I always have a destination or some "must sees" when I visit somewhere, probably far to much time on the internet, My mission today was Anthropology on Regent St, I've been fascinated by this shop ever since we stumbled upon the Santa Monica store in 2003, its decor of crumbling paintwork and a wall of faded plates, polished concrete floors and exposed patches of tiles, its quirky clothes, blew me away at the time. I've never been back into another store. I have searched there website and read about different collaborations with artisans and pinned many images of their store displays, inbetween times.
This day I had a sit in(listen) on a design planning meeting and a coffee at Soho house the London venue of the SOHO group,( Babbington house )and wandered off with my google maps! It was mentioned before I left that it (Anthropology Store) was now "a commercialisation of everything we loved" undettered I visited. My first impressions were disappointment, it wasn't" blow me away" amazing anymore, and it took several moments to find the display gems that were still there, just not so cohesive and maybe just not so different anymore. Retail display and hospitality has moved on so much in those 11 years, its difficult to be different especially for such a large chain of stores.I found some inspiration though.
The boat on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the picture below is" A Room for London" by Living Architecture. A modern Noah's Ark placed on the flat roof of the Hall for the London Olympics and Golden Jubilee year. It was supposed to be removed at the end of 2012 but remains as it has proved so popular, for some great photos visit this post from the blog shehadusathello To stay the night you need to register for a ballot which is held every two months. What great london views.
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