Market Halls Loos

We’ve been watching MasterChef: The Professionals and luckily were up to date ahead of our trip to London last week, which at least meant we would only have a few episodes to catch up with on our return. But what we didn’t realise was that the episode where the finalists cooked in a pop up kitchen would shape our trip. When the camera showed outside the venue - Market Halls - MOH and I looked at each other and said Oxford Street.

And we weren’t wrong, and while the MasterChef finalists weren’t cooking we guessed there’d be some pretty good food on offer. We weren’t wrong again!

We popped in for lunch last Friday ahead of our train home. The venue is a mix of industrial and glamour, as you’ll see from the pictures below. It had a buzz, which came from the hubbub of small kitchens grouped together, and their customers milling around to choose their food - and from the pager which buzzes when you’re food is ready to collect.

We chose Hotbox, but then struggled to choose from their menu so instead opted for a selection of their smoked meat with some fries. This worked out well for us as we got to try more than we would have done otherwise, and we didn’t have to make that choice!

But you’re right, this is the first loo series post in a while - and so far, there’s no loos.

Thankfully for a large-ish venue, the loos were a decent size. There’s nothing worse than being in a large venue, then discovering there’s four (or less) loos in the Ladies is there?

A row of sinks, mirrors above, tiled walls and flooring - nothing too extravagant, or ground breaking, but looking again and noticing the graduating wall paint colour within each cubicle, now that was smart, subtle but yet impactful.

And that wasn’t all, the vinyls on the mirror were also true to the venue - and definitely made me smile, as did the food we ate - we’ll definitely be going back at some point!

HEY GOOD LOOKING, HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT OUR COOKING?

Post Comment Love 24 - 26 November

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, nor will other linkers be required to comment on them. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

I’m writing this post way in advance of its publication as we’ve had a day or two in London this week, and for once we really are travelling light. I’m also not expecting to have too much time online this week, as we’ve plenty on our ‘London list’. This includes seeing friends, socialising as well as some relaxing, pottering around the Big Smoke, and researching some items I’ve had my eye on, and no doubt a few I hadn’t even contemplated yet!

Last weekend I veered from my sourdough break baking ritual for the first time in a fair while, instead making this spelt bread. It turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself, and it was nice to spend some time kneading the dough. Spelt bread needs a little more kneading to wake up the gluten, and perhaps I could have given it some more, but a little more than ten minutes seemed fine. It was only after I’d baked the bread that MOH asked if I’d noticed how clean the worktop was… oops! I was definitely, yes dear, I thought you’d done that so I could knead some bread. Just as well it tastes as good as it looks, hey?

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Adding functionality with an Urbansize floating dressing table

One of the spaces that we needed to make work for us is in our dressing area, which is a rather grand name for the space between our bedroom and en-suite which also contains a built in wardrobe. The wardrobe is big, though the dressing area is small but with potential.

So I started to scour the internet for a small piece of functional furniture. I wanted something with a drawer, so that our clutter could be out of sight, and after much internet searching I found a unit that worked with the dimensions I had. It arrived in the summer, flat packed, and the afternoon we had the Red Arrows fly over MOH spent some time putting it together, with just a few swears here and there. We had doubts about it then, and well let’s just say it was in the ‘too good to be true’ category and while it technically should have worked, functionally it didn’t.

Just for clarity the Urbansize floating oak dressing table pictured is our replacement option, and one I wish we’d gone for in the first place. Sigh.

Anyway, after a month or two of not actually using the original piece of furniture for anything like we planned, we agreed enough was enough and we should try again. I’m not naming the company we bought the original piece from here and they have since closed their order book, which speaks volumes.

I remembered that I’d pinned the Urbansize* floating oak dressing table when our new house was just a possibility - I’ve no idea why I hadn’t remembered before, and it would have been a lot easier, and less expensive, if I had. What’s more the dimensions worked too. Even better MOH was on board with the replacement.

*Sadly Urbansize are no longer trading.

Urbansize aren’t a company I was familiar with and so after my previous experience I thought I’d do some research and digging. The company was formed in Greenwich, just down the road from our previous house - who would have thought, and their registered office was just off our local parade of shops when we lived in London. The founder Sallie King designed her first piece, the floating bedside table frustrated at not being able to find furniture to fit her urban sized flat.

I’m very glad she did.

We ordered our floating dressing table, and it was despatched quickly and with us within a week - and in fact, much quicker than we expected. It looks great too. It comes with instructions on how to fit, which in fairness could have been more detailed, and optional brackets. We have plasterboard walls, and as I’m keen it stays on the wall, we opted to use these.

The drawers are small, but that’s kind of the point of it. It’s furniture for a smaller space so the drawers were never going to be huge. They’re big enough to hold some toiletries, and deep enough to have a mirror on the top. The mirror is from Ikea and a steal at £19 - it’s one that I saw and liked when we visited the Cotswolds in September.

Before we started using the drawers though I added some paper as a liner to help protect it - my thinking is that it will be much easier to replace the paper, than to try and clean the base of the drawer!

It’s a small addition to a small space that has really added value and made the space functional, rather than just a walkway to the bathroom - and I’m really pleased with how our version 2 worked out. So much so, that I’ve been back on their site to see what else they have. I’ve not made another purchase yet, but I’d definitely use them again.

I’m sure over time we’ll add more to this space, and we definitely need to revamp the inside of our wardrobe so it works makes full use of what is a relatively large space. It currently has a single shelf above the hanging space which is across the full width, which doesn’t work for us, so if you’ve used a company to fit out the interior of your wardrobe that you’ve been impressed by, I’m all ears.