Bankside London

Speak to Strangers: Bankside: Prologue

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:59:23 +0100

On my right, two girls sit on the bench. With knees clutched to their chests, they don’t talk, flooding the air with waves of cigarette smoke instead. To my left, you approach, photographing the sky (blue, cloudless), the building works (crane, slung low) and then your feet (sandals,…

Love the sound of this project

Go to this half-hour free theatre experience opposite Leon and behind Tate Modern today and tomorrow. It's a drop in - anytime between 11am and 4pm.

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:19:00 +0100

Yesterday lunchtime I subbled upon an amazing free theatre experience… Etiquette by Rotozaza is a half-hour experience for two people. You wear head phones and sit at a table filled with objects. You and your partner recieve different instructions through your head phones to do/say things to create an evolving narrative/play/performance/experience. I have never communicated in that way before or seen a performance from that perspective, it’s exciting!

Etiquette by Rotozaza is completely free and part of a series of event Tate are running this summer outside on the south side of the gallery: in a space called The Skirt of the Black Mouth.

This is not some crappy immersive theatre it is really good - a completely personal experience that really is quite hard to describe but 100% FUN.

Go today! You don’t need to book just turn up with a buddy. There are three tables so it is unlikely you will have to wait.

http://www.rotozaza.co.uk/etiquette2.html

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/performance-and-music/etiquette-rotozaza

Get down to Tate Modern for #agit8 all day - a free music...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:13:20 +0100

Get down to Tate Modern for #agit8 all day - a free music festival with HUGE acts! All in support of www.one.org.

After Hours... An exhibition of graphic design at Jerwood Visual Arts, Jerwood Space, Union Street

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:34:05 +0100

I have been to this exhibition, JVA’s first devoted to graphic artists, four times.

My favourite bit is the bit about fonts and 3D printing by Michael Johnson. I particularly liked his exploration of one of my fav fonts ‘Helvetica‘…

Printed in 3D the ‘H’ is a medley of all the brand’s who use Helvetica in their logos; from the Guardian to Lufthansa.

Another section I looked at for a long time was the rubbings by Maxwell Harrison. These detail London coal hole covers. Since seeing this work I’ve been looking all around me when I walk by townhouses to see if I can spot any of these historic urban relics. I’ve seen a few but not as many as I would have likes. Every time new pavements are laid these snip its of urban history are lost.

There is lots of fun to be had playing with the remote control drawing machines…. I won’t spoil the surprise by putting up a picture of them.

The exhibition runs until 23rd June.

http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/jerwood-encounter

Konditor & Cook Cake School

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:55:14 +0100

My favourite cake in the world is Konditor & Cook’s Curly Whirly cake so I jumped at the chance to try out their new Cake School where you learn how to decorate one and then take it home with you at the end of the evening (along with cookies & cupcakes)! Now I’m much better at eating cake than I am decorating it so I was a bit concerned about what my efforts would be like, and whether my two friends who I took along would resort to rude pictures! However, the teacher is a pro and you build up gradually from a silver cake stand (wipe clean) to cookies, a cupcake and then the grand finale: the Curly Whirly cake.

There is a warm welcome from Konditor & Cook when you arrive & you are fed nibbles throughout the evening with wine/Prosecco on hand which probably doesn’t help with keeping a steady hand! The tables are covered with pots of different, brightly coloured icing and plenty of tubs of glitter, sparkles & other goodies for your cakes. The eight of us on the evening soon got chatting and into the spirit of decorating, each creating themes for the cookies and cakes. With it being an entirely female group there were plenty of hearts, cute creatures, flowers and stars being created and my final cake even featured handbags & shoes!

All in all it’s a fantastic and different way to spend an evening, we were celebrating our friend’s birthday but it would equally well for a hen party, baby shower or team building event at work. After all; who doesn’t love cake!

There are more dates for cake school coming up - book yours today - http://visitbankside.com/eating-and-drinking/konditor-and-cook

Louise

Blind Date - Charing Cross Theatre

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:40:35 +0100

Charing Cross Theatre is a fantastic place located under Charing Cross’ railway arches just a walk away from Bankside and across the river.

Blind Date, their current show, is one of those exciting and slightly nerve racking shows where you don’t know what will happen next. The premise is that Mimi has been stood up on her blind date and so picks an audience member to replace him. Her date for the evening Jamie was a nice, positive guy who played along well, somewhat uncomfortably at times given his real life girlfriend.

There were real awkward moments just like there are with a real blind date and there were some moments where you worried it could all go horribly wrong. However, Rebecca Northan is a pro, funny and quick witted, leading her man on gently into some very funny situations. Her red clown nose is a reminder that it’s all an act, although it sometimes easy to forget. There is something good natured about the whole evening and tone and Jamie is not set up to look like a fool as could have been the case; you end up rooting for them to be happy & want to know how the date will end.

The joy of the show is that you never know how the evening will turn out and each night is different depending on Mimi’s date.

Hats off to Jamie for being brave enough to get up on stage for 90 minutes and go with the flow (and the free wine they poured him!)

http://www.blinddateonstage.com

Louise

albertayebisackey: Bubbles on Bankside

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:29:12 +0100

albertayebisackey:

Bubbles on Bankside

naeemkhedarun: Street musician. Bankside, London. 26.05.2013.

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:28:29 +0100

naeemkhedarun:

Street musician. Bankside, London. 26.05.2013.

enchantedengland: travelingcolors: London from the Shard |...

Fri, 31 May 2013 14:12:44 +0100

enchantedengland:

travelingcolors: London from the Shard | England (by Mariusz Kluzniak)

Photo

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:41:08 +0100

See omnibuses crossing London Bridge in the 1920s! London in...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:29:16 +0100

See omnibuses crossing London Bridge in the 1920s!

London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

Incredible colour footage of 1920s London shot by an early British pioneer of film named Claude Frisse-Greene, who made a series of travelogues using the colour process his father William - a noted cinematographer - was experimenting with. It’s like a beautifully dusty old postcard you’d find in a junk store, but moving.

Music by Jonquil and Yann Tiersen

vanian: Since my office re-located to Southwark Street I’ve...

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:51:35 +0100

vanian:

Since my office re-located to Southwark Street I’ve been looking for a replacement coffee place, and I’ve just discovered Woolfson & Tay, which is basically perfect. I was having a cappuccino there before work this morning, reading a book, when I suddenly felt something lick my hand. It was the sweetest dog, who looks like a little grey cloud. A bookshop where I can drink coffee and stroke a dog! It’s almost too good to be true. It also has Tai Chi classes and various literary events. It’s the kind of place that tourists are unlikely to stumble upon by accident, but it’s only a five minute walk from the Tate, so if you’re on the South Bank or near London Bridge, I’d definitely recommend popping in.

Raspberry oatmeal breakfast cake

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:44:48 +0100

Today, we ate cake at 11am.

Serves 10

150g plain flour
50g wholemeal flour
75g porridge oats
75g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
170ml skimmed milk
50ml low-fat yoghurt
1 large egg
2 tbsp cornflour
175g fresh or partially thawed raspberries

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

2 In a medium bowl, combine the two flours, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3 In a separate smaller bowl, beat together the milk, yoghurt, egg and cornflour.

4 Add the combined wet ingredients to the combined dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Fold in the raspberries.

5 Spoon the batter into a buttered and floured, nonstick 20cm-square baking tin. Bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes before slicing into squares.

The Breakfast Book by Dorset Cereals (Pavilion). Order a copy for £13.59 with free UK p&p (save £3.40) from guardianbookshop.co.uk or call 0330 333 6846.

Check out this great film of the market waking up. It makes me...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:03:40 +0100

Check out this great film of the market waking up. It makes me hungry!

Tiny ships made of bus tickets, maps, bank notes and flyers...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:32:00 +0100

Tiny ships made of bus tickets, maps, bank notes and flyers filled the Turbine Hall yesterday as part of Susan Stockwell’s Sail Away installation.

Images: www.london-se1.co.uk

Video

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:59:54 +0100

Hyperlink Festival, Tate Modern, Starts TODAY

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:59:00 +0100

Hyperlink is curated by Tate Collective for young people aged 15–25 and is the first in a series of national festivals being developed as part of Circuit, a new national youth network for the visual arts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rDRR4CaxY40#t=178s

Exploring the idea of the ‘six degrees of separation’, Hyperlink invites you to take part in a series of interventions, workshops, performances and installations with artists, photographers, designers and musicians.

Photo

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:39:32 +0100

Bankside | The Junket

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:37:49 +0100

Bankside | The Junket:

‘On Bankside, brandishing my Kraftwerk ticket outside Tate Modern like Charlie Bucket at the factory gates, I’m sloshing over with continental lager - it’s Trans-Europe Express tonight, after all. A retrospective of a futuristic band in a defunct modernist megalith now repurposed to house modern art: are we looking backwards or forwards? Life is timeless. All of it is here…’

Wow! Looks like it’s going to be an amazing Summer at...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:29:00 +0100

Wow! Looks like it’s going to be an amazing Summer at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Never been? Book a trip to Bankside’s most famous theatre asap.

I’m looking forward to seeing ‘Venus and Adonis’ and the ‘Indian Tempest’ - exciting. £10 tickets woo!

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-stage