Village Underground

These re-purposed tube carriages have been photographed loads but I was particularly excited to see them as I bumbled through Shoreditch en route to Hackney Central one Saturday afternoon. The Village Underground project was featured on George Clark’s Amazing Spaces which was a Thursday evening favourite of mine and my flatmate’s in Christchurch, New Zealand. So as I rounded a corner in London I got that jolt of eek-I’ve-seen-them-on-the-telly excitement!

I’ve always found the space on public transport interesting. These tube carriages re-purposed as artists studio reminded me of the bus journeys of my youth on the Cardiff Clipper P7 service from Cardiff to Barry via Penarth, where I’d day dream about how I’d design the interior of the bus were it my mobile house!

As well as being a cultural space and an artists’ community the Village Underground is an ecology project. In a society that is so wasteful it’s always heart-warming to see things recycled and given another lease of life.

Nice to see Nathan Barley is still knocking around. 

Getting Regional

I recently had the rather lovely opportunity to reprise my old role as a designer on ITV regional news. Rather fittingly, what with it being region news an' all, this gave me the chance to visit a different region of the UK; I packed my bags and headed to Birmingham for the week. 

Although it's the UK's second city I know very little about Brum so it was nice to get a little better acquainted. The following snaps are from a lunchtime stroll through the streets of the city centre. Birmingham has some cool and varied architecture from the impressive Victorian Art Gallery and Council House through to the striking Library of Birmingham.

Library of Birmingham

Birmingham Council House

Bullring Shopping Centre