Sculpture and texture at the Soap Yard

There’s nothing better than a sunny, lazy Sunday and our trip to Parrillan in the newly opened Borough Yards will take quite a bit to beat. Not only was there great food and a relaxing space, but there was also a visit to the nearby Neal’s Yard Dairy, a great unexpected sculpture and of course, time to check out the loos.

It wasn’t until we were through the bricked arch that I turned round and spotted the painted sign to the Soap Yard - the brickwork, and the neon signs pulled me towards them, but I soon backtracked to admire this too. Both are from different times, but both are equally design classics aren’t they?

Once through the arch and after taking a photo of almost every brick, I noticed the globe sculpture titled The World Reimagined - Stolen Legacy: The Rebirth of a Nation, which is by Alison Turner. It’s one of 103 unique globes across the UK which explore the history, legacy and future of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans.

Alison Turner is a mosaic artist who uses recycled vintage bone china, broken and discarded pottery, glass, ceramic tile and porcelain ornaments to create unique artwork. Her globe at Borough Yards was fantastic, and it’s the sort of piece that not only has deep meaning, but one that every time you look at it you’ll spot something different, and be enchanted again.

The World Reimagined - Stolen Legacy: The Rebirth of a Nation – Artist: Alison Turner

We were early for our lunch reservation so took some time to wander around the space admiring yet more brickwork, and the structures they formed. I couldn’t help but notice and admire the curved reception desk at Parrillan which I’m sure was chosen to echo its surroundings.

It soon became clear though, that texture had been given a lot of thought. Even the lemon meringue pie - which was as tasty as it looks - adopted the brief.

And in the loos it was once again evident, with the panelled metal sheet on the ceiling, the smooth sink surrounds and the curves and symmetry of the mirrors and wall lights, demonstrating again that you can be adventurous with texture in a relatively small space.

Back outside we moved from our table to a less formal space to end our meal. There were a few discoveries there, not least the heated seat pads (not pictured). Who knew, what an invention though sadly we had no need for them on our visit, but definitely something to try on a future, slightly chillier visit!

The modern wooden bench also caught my eye for its simple elegance, and the texture it too brought to the space. Alongside it the planting introduced more, the needles of the pine and the underplanting of soft mossy mounds. That’s how you do texture.

But also, succulents and small frothy ferns. What a combination.

Rebel, Rebel - beautiful and timely

Last Friday while MOH went into the office for the first time ever in his current role, I decided to take in a new exhibition at the Barbican. That exhibition was Soheila Sokhanvari’s Rebel Rebel, in The Curve until 26 February if you fancy popping along, and explores the ‘contradictions of Iranian women’s lives between 1925 and the 1979 revolution - an explosive period of both liberation and commodification that proved short lived.’

The space - which is named well - contains miniature portraits of glamorous cultural figures from Iran and shares their stories of creative careers in a culture full of Western style, but not its freedoms. Entering the space it was clear it was going to be pretty special.

MONOLITH, 2022, Wood, metal, perspex mirrors and glitter

The portraits are small but the impact is large, especially against the hand-painted geometric pattern, based on traditional Islamic design, which covers the floor and walls of the space. The space is calming and a space for reflection.

There are so many inspirational stories contained within the exhibition and the exhibition guide shares so much more than the short summary I’m sharing here.

Googoosh (1950- )

Known as Googoosh, Faegheh Atashin is possibly the biggest star of 20th century Iran, who began performing at 3, becoming a child star at just 7. She’s known for her prolific music-making releasing more than 200 songs in the 60s and 70s. She was imprisoned for a short time and released on the condition of no more singing in public, though she relaunched her career in 2000 when she was allowed to leave the country again.

Her short hair cut was known as the ‘Googooshy’ - and there aren’t many people that get one of those named after them - I can think of two others, though I’m sure there’s more. The Purdey - yes I’m showing my age, and the Rachel - still old, but not quite so much!

If you’re none the wiser, the Purdey was from The Avengers and was Joanna Lumley’s character, and Rachel was from Friends.

GOOGOOSH 1950- The Love Addict (Portraits of Googoosh), 2019

Forouzan (1937-2016)

Filmfarsi superstar Forouzan’s breakthough role come in 1965 and made her reputation as one of Iran’s most alluring and bankable actors. She made more than 60 films and was the best paid female performer in the industry and remained in Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979. She was released from prison after signing a letter of repentance, but her money and property were seized by the courts and she died in obscurity, never giving interviews again.

FOROUZAN 1937-2016 - Hey Baby I’m a Star (Portrait of Forouzan), 2019

It’s clear that each of the portraits are a labour of love using the ancient technique of egg tempera - painted onto calf vellum with a squirrel-hair brush. The exhibition title borrowed from David Bowie’s song pays tribute to the courage of these female stars as the 1979 revolution left them with a stark choice: renounce any role in public life or be forced into exile. Given the demonstrations currently taking place in Iran, this exhibition is timely though I’m sure it was already in the Barbican’s programme, but it really does give plenty of food for thought on history, and how things really haven’t changed in the intervening years.

But despite all of that, the courage of these women is remarkable, and for me that was summed up in one of the posters in the shop.

A weekend away with one eye on the news

Last Thursday we headed down to the South West to visit family. The journey is often full of traffic on a Friday with many people leaving London for the weekend, and no matter what time of day it is we often get caught in queues we’d rather not sit in, so our new-ish tactic is to travel down the day before, stopping somewhere along the way. A long time favourite stop is Lyme Regis, and that was our plan for the Thursday afternoon all being well with the traffic.

This time the traffic cooperated, the weather less so. At times it was almost impossible to see through the short, but heavy downpours and the majority of the cars around us slowed significantly to cope with the conditions. Not all, but most and we arrived shortly after lunchtime despite the Sat Nav’s best efforts to have us stranded after being unable to reroute around a closed road. The diversion didn’t look that helpful either, the arrow pointed back the way we’d come and after that we weren’t sure, so we headed towards Bridport and then along the coast instead.

It was a grey day in Lyme, and our plans were to get lunch and have a bit of a wander. The cafe we chose for lunch offered some alternative pasty fillings - chicken and chorizo for me, and minted lamb for MOH, both tasty and on the spicier side. People arriving in the cafe started to arrive in varying degrees of wet weather gear, and more noticeably wet wet weather gear. So instead of heading for a wander around the Cobb, which while wonderful is more exposed than we wanted to be, we tried something new and followed the River Lim Path to Uplyme.

The path starts in the town where you walk past colourful cottages and then heads inland following the River Lim past old mills and through a wooded valley. It’s about 1.5 miles in total and is really well signposted. The advantage for us, and others on the trail, was that not only was it beautiful but the woodlands provided some shelter from the rain. There is a pub at Uplyme and a bus route which you can take to Lyme Regis, but after a brief pause we headed back on foot. As we reached the town again the rain got heavier, and so our first thoughts were to get to the car and into the dry. We’d seen on the news at lunchtime the announcement that the Royal Family were heading to Balmoral and quickly caught up on the most recent news before heading off to Chard and our B&B for the night.

Chard is less than thirty minutes from Lyme Regis, and I’ve since discovered is the southernmost town in Somerset, and one of the highest towns. It’s other unusual feature is a stream running along either side of Fore Street, and given the downpour that we got caught in while looking for somewhere to eat that evening it also had one down the paths too. We arrived in our chosen Indian restaurant much damper than we’d been all day despite it being a relatively short walk from where we were staying, and where we were when we heard the sadly anticipated announcement of the Queen’s death by Buckingham Palace.

I’d chosen to stay in Chard due to its proximity to Forde Abbey, a house and garden we’d not visited before. The house is home to the Mortlake tapestries, and has hosted Cistercian monks, was implicated in the Monmouth Rebellion and more recently was the backdrop to the Hollywood adaption of Thomas Hardy’s 'Far From the Madding Crowd’ which I’ve not seen.

The gardens started with the walled garden which framed the house beautifully. As you’ll see, unlike in Sandwich (where we didn’t manage to eat a sandwich), this time we were able to find chard growing in Chard, as well as some giant pumpkins!

CHARD IN CHARD

The wildflower ‘swirl’ (above) was a really nice addition to the more formal and traditional aspects of the garden. There was also a Bog garden with gunnera leaves easily 5ft tall, and the Centenary Fountain which celebrates 100 years of the Roper family at the property, reaching 160ft into the air. We caught the first display of the day, and had been warned to check the wind direction so managed (by luck) to be on the right side of the lake. Unlike the two people in the swing seat on the right in the picture below. They got a little wet, shrieked quite a bit and learnt that an umbrella over their legs didn’t provide much respite.

It was a great place to visit, and thankfully we were lucky with the weather (and fountains) so arrived in Devon relatively dry.

On Saturday we headed out again, heading over to Anstey’s Cove and the Bishop’s Walk in Torquay following the walk along the coastal path, where I snapped these views, before retracing our steps and heading down into the Cove for lunch. These are the views you expect of Devon, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact it did so much more, and you wouldn’t have thought that two days could be more different, but we were very grateful.

On Sunday, we were due to go to a car show but that was cancelled out of respect to Queen Elizabeth. So instead we drove over to Tiverton and spent some time exploring Knightshayes with it’s post-war garden, 19th century parkland and Gothic Revival house. The thing that struck both MOH & I was how green and lush the countryside looked, and how different to the parched landscape we’d become accustomed to in our part of South London.

It had plenty of our favourites - topiary for me, and cannas for MOH. As well as another walled kitchen garden. We’d stopped at this National Trust property once before, it was back in September 2014 so I’m not surprised MOH didn’t remember, and we didn’t go in the house that time either. Looking back at those photos some things have understandably changed, and there’s scope for me to do a ‘then and now’ post as well as a look inside the house looking at the ceilings and decor in more detail. But what ceilings, for many years they remained covered with a false ceiling concealing their beauty - imagine discovering those!

We ended our weekend by breaking our return journey with a stop in Marlborough, another favourite spot of ours with its long high street full of shops and with parking right down the centre. We used to say we had a regular cafe in Marlborough as it was one of our often stops on the way to Devon, but that sadly closed a few years ago. There are plenty of others to choose from though so we haven’t stopped visiting.

This time we noticed a new farm shop and cafe had opened just along from where we parked. And so we stopped here for lunch - a giant veggie sausage roll and the biggest slice of coffee and walnut cake. I’ve a feeling that the Eversfield Farm Shop could become our new favourite there, and it’s a fantastic looking period building too.

We left there full, and with some supplies from the farm shop too. Then we headed over the road to pick up some slightly more ordinary every day groceries before another couple of hours in the car home. Travelling there on a Thursday, and then back again on a Monday definitely improved our journey traffic-wise, and meant we had more time to explore a wonderful part of the country.

I’m also planning to make my own version of veggie sausage rolls, I just need to source some puff pastry!