Given the moniker the ‘St Pancras’ of leisure facilities (by people far cleverer than ourselves), the Prince Of Wales Road Victorian baths spent 5 years in refurbishment and £25 million later opened in summer 2010 as the jewel of the (Kentish) crown. If you like swimming and stuff, head there pronto. Me, I’d rather scoff …
Just past the railway arches on Grafton Road, and backing onto famous Spring Studios, is acclaimed Dazed & Confused photographer Rankin’s Annroy Building. “I wanted people to feel it was a photographer’s building,” he says. “I wanted to make people think of a roll of film, of a contact sheet, when they saw the outside.” …
Never heard of Torriano? Sounds a bit ‘foreign’, doesn’t it. Actually, it’s a bohemian-ish area east of Kentish Town. Poetry and folk nights still take place at the Torriano Meeting House, there’s a nearby vibrant road of independent shops like this one, and a great local boozer, the Torriano (71-73 Torriano avenue) complete with mixed …
Tiny but don’t be put off. You might have to ring the bell too. The Beardsmore Gallery is a perfect stop en route from 176 (further along Prince Of Wales road) and on the way to Rankin’s Annroy, Spring Projects or Map Studios cafe. Expect fine art, from prints to painters. And don’t be scared …
Oh my. Map Cafe is an absolute gem situated on a leafy corner on the area’s creative thoroughfare, Grafton Road, in West Kentish Town. Swing by for lunch (if it’s warm on the terrace) – perhaps a quiche or a home-made chicken stew (around £4), or, if it’s tea-time, a moist carrot cake and cappuccino, …
176 is ace. You could even say it’s one of the most exciting artistic openings since Tate Modern. Housed in an atmospheric Victorian Methodist Chapel lightly renovated by the team behind The Tea Building in Shoreditch, 176 (or, as it’s really called, Zabludowicz Collection) displays some of the most innovative art around. And there’s nothing …
