Bethnal Green Town Hall

We liked this view when we passed by on the way to work today. The new Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green.

Coming Up For Air

We're very proud of our copy of Stephen Gill's beautiful new book, launched last night at the Photographer's Gallery.

Bold Tendencies 4

We had the pleasure of visiting Hannah Barry's annual sculpture show Bold Tendencies 4 last night. Held in the famously unlikely confines of Peckham Rye multistorey carpark, the exhibition includes work by up and coming artists, including Edward Fornieles, Rachel Adams, and Giles Round. We loved the actually lovely airy spaciousness of the freshly scrubbed upper floors of the carpark, which somehow the work seemed to complement perfectly, each piece having a wealth of space to occupy. And as for Frank's Cafe and Campari Bar on the roof - you can bet we'll be back there again this summer - you can see the whole of London from up there! With sculptures. Lovely.

Rachel Adams

Anthea Hamilton

Edward Fornieles

George Henry Longly

The New Decor

Also on at the Hayward Gallery along with Ernesto Neto, the New Decor is a lovely bright show of objects where I guess art and furniture intersect. Our favourites included 1/2 Life by Jin Shi, which reproduces a Chinese migrant workers living quarters at, of course, half size; Doris Salcedo's Untitled room piece,; Martin Boyce's suspended fluorescent sculpture; Jim Lambie's optical tape ramp (you had to be there); and Django Hernandez's revolving chair leg. The main room of the gallery looks especially great with all the light works in it - really bright and not like it usually does with subdued gallery lighting.

Jin Shi

Django Hernandez

Martin Boyce

Ernesto Neto at the Hayward Gallery

We went on a quiet weekday to Ernesto Neto's show in the upper gallery of the Hayward (also on downstairs - The New Decor - more on that later) but could easily imagine it gets rammed at the weekend. A really fun space with lots to do, looks fun for kids, and topped off with a free swimming pool! You have to book in advance and its not included in your exhibition ticket but we were there on a hot and sunny Friday afternoon about 4 and it was dead - maybe everyone was watching the Brazil match. Walking through all the stretchy fabric installations you just wanted to get into your swimming costume and get in the water. Summery! PS apologies for the last photo, I like a nice detail and this little barrier that was up in front on on of the wall installations was really cute, obviously made to tie in with the rest of the exhibition.

Margiela ella ella hey hey

Well I for one wasn't expecting to like the Margiela show at Somerset House nearly as much as I did. As it turns out my reservations, as usual, were completely unfounded. But, leaving it after a nice little Friday afternoon jaunt, we were slightly confounded by the fact that we actually felt really good for having seen it. Maybe it has something to do with what seems to be the Margiela philosophy - heavy on wit and uncompromising conceptually, and yet completely practical. Taking itself seriously and yet not. Even now I'm feeling impressed. See it.

KILL IT

We like a bit of heavy metal of an evening; so on Saturday night we donned head to toe black to take in few of Soho's finest filthy rock bars (Intrepid Fox and Crobar).Imbibing fine whiskey and red stripe straight from the can while cocking our ears to the exquisite sounds of hard rock. One of our number had just spent to the weekend at the mighty Download festival and regaled us with tales of the filth and fury that goes with spending three days in the company of ACDC, Rage Against the Machine, Them Crooked Vultures, Megadeath and the like. The night of metal reached it's head banging crescendo at The Macbeth (according to our cab driver the site of Amy Winehouse's ex's skuffle which resulted in his incarceration) on Hoxton St where Motorkill, the joyously excellent Motorhead tribute band played a blinding set. With pints of warm beer raised in homage we moshed with the cool kids of Shoreditch. We chatted with the band afterwards and being friendly Brummie's they had plenty of craic. We'd advise you check them out next time they're in town.