Redchurch Street, Shoreditch

When London Design Festival began last Tuesday, I started in East London on Redchurch Street, Shoreditch. It is an old street that was some time ago small factories, workshops and garages. Today the workshops and old garages are cleaned up, redesigned and made into fashionable cafes and shops.

First stop was Cafeand, a cafe and a shop selling home made foods, furniture and decorative items: www.cafeand.co.uk

A few doors down was Tracey Neuls, www.tn29.com, a chic shoe store that has teamed up with furniture maker Faudet-Harrison:

Tracey's shoes are colorful, practical and stylish and shown with the post-modern ironic accessories by Faudet-Harrison.

Lots of graffiti on the street, next stop was Cubit:

Cubit is a great shelving system of well made modular boxes that fit and stack up holding all kinds of books and ornaments. It is a system that does not have the infuriating Ikea instruction sheets and eliminates the need for a carpenter, wow... storage made easy, portable and attractive.

When I went in to Cubit, there was some great Rock and Roll playing on a portable record player, the D-Jay playing old 45's

Across the street was the Concept Lounge at The Gallery an exercise in generating ideas and a forum for interdisciplinary exchange.

Further down the street was Maison Trois Garcons, a treasure trove of vintage and antique

At the end of the street was a pop up shop of sculptural handmade leather bags by Larissa Hadjio

And on the corner was a pop up bar, Bar Alto with the DesignMarketo group featuring new take on the Duralex tumbler. 

Redchurch Street reminds me much of other urban areas that go through good times, then bad, than a renewal as a new generation of artists, designers, architects and chefs need good, inexpensive places to start up their businesses. Also along the street, but were closed when I got there, were many clothing stores. Soho in New York was much like that in the 70's, many parts of Brooklyn, Oakland and Detroit are going through revival, Shoreditch is well on its way.