the stage manager but the head fly-man, who was a close friend; and he was telling him that the chair might not make it. Breaking with all protocol the fly-man took his word for it and slammed on the brakes, a difficult and potentially dangerous procedure imposing real strain on both the system and the operators. After a short disruption the show continued on its brilliant way to the usual standing ovation.

There was of course an inquest.

The board operator was seen as right to voice his concerns, and far more importantly the fly-man was completely exonerated for acting on them. Backstage protocols exist for a reason but in the absence of stage managerial direction, breaking them had been the right decision. No-one really knows if the chair would have passed safely under the descending set, but it had simply been far too close to risk.

Now while the near decapitation of acting greats is not something I would want to go through every day—or ever again to be honest—it yet again brings home the real meaning of the word ‘live’ theatre. You really never know what is going to happen when you amble through the stage door each night. That is why I wouldn’t swap it for all the tea in China.

There’s a time and a place for the sunny sounds of George Gershwin, and a grey winter’s evening at the London Coliseum doesn’t immediately strike us as being it. Nevertheless, come 4th January this is exactly what the English National Ballet is proposing to do, with its razzle-dazzling new show Strictly Gershwin.

Choreographed by Derek Dean, and accompanied by one of the best big bands in London, this all-sequined, all dancing display takes Gershwin classics—Rhapsody in Blue, Summertime and other household numbers—and brings them to life via ballet, tap and ballroom. Its mission is simple—“to get your toes tapping and your spirits soaring”—and while the home of the venerable ENO might seem a peculiar place to do it, there’s no denying the irresistible pull of cracking tunes, glittering costumes and beautiful movement.

With a bona fide Italian creating the costumes and the award-laden composer Don Sebesky on orchestration, this compelling combination of tradition and glitter reaches for the stars of Hollywood’s legendary silver screen —Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly—and promises to leave you singing all the way home.

ARTS

EXHIBIT FORGOTTEN SPACES Until 29th January /Somerset House

THE FIRST ACTRESSES: NELL GWYN TO SARAH SIDDONS

DISLOCATED FLESH: JULIEN OTTAVI AND JENNY PICKETT

Somerset House Lobby Strand 020 7845 4600 somersethouse.org.uk

National Portrait Gallery St Martin’s Place 020 7306 0055 npg.org.uk

Tenderpixel Gallery 10 Cecil Court 020 7379 9464 tenderpixel.com

What would you do with the top of a tower block in Bethnal Green? Or the expanse of nothingness languishing around Croydon station? These are the questions being answered by architects and designers as they vie for a prize of £5,000. To win, they must choose a forgotten space in Greater London and develop it into something worthwhile. Ideas range from the altruistic (an urban farm), to the commercial (event spaces), to the surreal suggestion of climbing tunnels under Clapham.

Somerset House is showcasing the shortlisted entries as well as the winning proposals—and to really enter into the spirit of the competition its own ‘forgotten spaces’ have been opened up, with lightwells, coalholes and the hidden passage known as the Deadhouse all brought to life by models, multimedia and installations. The display is almost guaranteed to attract interest from developers across the city. Potholing in Clapham could be just around the corner.

The NPG’s latest exhibition explores the burgeoning celebrity culture of the 17th and 18th centuries. The much maligned ‘cult of celebrity’, far from being a 21st century phenomena, can be traced right back to the days when Hello! was just a greeting.

Where we have Keira Knightley and Emma Watson, our forebears had Nell Gwyn, Hester Booth and Sarah Siddons, whose portrayal as Joshua Reynolds’s Tragic Muse is one of the painter’s finest works.

What this 53-strong collection of portraits emphasises is just how central the image was, and still is, to women in the public eye.

Pursued by satire and a growing interest in biography, these celebrities were beset by scandal. Even the prim 18th century papers had gossip columns. And with the historic association of actresses with prostitutes still fixed in the public minds, the need for a bit of clever re-touching was as strong as it is now.

This is a blend of fashion, fame and femininity more gripping than anything in Grazia.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: why on earth would anyone want to subject themselves to art inspired by disfigured and mutilated bodies? And more importantly—why would anyone produce it.

Well fear not. Despite its name, this series of abstract, monochrome and sketchily obscure images by Ottavi and Pickett has nothing to do with mutilation and everything to do with how perception, memory and architectural space influence the body —particularly in a post-human construction of society. Julien Ottavi is, among other things, a musician, poet and ‘anarchitect’, whose previous work has seen him combining new technologies and body performances. Jenny Pickett, his collaberator, is similarly crossdisciplinary in her approach. The result is a poetic and often bemusing exploration of the languages of sound, space and image: where they cross-over and how we interpret them.

58 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Until 8 January /National Portrait Gallery

Until 22nd December /Tenderpixel Gallery

ARTS

20 YEARS OF DAZED AND CONFUSED MAGAZINE Until 29th January /Somerset House

Somerset House Terrace Rooms Strand 020 7845 4600 somersethouse.org.uk

Its pages have played host to some of the finest photographers of a generation.

Its front cover was once designed by Alexander McQueen. In the 20 years that it has been turning heads in newsagents it has been a showcase for celebrities and artists past, present and future. So at first sight the subtitle of this new exhibition— which will see Somerset House adorned with displays of some of the magazine’s most legendary photoshoots, front covers and art work—seems a tad disingenuous.

‘Making it Up as We go Along’? Isn’t that what con artists do? Surely cutting edge creative types like Dazed and Confused founders Jefferson Hack and Rankin could have come up with better than that?

One minute inside this veritable kaleidoscope of a display however and you’ll realise such tongue-in-cheek humour is typical of a publication whose irreverent attitude is the very source of its success.

Ever since its inception Dazed and Confused 59 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

has been the glossy standard bearer for all things culture. Even Radiohead’s Thom Yorke deigned to grace its pages—albeit on the intriguing condition that he interviewed himself. And with original, exclusive spreads by the likes of Damien Hirst, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Vivienne Westwood appearing in all their glossy paged glory, this exhibition is a trick not to be missed.

/C ar o br line th ou R at gh od w d an oul t wit is o dc dd hi nh ha ev t a ow ng as ho th e t tat rri e w he e C ble in ar ov vi te ea en sit r o for t G ati f 1 ev ar on 664 er. de n

AP YO O L UR N AG HOALLUE US ES

PAST /14

60 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

PAST

In the mid 17th century, Covent Garden could lay claim to having some of the richest and some of the poorest inhabitants of the city. Whereas a December stroll around the area today will take you through clean, well lit streets, past festively decorated boutiques and cafes emitting the inviting smell of seasonal cooking, a walk north in 1664 would have quickly brought you away from the grand piazza and stately homes of the wealthy, to the coach-makers and brothels of Long Acre and finally into the squalid parish of St Giles. As you walked through the dilapidated tenements, the rats running through the sewage around your feet, it would have been clear why the area had become notorious for its filth and squalor. Its crowded, unsanitary tenements were inhabited by a riotous population of what local chronicler Mr Parton referred to as “Irish mendicants, and other poor of that description”.

To add to the parish’s woes, on Christmas Eve 1664 several ‘searchers’—women armed with candles who were employed to investigate any house that did not answer the cry of “bring out your dead”—marched through the area with a grim purpose.

Entering the home of Goodwoman Phillips, they inspected her black spot-covered body, shut her grieving family inside and marked a red cross upon the deceased woman’s door. The cross was accompanied by text that would have struck fear into any contemporary heart: “Lord have mercy on us,” it read, leaving no doubt that Mrs Phillips had died of the plague.

Those who had seen the devastation caused by previous epidemics in 1603, 1625 and 1636 would not have needed historical tales of the devastating Black Death to appreciate the level of danger they were in, particularly as there were rumours that several other members of the parish had also been carried off by ‘pestilence’ in the past month.

To add to their unease, the residents of Covent Garden witnessed an ill omen on that same evening—an odd-shaped comet that arced through the sky which, as diarist Samuel Pepys observed “appears not with a tail, but only is larger and duller than any other star”.

Anyone who had seen the plague’s effects would have been justified in their 61 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

fear: victims had buboes on their groin, armpits or neck, were covered in blueblack blotches and suffered from fever, headaches, vomiting and delirium before passing into a final coma. Many died within eight days, but the disease could rage on for around a month, ravaging its victims.

In the end though, between 60 and 80 per cent of those infected died.

Theories as to the plague’s causes tended to focus on the moral rather than the medical. Sinful behaviours such as skipping church, going to the theatre and wearing extravagant fashions were believed to have incited God’s punishment.

Xenophobic Londoners also blamed the influx of foreigners, something highlighted

by Daniel Defoe’s fictional Journal, which claims that the disease started in the house of French immigrants on Long Acre and was spread to the City when one of them fled incarceration.

In reality, however, the disease remained isolated in the Covent Garden area during the early part of 1665 while authorities tried desperately to cover it up. There are only a few recorded plague deaths in St Giles before May, as many deaths were falsely attributed to other factors or recorded on the sly. Little Margaret Ponteous, for example, a Covent Garden doctor’s daughter, was buried in St Paul’s church (to the west of the piazza) on 12th April 1665, the real cause of her death only noted by the clerk’s secretive entry—“Pla”—into the parish register.

But the truth could not be contained for long. Information about local deaths was published every week by the parishes in the ‘bills of mortality’. These provided ample conversational fodder for the area’s coffeehouses—when compared to the anecdotes and observations of locals, doubts quickly arose as to the validity of the official plague count. Indeed, if you walked around the overcrowded slums on streets like Maiden Lane, it would have been easy to witness the effects of the plague as it spread without difficulty.

By 30th April Londoners’ panic was palpable. As Pepys wrote: “Great fears of the sickenesse here in the city, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up.

God preserve us all!” Infected people, or those looking to ward off the disease, sought ‘cures’ from a number of sources.

PAST

A PLAGUE ON ALL YOUR HOUSES

Common remedies included Treacle, Mithridatium and Galene—potions with a range of exotic ingredients such as opium and viper’s flesh that were recommended to be served inside an onion. According to historians, Oliver Cromwell had taken Mithridatium during a previous epidemic, finding that as a happy side-effect it also cured his pimples! Strong scents were also thought to ward off disease and many took to chain smoking or wearing flowers upon their person.

Covent Garden residents also had the option of visiting famed astrologer William Lilly at his premises on the Strand. Lilly was known for his astrological almanacs and famously predicted the Great Fire of London in 1666. As he notes in his autobiography: “Very many people of the poorer sort frequented my lodging, many whereof were so civil, as when they brought waters, viz. urines, from infected people, they would stand purposely at a distance. I ordered those infected, and not like to die, cordials, and caused them to sweat, whereby many recovered.”

In June, however, Lilly fled the capital, joining the exodus of the wealthy for whom escape was an option. The minister of St Paul’s Covent Garden, Simon Patrick, found that those who remained were the “the ordinary sort of people; all the gentry and better sort being gone”. He himself fled for two months before returning to take care of his parishioners. Although Patrick did his Christian duty, many consciences were not so strong, and contemporary demographer John Gaunt calculated that 40 per cent of the population fled, including the King and most of parliament.

For those who stayed in London, it was impossible to avoid the growing signs of contagion. On the 7th June Samuel Pepys visited Drury Lane and saw “two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and ‘Lord have mercy upon us’ writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind that, to my remembrance, I ever saw.”

As the presence of the disease became impossible to ignore, official measures were brought in by the Lord Mayor of London on 1st July 1665. Echoing steps taken during previous outbreaks, all suspect homes were inspected and all those infected were 62 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

by exposing plague-riddled corpses and offering parts as firewood.

Public entertainments such as plays, gaming and bear-baiting were curtailed, a curfew was imposed and the streets were deserted. As Dr Hodgson remarked, “at the west-end of the town it was a surprising thing to see those streets which were usually thronged, now grown desolate, so that I have sometimes gone down the length of a whole street and have seen nobody to direct me but watchmen”.

Plague also changed the landscape in other ways, as pest-houses were built to accommodate the sick. Several Covent Garden parishes, including St Paul’s and St Mary Savoy, used the Soho based pest-house of St Martin in the Fields, which held over 90 infected people and was run Two or three houses marked

by Dr Tristran Inard. It is a testament to its with a red cross upon the doors, effectiveness that a large fenced burial ground lay next to the building. and ‘Lord have mercy upon As summer dragged on, hot weather us’ writ there; which was a sad encouraged the spread of disease and sight to me, being the first of the the death toll rocketed. As with previous a crisis of burial space occurred kind that, to my remembrance, outbreaks, and plague pits were dug. Pest carts were I ever saw. used to take stacks of bodies to these huge, unconsecrated pits and no mourners were allowed at these grim ‘burials’. Although internments were supposed to happen at night, the rising volume of casualties sealed with the now familiar markings. meant that dead bodies soon became a Those incarcerated inside were guarded by common sight in the capital, with pest-carts ‘watchers’, who were paid by the parish to frequently trundling along the otherwise guard the building for 40 days from the first deserted streets. As Pepys observed in death and provide food and supplies where early September, it was “strange to see in necessary. Parish finances were certainly broad daylight two or three burials upon the squeezed during the outbreak, as they Bankeside, one at the very heels of another: paid for everything from burial costs to the doubtless all of the plague”. padlocks and staples for locking up houses.

During this month, fires were also lit in an Most of the infected buildings were less effort to dispel the ‘miasma’ (bad air) that than salubrious, and unsurprisingly there was believed to cause the disease. Sadly, were numerous escape attempts and riots. however, these instead killed thousands— At the Ship Tavern in St Giles, for example, healthy and sick alike—who choked to death locals rioted when the authorities on the smoke in the city’s narrow streets. attempted to seal the building, ripping As winter set in the deaths slowly abated, the dreaded red cross off the front door. and by Christmas 1665 Covent Garden There were rumours of infected individuals would have been a scene of cautious attempting to pass the disease onto celebration. Nevertheless, the ravages of others out of spite, and even the parish the Great Plague would have been sadly employees were not known for their good evident: it is estimated that over 15,000 behaviour—diarist Thomas Rugge mentions people died in Covent Garden in little over one notorious bearer named Buckingham, a year—4,500 more than live in the entire who terrified the poor of Covent Garden Covent Garden and Holborn area today.

JONATHAN LOCATION NOTTINGHAM COURT WHY ARE YOU HERE? WORKING—STREET ARTIST WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COVENT GARDEN SHOP? OXFAM

63 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

DIRECTORY/14

FASHION

Accessorize The Market at Covent Garden 22 The Market Building 020 7240 2107 monsoon.co.uk agnès b 35-36 Floral Street 020 7379 1992 agnesb.com Womenswear & menswear Albam 39 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 9391 albamclothing.com Menswear All Saints 5 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7179 3749 57 Long Acre 020 7836 0801 allsaints.co.uk Womenswear & menswear Aubin & Wills 12 Floral Street 020 7240 4024 aubinandwills.com Banana Republic 132 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7836 9567 bananarepublic.gap.eu Womenswear & menswear Barbour 134 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard barbour.com Womenswear & menswear Base 55 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 8914 base-fashions.co.uk Womenswear Ben Sherman 49 Long Acre 020 7836 6196 brand.bensherman.com Menswear Betsey Johnson 4-5 Carriage Hall, 29 Floral street 020 7240 6164 betseyjohnson.com Womenswear Birkenstock 70 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 2783 birkenstock.co.uk Shoes Brora 42 The Market Building 020 7836 6921 brora.co.uk Womenswear Burberry Brit 41-42 King Street burberry.com Womenswear Calvin Klein 120 Long Acre 020 7240 7582 calvinklein.com Womenswear & menswear

Camper 39 Floral Street camper.com Shoes Carhartt 15-17 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 1551 carhartt.com Womenswear & menswear Cos 130-131 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7632 4190 cosstores.com Crazy Pig Designs 38 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 4305 crazypigdesigns.com Jewellery Crocs 48 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 2505 crocs.eu Shoes Desa 6 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7836 6055 desa.uk.com Leather & womenswear David David 36Earlham Street, Seven Dials daviddavidlondon.tumblr.com Womenswear & menswear Diesel 43 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7497 5543 diesel.com Womenswear & menswear Dune 26 James Street 020 7836 1560 dune.co.uk DUO 21 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard duoboots.com Footwear East 16 The Piazza 020 7836 6685 east.co.uk Womenswear Eileen Fisher 4 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard eileenfisher.com Womenswear Energie & Killah 47-49 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 7719 energie.it Menswear Fat Face Clothing Thomas Neal’s Centre, 35 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7497 6464 fatface.com Womenswear & menswear Fifi Wilson 38 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 2121 fifiwilson.com Womenswear

64 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Firetrap 21-23 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7395 1830 firetrap.net Womenswear & menswear Formes 28 Henrietta Street 020 7240 4777 formes.com Pregnant womenswear Fred Perry 14 The Piazza 020 7836 3327 6-8 Thomas Neal’s Centre 020 7836 4513 fredperry.com Womenswear & menswear Freddy 30-32 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 5291 freddy.it Womenswear & menswear Gary Holder 22 Thomas Neal’s Centre, Seven Dials 020 7836 7889 garyholder.com Jewellery Gilda’s Tryst 53 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials gildastryst.co.uk Jewellery G-Star 5-11 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 3707 g-star.com Womenswear & menswear Hoss Intropia 124 Long Acre 020 7240 4900 hossintropia.com Womenswear Jack Wills 136 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 8946 jackwills.com Jaeger London 2 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 3328 9441 jaeger.co.uk Womenswear and menswear Joules 3 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard joules.com Womenswear & menswear Kabiri 18 The Market Building 020 7794 0754 kabiri.co.uk Jewellery Karen Millen 22-23 James Street 020 7836 5355 karenmillen.com Womenswear Kurt Geiger 1 James Street kurtgeiger.com Laird London 23 New Row lairdlondon.co.uk Hats

Laura Lee 42 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 9050 lauraleejewellery.com Jewellery L K Bennett 138 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7379 9890 lkbennett.com Womenswear Lollipops 55 Neal Street, Seven Dials lollipops.fr Women’s accessories Lyle & Scott 40 King Street 020 7379 7190 lyleandscott.com Massimo Dutti 125-126 Long Acre, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7935 0250 massimodutti.com Womenswear & Menswear McClintock 29 Floral Street 020 7240 5055 mcclintock-eyewear.co.uk Eyewear Mimco 46 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 9826 mimco.com.au Accessories Mint 20 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 3440 Vintage clothing Monsoon 5-6 James Street 020 7379 3623 monsoon.co.uk Womenswear Nicole Farhi 11 Floral Street 020 7497 8713 nicolefarhi.com Womenswear & menswear Oliver Sweeney 14 King Street oliversweeney.com Shoes Orla Kiely 31-33 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 4022 orlakiely.com Womenswear and homewares Original Penguin 8 North Piazza orginalpenguin.co.uk Menswear and womenswear Pandora 23 Long Acre pandora.net Jewellery Paul Smith 40-44 Floral Street 020 7836 7828 9-11 Langley Court 020 7240 5420 paulsmith.co.uk Womenswear & menswear

DIRECTORY

Pop Boutique 6 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7497 5262 pop-boutique.com Vintage womenswear & menswear Poste Mistress 61-63 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 4040 postemistress.co.uk Shoes Pretty Ballerinas 7 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard prettyballerinas.com Shoes Rabeanco 25 Long Acre rabeanco.com Bags Replay 32 Long Acre 020 7379 8650 replay.it Rugby Ralph Lauren 43 King Street rugby.com Womenswear & menswear Santos & Mowen 10 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 4365 santosandmowen.com Menswear Size?

37a Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 7853 Shoes Skechers 2-3 James Street uk.skechers.com Shoes Sole 72 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 6777 sole.co.uk Shoes Stone Island 34 Shelton Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 8402 stoneisland.co.uk Menswear Superga 53 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 6935 superga.co.uk Shoes Super Superficial 22 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7287 7447 supersuperficial.com Superdry 24-25 & 28 Thomas Neal’s Centre, Seven Dials superdry.co.uk Womenswear & menswear Tatty Devine 44 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials tattydevine.com Jewellery Ted Baker 1-4 Langley Court 020 7497 8862 tedbaker.com Womenswear & menswear

Twenty8Twelve 8 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7042 3500 twenty8twelve.com Womenswear Tzar 15 King Street 020 7240 0969 Womenswear UGG Australia Long Acre uggaustralia.com Accessories UNCONDITIONAL + 16 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 6931 unconditional.uk.com Womenswear & menswear Urban Outfitters 42-56 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7759 6390 urbanoutfitters.com Womenswear & menswear Vilebrequin 9 King Street vilebrequin.com Men’s swimwear Volcom 7 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 3353 volcomeurope.com Surf and skate fashion WeSC 35 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 4473 wesc.com Skate fashion Whistles 24 Long Acre 020 7240 8195 whistles.co.uk Womenswear

HEALTH & BEAUTY

Adee Phelan 29 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 3777 adeephelan.com Hair & beauty salon Bare Escentuals 40 Neal Street, Seven Dials bareescentuals.co.uk Skincare and cosmetics Benefit 19 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7379 0316 benefitcosmetics.com Cosmetics The Body Control Pilates Centre 35 Little Russell Street 020 7636 8900 bodycontrol.co.uk Covent Garden Dental Practice 61g Oldham Walk 020 7836 9161 cgdp.com Covent Garden Dental Spa 68a Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 9107 coventgardendentalspa.co.uk

65 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Covent Garden Physio Ground Floor, 23-24 Henrietta Street 020 7497 8974 coventgardenphysio.com Physiotherapists The Covent Garden Salon 69 Endell Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 8362 thecoventgardensalon.com Hair & beauty salon

Murdock 18 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 3393 7946 murdocklondon.com Barbers Neal’s Yard Remedies 15 Neal’s Yard, Seven Dials 020 7739 7222 nealsyardremedies.com Natural remedies & skincare

Crabtree & Evelyn The Market at Covent Garden 3 The Piazza 020 7836 3110 crabtree-evelyn.co.uk Erno Laszlo 13 The Market Building 020 3040 3035 ernolaszlo.com Skincare Good Vibes 14-16 Betterton Street 020 7240 6111 goodvibesfitness.co.uk Power Plate fitness studio Hair By Fairy 8-10 Neal’s Yard, Seven Dials 020 7497 0776 hairbyfairy.com Hair & beauty salon Karine Jackson 24 Litchfield Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 0300 karinejackson.co.uk Hair & beauty salon Kiehl’s 29 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 2411 kiehls.com Skincare L’Artisan Parfumeur 13 The Market Building 020 3040 3030 artisanparfumeur.com Perfume L’Occitane 6 The Market Building 020 7379 6040 Lush 11 The Market Building 020 7240 4570 lush.co.uk Mac 38 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 6820 maccosmetics.com Cosmetics Melvita 17 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard uk.melvita.com Skincare Miller Harris 14 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 9378 millerharris.com Molton Brown Emporium 18 Russell Street 020 7240 8383 moltonbrown.co.uk Skincare & cosmetics

Nickel 27 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 4048 nickelspalondon.co.uk Men only spa Pro Health Store 16 Drury Lane 020 7240 1639 pro-healthstore.co.uk Sports nutrition and health supplements relax 7 Mercer Street, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7871 4567 relax.org.uk Beauty and massage centre The Sanctuary 12 Floral Street 0870 770 3350 thesanctuary.co.uk Women only spa Sanrizz 4 Upper St Martin’s Lane 020 7379 8022 sanrizz.co.uk Sassoon 45a Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 6635 sassoon.com Hair salon Screen Face 48 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 3955 screenface.com Cosmetics Shu Uemura 24 Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 7635 shu-uemura.co.jp Skincare & cosmetics Space NK 32 Shelton Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 6384 spacenk.co.uk Skincare & cosmetics Stuart Phillips 25 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 5304 stuartphillips.co.uk Hair salon Thai Square Spa Thai Square Spa 25 Shelton Street 020 7240 6090 thaisquarespa.com Toni & Guy 4 Henrietta Street 020 7240 7342 toniandguy.com Trevor Sorbie 27 Floral Street 0844 445 6901 trevorsorbie.com Hair salon

DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY/14

HEALTH & BEAUTY CONTINUED Walk in Back Rub Neal’s Yard, Seven Dials 020 7836 9111 walkinbackrub.co.uk Massage Yotopia 13 Mercer Street, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 3405 8888 yotopia.co.uk Yoga and pilates studio

RETAIL

Aram Designs 3 Kean Street 020 7240 3933 aram.co.uk Furniture Artbox 14 Thomas Neal’s Centre, Seven Dials 020 7240 0097 artbox.co.uk Fun accessories Berghaus 13 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7379 9313 berghaus.com Outdoor clothing and accessories Cath Kidston 28-32 Shelton Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 4803 cathkidston.co.uk Homewares Coco de Mer 23 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 8882 coco-de-mer.com Womens erotic boutique Covent Garden Academy of Flowers 9 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 6359 academyofflowers.com Flower design courses The Dover Bookshop 18 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 2111 doverbooks.co.uk Design books Ellis Brigham 3-11 Southampton Street 020 7395 1010 ellis-brigham.com Mountain sports Field & Trek 64 Long Acre 020 7379 8167 42 Maiden Lane 020 7379 3793 fieldandtrek.com Outdoor pursuits Kathmandu 26 Henrietta Street 020 7379 4748 kathmandu.co.uk Outdoor pursuits Kidrobot 19 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 4074 kidrobot.com Designer toys

London Marathon Shop 63 Long Acre 020 7240 1244 londonmarathonstore.com Running equipment The North Face 30-32 Southampton Street 020 7240 9577 thenorthface.com Outdoor pursuits Patagonia 6A Langley Street 020 3137 6518 patagonia.com Outdoor pursuits SJ Dent 34 Great Queen Street 020 7242 6018 sjdent.com Sporting memorabilia Slam City Skates 16 Neal’s Yard, Seven Dials 020 7240 0928 slamcity.com Skateboarding equipment Specialized Cycles 11 Mercer Street, St Martin’s Courtyard specializedconceptstore.co.uk Bikes and cycling equipment Spex in the City 1 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 0243 spexinthecity.com Eyewear Stanfords 12-14 Long Acre 020 7836 1321 stanfords.co.uk Maps Time2 128 Long Acre 020 7292 1247 time2.co.uk Watches The Tintin Shop 34 Floral Street 020 7836 1131 thetintinshop.uk.com Tintin memorabilia Treadwell’s Bookshop 34 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 8906 treadwells-london.com Herbals The White Company 5 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 8166 0200 thewhitecompany.com Homewares

FOOD RETAILERS & CAFES

Battersea Pie Station 28 The Market Building 020 7240 9566 batterseapiestation.co.uk Pies Ben’s Cookies The Market at Covent Garden 13a The Market Building 020 7240 6123 benscookies.com 66 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Bougie Macaron 3 Russell Street, Opera Quarter 020 7836 4980 bougie.co.uk Candy Cakes 36 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 30 The Market Building, Lower Courtyard 020 7497 8979 candycakes.eu Bakery Crème de la Crepe 29 The Market Building, Lower Courtyard 020 7836 6896 cremedelacrepe.co.uk Crepes Double Shot Coffee Company 38 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 9742 doubleshotcoffee.co.uk Ella’s Bakehouse 20a The Market Building ellasbakehouse.com Euphorium Bakery Thomas Neal’s Centre, Seven Dials, 020 7379 3608 euphoriumbakery.com Bakery Frances Hilary 42 The Market Building 020 7836 3135 franceshilary.com Gardening Gelatorino 2 Russell Street, Opera Quarter gelatorino.com Italian gelato Hope and Greenwood 1 Russell Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 3314 hopeandgreenwood.co.uk Sweets Kastner & Ovens 52 Floral Street 020 7379 6428 Bakers Ladurée 1 The Market Building laduree.fr Macarones Monmouth Coffee 27 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7379 3516 monmouthcoffee.co.uk Coffee Mr Simm’s Olde Sweet Shop 25 New Row 020 7240 2341 Sweets Neal’s Yard Dairy 17 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 5700 nealsyarddairy.co.uk Cheese New York Deli The Market at Covent Garden 24 The Piazza 020 7379 3253 Notes Music & Coffee 31 St Martin’s Lane 36 Wellington Street 020 7240 0424 notesmusiccoffee.com Coffee and music shop

Patisserie Valerie 15 Bedford Street 020 7379 6428 patisserie-valerie.co.uk Patisserie Primrose Bakery 42 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter primrosebakery.org.uk Cakes Scoop 40 Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 7086 Italian gelato Sweet Couture 23a New Row sweetcouture.co.uk Cupcakes, cakes and small bites The Tea House 15a Neal Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 7539 Tea Tea Palace 12 The Market Building 020 7836 6997 teapalace.co.uk Tea Tea Pod 22 Wellington Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 5550 teapodtea.co.uk Whittard The Market at Covent Garden 38 The Market Building whittard.co.uk 020 7836 7681 Yu-foria Frozen Yoghurt Co 19a The Market Building, Lower Courtyard 020 7240 5532 yu-foria.com Frozen yoghurt

RESTAURANTS

Axis at One Aldwych 1 Aldwych 020 7300 0300 onealdwych.com Modern British Belgo Centraal 50 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7813 2233 belgo-restaurants.co.uk Belgian Bill’s 13 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 8183 bills-website.co.uk Cafe & deli Boulevard Brasserie 38-40 Wellington Street 020 7240 2992 boulevardbrasserie.co.uk Modern European Busaba Eathai 44 Floral Street busaba.com Thai Café des Amis Bar & Restaurant 11-14 Hanover Place, Long Acre 020 7379 3444 cafedesamis.co.uk French

SEAN SELLERS LOCATION CHING COURT WHY ARE YOU HERE? GOING TO MY TAILOR WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COVENT GARDEN SHOP? NICOLE FARHI

67 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

DIRECTORY

DIRECTORY/14

RESTAURANTS CONTINUED Canteen The Market Building canteen.co.uk British Cantina Laredo 10 Upper St Martin’s Lane, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 0630 cantinalaredo.co.uk Mexican Cantina Laredo 10 Upper St Martin’s Lane, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 0630 cantinalaredo.co.uk Mexican Carluccio’s Garrick Street 020 7836 0990 carluccios.com Italian Chez Gerard 45 The Market Building 020 7379 0666 chezgerard.com French Christophers American Bar & Grill 18 Wellington Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 4222 christophersgrill.com Modern American Clos Maggiore 33 King Street 020 7379 9696 Quality food French Côte 17-21 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter 020 7379 9991 cote-restaurants.co.uk French bistro Dishoom 12 Upper St Martin’s Lane, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7420 9320 dishoom.com Bombay cafe Le Deuxieme 65a Long Acre 020 7379 0033 ledeuxieme.com Modern European The Forge 14 Garrick Street 020 7379 1432 theforgerestaurant.com Modern European Great Queen Street 32 Great Queen Street 020 7242 0622 British Hawksmoor Seven Dials 11 Langley Street 020 7856 2154 thehawksmoor.co.uk Steak and cocktails Hi Sushi Izakaya 27 Catherine Street, Opera Quarter restaurantprivilege.com Japanese

The Ivy 1-5 West Street 020 7836 4751 the-ivy.co.uk Modern European The Marquis 51/52 Chandos Place themarquiswc2n.co.uk Pub classics J Sheekey 28-32 St Martin’s Court 020 7240 2565 j-sheekey.co.uk Fish and seafood Jamie’s Italian 11 Upper St Martin’s Lane St Martin’s Courtyard 020 3326 6390 jamieoliver.com Kitchen Italia 41 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 020 7632 9500 kitchen-italia.com Kopapa 32-34 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials kopapa.co.uk 20 7240 6076 Fusion food L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon 13-15 West Street 020 7010 8600 joel-robuchon.com French Le Deux Salons 40-42 William IV Street 020 7420 2050 lesdeuxsalons.co.uk French Livebait 21 Wellington Street, Opera Quarter 020 7836 7161 livebaitrestaurants.co.uk Fish and seafood Loch Fyne Restaurant & Oyster Bar 2-4 Catherine Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 4999 lochfyne.com Fish and seafood Masala Zone 48 Floral Street 020 7379 0101 masalazone.com Indian Mon Plaisir 21 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 7243 monplaisir.co.uk French Opera Tavern 23 Catherine Street, Opera Quarter 020 7836 3680 operatavern.co.uk Tapas Palm Court Brasserie 39 King Street palmcourtbrasserie.co.uk French PJ’s 30 Wellington Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 7529 pjscoventgarden.co.uk Bar and grill

68 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

Porters English Restaurant 17 Henrietta Street 020 7836 6466 porters.uk.com British Restorante Aurora 3 Catherine Street, Opera Quarter 020 7836 7585 Italian Rossopomodoro 50-52 Monmouth Street, Seven Dials 020 7240 9095 rossopomodoro.co.uk Italian Rules 35 Maiden Lane 020 7836 5314 rules.co.uk British Sagar 31 Catherine Street, Opera Quarter 020 7836 6377 gosagar.com Sarastro 126 Drury Lane 020 7836 0101 sarastro-restaurant.com Turkish/Mediterranean Simurgh 17 Garrick Street 020 7240 7811 simurgh.co.uk Persian Sitaaray 167 Drury Lane 020 7269 6422 sitaaray.com Indian Sofra 36 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter 020 7240 3773 sofra.co.uk Turkish Sophie’s Steakhouse 29-31 Wellington Street 020 7836 8836 sophiessteakhouse.co.uk Steak Souk Medina 1a Shorts Gardens, Seven Dials 020 7240 1796 soukrestaurant.net North African Strada 13-15 Tavistock Street, Opera Quarter 020 3077 1127 strada.co.uk Pizza SUDA 23 Slingsby Place, St Martin’s Courtyard 020 7240 8010 suda-thai.com Thai Square 166-170 Shaftesbury Avenue 020 7836 7600 thaisquare.net Thai Thai Wahaca 66 Chandos Place 020 7240 1883 wahaca.com Mexican World Food Café 1st Floor 14 Neal Street 020 7379 0298 World Food

CULTURE

Arts Theatre 6/7 Great Newport Street 020 7836 2132 artsheatrelondon.com Theatre Cambridge Theatre 32-34 Earlham Street, Seven Dials 0844 412 4652 reallyuseful.com Theatre The Courtauld Gallery Somerset House Strand 020 7848 2526 courtauld.ac.uk Gallery Donmar Warehouse 41 Earlham Street 0870 060 6624 ddonmarwarehouse.com Theatre The Funny Side 33-35 Wellington Street 0870 446 0616 thefunnyside.info Stand up comedy Grosvenor Prints 19 Shelton Street, Seven Dials 020 7836 1979 grosvenorprints.com Antique prints London Coliseum St Martin’s Lane 020 7632 8300 eno.org Opera London Transport Museum Covent Garden Piazza 020 7565 7298 ltmuseum.co.uk Noel Coward St Martin’s Lane 0844 482 5141 delfontmackintosh.co.uk Theatre Novello Theatre Aldwych 0870 950 0940 novellotheatre.com Theatre The Poetry Cafe 22 Betterton Sreet 020 7420 9887 poetrysoc.com Poetry Royal Opera House Bow Street 0207 240 1200 royalopera.org Opera Somerset House Strand 020 7845 4600 somersethouse.org.uk Tenderpixel Gallery 10 Cecil Court 020 73799464 tenderpixel.com Visual arts Vaudeville Theatre 404 Strand vaudeville-theatre.co.uk Theatre

DIRECTORY

ST XFORD O W E N

H HIG

Ru ss ell St

SH AF TE SB UR Y

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

PIAZZA

ow New R

LONDON COLISEUM

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69 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011

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‘Experts in Residential Lettings and Management’

THE WEST END’S LEADING LETTINGS AND MANAGEMENT SPECIALISTS If you are currently looking to rent out your property in the West End please contact our Lettings Manager Nathan Yendle on 020 7067 2445 or nathan@pinnacle-property.co.uk

• Craven Street, WC2 • £425 per week • Studio Apartment TEL: 020 7067 2422

• Great Queen Street, WC2 • £675 per week • Two Bedroom Apartment westendlettings@pinnacle-property.co.uk

our brand new estate agency office in

open

the first 15 sales and lettings properties instructed will be special * eligible for 25% off opening offers! our standard agency fees *Terms and conditions apply. Available upon request.

Call us now for a free market appraisal

Sales 0207 242 6650 Lettings 0207 242 7065

or call into our new office 53 Endell Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9AJ

Uk Large Lettings Agency of the Year 2011 Gold Award Large Lettings Agency of the Year 2010 Gold Award Luxury Lettings Agency of the Year 2010 Silver Award National Estate Agent of the Year 2010

Macklin Street WC2B £1,750 per week

James Street WC2E £995 per week

Central St Giles WC2H £750 per week

Dulverton Mansions WC1X £650 per week

An impressive 700 sq ft contemporary apartment with double ceiling height & great access for Covent Garden & Holborn underground stations. Comprising reception, kitchen, 2 double bedrooms, 2 bathrooms & a private terrace.

A brand new 7th floor apartment found within this newly built iconic 24 hour portered development with views across London.

Comprising reception, open plan kitchen, double bedroom, shower room & winter garden.

Lettings 020 7379 5300

A well presented top floor apartment in the heart of Covent Garden directly opposite the underground station & the Piazza.

Comprising reception, open plan kitchen, 3 double bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (2 en-suite) & wood floors.

An interior designed apartment within a mansion block development comprising reception, open plan kitchen, double bedroom & shower room. All bills inclusive, available for short term lettings.

lettings.coventgarden@chestertonhumberts.com

chestertonhumberts.com

DIRECTORY

Craven Street WC2N £6,950,000 leasehold

Bloomsbury Square WC1A £699,950 leasehold

Maiden Lane WC2E

Fleet Street EC4A £570,000 leasehold

Magnificent grade II listed Georgian townhouse, in a highly sought after location just off Victoria Embankment. 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 reception rooms, fitness suite & sauna, secure parking.

£640,000 leasehold

A very well proportioned 1 bedroom flat, found on the first floor in this highly sought after location. Superb reception space with superb reception space with wooden flooring overlooking Maiden Lane.

A beautifully appointed & exceptionally spacious 1 bedroom apartment, found in an enviable setting with direct views onto Bloomsbury Square. Large bedroom & luxurious bathroom, handsome period conversion.

A bright & spacious 2 bedroom apartment positioned on the third floor of this small period development. Enviably located within easy reach of the West End, City & Embankment, making a convenient Central London home.

73 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011 sales.coventgarden@chestertonhumberts.com Sales 020 7836 2888

chestertonhumberts.com

DIRECTORY

74 Covent Garden Journal Issue 14 Winter 2011