Design Museum, 3rd May

It has taken me so long to visit the Design Museum because it is one of those rare museums in London that actually charges. You can browse the museum shop for free (and you should – all sorts of cool oddities in there), or have a coffee and cake but you can’t set foot into an exhibit without handing over a bit of dosh.

So, I waited until there was something I was pretty sure I was going to like before going. This does mean, of course, that I can’t really talk about the place in general, as the exhibitions change, and I can’t guarantee you’ll always find them worth the entry fee. But the current exhibitions, I think, are.

The museum is, as you would expect, quite modern in feel – a blank canvas on which to arrange the exhibitions. When we went, the first floor was given over to a retrospective of Paul Smith. As a girl I’m woefully uninterested in fashion and both knew and cared little about Paul Smith. But I rather enjoyed this and it succeeded in making me more interested in him and his brand. Starting off with a reconstruction of his very first shop, taking you through his story, complete with mock-ups of his office, or the studio where his designers work, and interspersed with video and audio, I thought it was very effective. I appreciated his design more, and I liked him as a person.

The real reason for going, though was to see the Design of the Year exhibition. Almost 30 entries were put on display along with explanation of what they did. If ever you want to be inspired by the innovation, creativity and motivation to better the world that humans can possess, then head here and soak it all in. There was gadgetry on display, such as the mobile phone made out of separate, replaceable components, or the Citymapper app that I’ve been using constantly since getting it a few months ago. There were improvements to transport – things as simple as a removable mud guard, to completely new types of cars.

 There was recognition of architecture and artistry. And design didn’t just mean physical products and fixtures. One of my favourites was a fashion show where the designer used models of all shapes and sizes, and instead of ‘doing their little turn on the catwalk’ they performed an aggressive dance to drum beats, with feet stomping and body slapping and war cries. It gave me chills actually.

On top of that were advancements in medicine – a needle which indicates whether it has been used or not to avoid contaminating patients. A place where children with cancer can live with their families. 

You even get to vote on which one was your favourite, although if you’re anything like me, you’ll find that a difficult decision to make. So many of them seem so useful either in an everyday kind of way, or in a sweeping, benefit for mankind kind of way. And it’s fun to wonder which ones actually will become a part of our lives in the future. As I read somewhere – you get to see the things that will likely end up in other museums some day as artefacts, back when they were barely more than ideas.

Be amazed with the human brain. Go.  

Maltby Street Market, 21st July

I think Maltby Street Market might be my new favourite market. This little market is located just over Tower Bridge in Bermondsey and is only open on Saturdays between 9 am and 2 pm. What had motivated me to finally get down there was Time Out's description of St. John's custard doughnuts which they advised go quickly. My friend at work had also sung the market's praises. I intended to get down there at about 10 in order not to miss anything but well, it's a Saturday so that was always going to be ambitious. 

I did manage to get there before 11 though and at first I was rather underwhelmed. There's not much to it. But then I thought, well, how much do you need? Probably two cheese places, tops - a couple of places that do meat, a bakery, and a few options of food to eat on the go. Maltby Street Market provides all this with the added bonus that the hordes that crowd Borough Market just a stone's throw away still haven't discovered it. I was really surprised that there were so few people here. What it does mean (I felt) was that, unlike Borough where you can practically go there for lunch and have your fill by grazing on all the free offerings, here I felt I could really only try if I was serious about buying. 

The market isn't a traditional market of makeshift stalls - a lot of the vendors have permanent pitches within the railway arches. If you're a foodie then there are a few familiar names - Monty's Deli, Speckmobile and Sorbitum. And also Bea's of Bloomsbury's and St John's bakery have arches on the other side of the tracks on Druid St as opposed to Maltby Street proper. But it all counts as the same place. There was an amazing looking bakery with both sweet and savoury stuff but I didn't see what it's name was, and had already bought my delights from St John's so couldn't allow myself something from there as well. If anyone knows it, please feel free to leave a comment letting me know. And there were a few unfamiliar names to me - somewhere doing Latin American type food (mental note made to go back to try their cheese bread), a Turkish place serving coffee in little copper pots lovely enough to make me wish I drank coffee and a sweet-looking little gin bar, but it was a little early in the day to try them out. There were also a couple of grocery stalls, one boasting it supplies top London restaurants. But I wasn't there for healthy stuff.


So I went round to St John's and bought myself a custard doughnut. I also succumbed to the lovely looking mini Eccles cakes and bought one of them as well. I must confess I had no idea what an Eccles cake was although I did suspect it would have raisins in it as all English 'buns' and 'cakes' seem to have fruit in them. Sadly, this was the case, but happily, they were just one big ball of them so I just picked off the incredibly delicious pastry around them. 

The custard doughnut was also pretty good, although I don't know if it's worthy of a Time Out 100 Best Dishes. I needn't have worried about them selling out - there was practically a full tray of them. The custard was admittedly fabulous - so light and with just the right hint of vanilla. But the doughnut pastry I found only so-so. 

As you walk into Maltby Street market there's a garage dedicated to Porsche's and round the corner there is an antiques store. And as you go in, there seems to be a stall also selling antiquey bric-a-brac. I saw this:

Anyone think it's genuine?

Russian Tank, 8th January

We were meeting some friends for a catch-up as we hadn’t seen each other since before the Holidays, and a bit of a wander which was more than welcome considering I hadn’t done any exercise, or indeed barely left the flat, since before Christmas. We agreed to meet at the Brunel museum (though not go inside) and head out from there in the direction of Bermondsey, an area I wasn’t acquainted with.

Bermondsey is meant to be a bit of an up and coming place and from what I saw it does seem to have its fair share of trendy and inviting cafes, bars and eateries. At least along Bermondsey High Street. We stumbled across the Bermondsey (obv) branch of the White Cube gallery and decided to have a mosey in there. There were two artists showing their work. Both contemporary. Neither particularly appealing to me. I do like modern art sometimes but this stuff didn’t really speak to me on a visual level, and as they weren’t accompanied by explanations of their meaning, they didn’t really speak to me on an intellectual level either. The actual building they were showcased in was impressive. Cubic and, you guessed it – white. Very large rooms with tall ceilings and not much else apart from the works on show.

After having completed some wandering, I had my bearings a bit, and while in the Cube, realised that I was pretty sure that one of the things on my List was in this rough area. I had a quick scroll (I keep a copy of my list on my phone) and checked where Mandela Way was in relation to where we were. It was a mere mile away. I suggested to my friends that we make it our next destination and they agreed.

It was fairly easy to get to Mandela Way, but it didn’t really look as I had expected. We were there to see a decommissioned Russian tank, that as far as I could remember, was sitting in someone’s front yard, with it’s gun pointing toward City Hall (or the local council offices, not sure which) because they tried to stop the owner from leaving it there. Where we turned up was in the middle of what looked like an industrial estate, not the sort of place with houses in front of which tanks could be planted. I was a little disheartened. But not for long. Our techie friend immediately looked it up on the Net and it turns out the tank has its own Wikipedia page which kindly tells you exactly where on Mandela Way it is. We were in roughly the right place and only had to walk ten minutes to reach it.

There it was, on corner of some scrubland, sitting behind a fence. 

It has been painted and repainted a couple of times but now is mostly covered in graffiti. I thought it was going to look more like it did when in use but actually, the graffiti is quite effective in making it look like it’s just a natural part of the urban landscape. I was busy trying to take pictures of it through the fence when I noticed my friend wander into my shot, which rather surprised me as I had assumed it was cordoned off. In fact, just one foot along there was an opening in the fence, clearly so people could get up close to it and have a play on it, which my boyfriend duly did. 

Other people might think it’s not really worth the effort to get to it, as it’s not really near any tubes and to be honest, I wouldn’t want to walk in that area alone or on a dark night but I’m glad we did it. I get to cross another quirky bit of London off the list, but also it was oddly enjoyable seeing it there.