North London Food & Culture

Ich Bin Kentishtowner: Fred and Ginger, Gin In Teacups


[quote] Anarchy and law-bending in Kentish Town is always mellow.” [/quote]

All smiles: Gin & Teacups
All smiles: Gin In Teacups

Gin In Teacups is the meeting point between a video production company, a music blog and a TV show; and is run by two female entrepreneurs, Fred & Ginger, who relocated from their native Italy to North London. They record intimate acoustic sessions with acts such as the Mercury Award-winning Alt-J, and the newly critically-acclaimed Andy Burrows. A huge mural in Shoreditch was recently dedicated to them.

When were you happiest ?
GINGER: Has to be the 24th August 2010. We were hanging around the Forum, and The Libertines were playing their first show in years, but it was press only; until a nice bouncer decided we could get in too, and so we were gifted with the gig of a lifetime.
FRED: Something in me was absolutely SURE we were going to get in, even if we didn’t have tickets. I remember the slight nod the security guy gave us. He was so sweet that he covered for us when a colleague tried to stop us. Anarchy and law-bending in Kentish Town is always mellow.

Where would you like to live?
F: If I were to live upstairs from Torriano would they deliver breakfast?


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Be here now: the Torriano. Photograph: Stephen Emms
Perfect for a morning crepe? The Torriano. Photograph: Stephen Emms

What is your favourite sound or smell?
F: I know you can’t smell colours without the aid of some psychotropic substance, but the thing I love the most about K-Town as far as the senses are concerned is the way it looks at dusk: it’s lively and cheery, and oddly enough always reminds me of Christmas town in a A Nightmare Before Christmas.

What is your greatest life achievement?
G: I thought making it to London was sort of it, but then when Fred joined me we decided one day to open our very own video production company, and then Gin In Teacups was born.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
G: Comparison will get you nowhere. You will either feel awful or unnecessarily massaging your ego. Go your own way at the best you can. Even if it’s unprecedented, think how you can be the first doing it.

Next door to MTV on Hawley Crescent.
Next door to MTV on Hawley Crescent.
What is your earliest NW5 memory?
G: It was my first day in London, and I was set to start working at MTV in Hawley crescent the next week, so I went and checked out the place then walked all the way up to the tube station. I remember thinking I’d never wanted to be anywhere else for the rest of my life. It was meant to approximate walking on a cloud, I’m sure.

What makes you unhappy?
G: Misunderstandings. I know given the choice no one wants to be a villain nor a victim, but we end up in those roles, unaware of it, and sometimes it’s hard to reason out of them.

What simple thing would improve your quality of life?
F: I’ve been craving candy for a while now and our gummy bears supplies are embarrassingly low.

What is your most unappealing habit?
G: I do bite my nails and leave cotton buds around in gargantuan quantities.
F: I never ever change to toilet paper roll if I’m the one to finish it. I may draw on it but never change it.

What is your guilty pleasure?
F: Not sure it’s really a problem – I partially think it’s a good thing to have in a room-mate – but when I’m stressed or nervous I clean a lot. It gives me the illusion of control to fight against things gently turning into entropy.

Where do you hang out?
The Torriano Bar is such a great cosy place, and they make wicked crepes.

Who or what do you hate and why?
G: Now this is going to sound too new-age-y but really, hate seems to be an awful lot of energy going to waste to me. Unless someone deliberately hurts someone I love, that is.
F: There’s a fine line between ambition and false advertisement; the difference is action. If you want to be a photographer stop tweeting about how much you love photography and how much your last lens cost, just take pictures!

What’s your best experience in NW5?
G: A day in December, raining really hard, Fred and I just got shelter at the Poundstretcher and bought the most silly useless things, exploring every aisle like we were in a kids’ castle or something like that.
F: … and then we waited for the bus for two centuries.

A bus on Kentish Town Road. Really.
A bus on Kentish Town Road. Really.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
G: A general diffuse plumpness.
F: That’s unfair, I’m female, nothing about my appearance will ever be fully to my liking.

Tell us a secret.
G: I never see the same person walking out of my window twice. Where do all the people go if they never come back?
F: My hair is not naturally blue.

What has your career taught you?
G: Always confront others thinking of them as the dearest person you would speak politely to.

What is your favourite dish and why?
G: Square ones. Because they are unexpected as we are in a round-dish dominated world.

Describe yourself as an animal.
G: I tend to meow when I stretch, does that count?

Find out more about Gin In Teacups here.

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2 thoughts on “Ich Bin Kentishtowner: Fred and Ginger, Gin In Teacups”

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The award-winning print and online title Kentishtowner was founded in 2010 and is part of London Belongs To Me, a citywide network of travel guides for locals. For more info on what we write about and why, see our About section.