“Mega, mega, mega going back to Romford” sang Underworld vocalist Karl Hyde on 1996 hit single Born Slippy, made famous by its inclusion on the soundtrack of Danny Boyle’s film adaptation of Trainspotting.
Its lyrics paint an abstract picture of the travails of journeying home to the Havering town from the point of view of an overly-inebriated narrator who’s just rolled out of a pub somewhere near Tottenham Court Road.
Fast forward 26 years, though, and not only is travelling from Soho and other parts of London to Romford set to get much quicker, it’s an area that’s experiencing a degree of mega change.
The opening of Crossrail’s central and eastern section – rumoured to be happening in May – will not only mean direct connections to Tottenham Court Road but also radically shortened journey times to whole swathes of the capital including Canary Wharf.
That’s something, presumably, the founder and CEO of One Canada Square-based Impact Capital Group, Robert Whitton, is looking forward to.
In addition to being born and raised in Romford, he’s created a company that is part of that change.
Impact Capital recently won planning permission from Havering Council to build the best part of 1,000 homes on the site of a former ice rink within walking distance of the town’s Crossrail station.
“I used to go skating there and I remember watching the Romford Raiders ice hockey team play,” said Robert. “I also used to take my children there to use the facilities.”
Artificial slippiness at the site – a piece of land encircled by Rom Valley Way adjacent to Queen’s Hospital – came to an end around a decade ago when the rink was demolished and another opened elsewhere in the town.
For the past nine years, various plans have been tabled for the area’s regeneration, culminating in Impact’s successful application.
While approval from the Greater London Authority and a Section 106 agreement remain outstanding, the hope is to break ground on what will become Rom Valley Gardens by the end of the year.
Impact Capital Group founder and CEO Robert Whitton
“The proposed scheme will see 972 homes built as well as 223 care units for later living or residential care, a medical centre, retail and cafe spaces, gym facilities and other amenities.
Impact’s intention is to use its modular construction factory to deliver much of the development, which will have a strong focus on sustainability.
“It feels good to have reached this point – there’s a lot of support for it,” said Robert.
“When it does come forward people will be very pleasantly surprised, because we are trying to do something that’s very different.
“It’s not going to be an ordinary development – we are looking for this to be a zero-carbon development, pushing the boundaries and looking for new concepts like inter-generational living and creating a real sense of place and community.
“That’s why we’ve included a lot of additional provision for these things within the plans, which we didn’t have to do, but wanted to.
“There will be facilities, both for residents and other community groups – an indoor gym and an outdoor gym and a big public square, where we hope to hold big outdoor events.
“There are residents’ lounges and a mixture of public and private open spaces to create a real neighbourhood – in many ways an urban village.
“We’ve put in there what is now termed ‘independent living’ with extra care provisioning, which is a great concept – it’s the idea of integrating that within a larger development, which will have elements that will also attract younger people, such as the private rental homes, and larger units for families. We want that whole mix of generations.
“I don’t live very far from it now, and have lots of friends and family who live in the area, so it’s very much my home town. It’s a great honour and privilege to be able to bring forward such a transformational project as this.”
An artist’s impression of how Rom Valley Gardens will look when work is completed
Robert said Impact, which will manage the development in perpetuity once it is built, would use its factory in Peterborough to ensure a high level of quality control in the building process, helping it deliver on its eco-friendly ambitions for the project.
“Construction and the built environment are the biggest polluters in the world, so we want to have a neutral footprint in delivering this neighbourhood,” he said.
“That way everyone living there will know this new neighbourhood doesn’t have a negative effect on the environment at large.
“They will also notice their energy bills are very, very low – the buildings will be firmly thermal-efficient with double or triple glazing and we’ll be making use of renewable energy.
“Because they’re built in a controlled factory environment, we can get the air-tightness of those units much better than traditional construction methods, and speed up the time it takes to get the project built.”
The development’s proximity to Queen’s Hospital – something that will be particularly beneficial to its older residents – is also an important element in its delivery.
“Included in the plans is a 3,000sq m diagnostic centre for the hospital,” said Robert.
“Timing for that is dependent on agreement with them, but that’s great for local residents.
“The hospital has also told us it has big issues with recruitment and retention, so having housing and facilities close to it will be good to help address that.
“Havering Council will work with the NHS so key workers can get prioritisation within the social housing element.”
For Wharfers interested in spotting trains – estimates vary, but Elizabeth line services could cut the commute from Romford to Canary Wharf by about 16 minutes per journey – more than half an hour a day, or two and a half hours per week.
Oh, and incidentally, Born Slippy was named after a racing Greyhound that members of Underworld once watched run in Romford – mega.
He might look like a sombre-suited Clark Kent but Garry Moore is actually a superhero.
He has invented a way of saving something vital to life on this planet. Water.
His superloo uses the power of air to blow away waste – saving countless litres of our most precious resource.
And he has chosen Alpha Grove Community Centre on the Isle Of Dogs as one of the first venues in the world to trial the toilets, produced by his company Velocity.
“There is amazing pressure on water sustainability in the UK,” said Garry. “People think it rains a lot here but it’s not enough to be self-sufficient.
“We need to make sure we are not wasting what is a precious resource. It’s clean drinking water and we flush it down the toilet and turn it into raw sewage. That’s a luxury that can’t continue.”
His toilets are the first domestic designs in the world to use a pressurised air flush. They use 1.4 litres of water to clean the bowl, rather than the nine litres used on average by a traditional toilet, a reduction of 85%.
Garry said it meant his design was eco-friendly and also more pocket friendly, paying for themselves in four years through a 25% average saving on water bills.
He said the superloo also required no behavioural change from users and would help achieve water neutrality when developments were built – meaning the impact on water availability would be the same or less than previously.
“I’m a very practical person and have an inquisitive mind,” said Garry. “I’m always questioning how things are built and why they are built that way.
“So many things we interact with every day have been invented by someone and I like to consider whether they could be designed better.”
The married father-of-two has self-funded and developed the toilet from his home workshop in Westcliff-on-Sea and at the Innovation Centre at the University Of Essex in Colchester, with a team of six experts.
“They include a ceramic sanitaryware specialist, a mechanical engineer and a microbiologist.
An artist’s impression of Velocity’s toilet
Garry and his team are now getting ready to bring the innovation to market within the next year. He said the Isle of Dogs was the perfect place to test the invention.
The area holds great meaning for the 57-year-old. His parents were born and raised in Canning Town, surviving the Blitz and working in the docks before moving to Ilford to raise their family.
It was at the University Of East London campus in Docklands where Garry developed his first air flush toilet with Propelair during the 1990s and 2000s.
It was aimed at commercial use and went on to be installed in the Barclays and Citi buildings in Canary Wharf as well as at branches of McDonald’s and Moto service stations.
He parted ways with the company on bad terms in 2018 and thought his dream of revolutionising the toilet industry was over.
But inspiration hit once again during lockdown.
“I realised working from home was here to stay and, with COP26, people were not saving water using those flushes at the office,” said Garry.
“So I formed a home working group with my original design team and set about designing Velocity for domestic use.”
The original 20-year patents that his Propelair design was based on had expired, so Garry was free to have another shot at his superloo.
“It wasn’t my choice to leave Propelair,” he said. “I spent 16 years building the company up, 10 years unpaid and to just have to walk away was really difficult.
“I had secured £1million to develop a domestic version, but it just hadn’t happened.
“Then, during lockdown I just realised we had to do it – society needed it, because 75% of the market is domestic.
“So it has been absolutely fantastic working again on a new project with the team.”
His new toilet is more compact, quieter and has a motion sensor, offering hands-free opening and flushing.
But the main star is the in-built air system, which has shades of Back To The Future inventor Doc Brown.
“I had some big lightbulb moments – the main one being something we call the flush capacitor,” said Garry.
“It came to me while lying in a hammock drinking a beer in the summer of 2020.
“With a conventional toilet, you have a water cistern and, when you flush, water flows from it into the pan and carries the waste out into the sewer. It requires a lot of water.
“With Velocity, the lid seals onto the pan and when you flush a small amount of water comes in to clean the pan and then air is sent directly in and cannot escape, so it pushes the waste into the drain.
“With this system, you are not actually relying on water to move the waste, it is only for cleaning.”
Garry will trial the toilet at Alpha Grove Community Centre on the Isle Of Dogs
Southwest Water is testing the design from a regulatory standpoint, while the project at Alpha Grove will check how effective Garry’s design is in a real-life situation.
The toilets are due to be installed at the community centre as part of its redevelopment, which is being overseen by Dennis Sharp Architects.
Garry’s team is currently capturing six months of data from the site to map out its current water and energy consumption so the company can demonstrate what the savings are with Velocity.
Garry said installation of 12 toilets was expected to take place in early summer.
“We’re really excited about the first trial at Alpha Grove because it is a residential area,” said Garry.
“They’re trying to be an exemplar of low water use. It’s going to be a great place for us to do some demonstrations and save them water and carbon.
“We’re also looking at developing additional hygiene benefits, including chemical-free disinfectants.
“We want to eliminate the use of bleach and develop technology that kills Covid and other viruses.”
The trained engineer said people often laughed when they first heard about his job, but quickly realised the gravity of what he is doing.
“The modern toilet was crucial in preventing cholera,” said Garry.
“I’m pleased to be following in the footsteps of Doctor John Snow, who influenced big changes in public health and the construction of improved sanitation facilities.
“The first flushing toilet was invented hundreds of years ago for Queen Elizabeth I and, since then, the industry hasn’t radically innovated at all.
“As we move into the 21st century, we need to look at a different way of doing it. A royal appointment would be fantastic – you have got to dream big.
“I know the world needs to save water and we are developing a product that’s going to enable it to do that.
“I would love to see our toilets go into every home in the UK and to know we are really doing some good for the environment.”
Garry’s father, Stan Moore
DOCKLANDS LEGACY – THE MAN BEHIND THE MAN
When Garry’s father, Stan Moore, lived in Docklands, everything was different.
The 95-year-old grew up in Canning Town during the Second World War, when the Alpha Grove was a Methodist Church and the family’s toilet was an outhouse.
“It was my job to tear up the News Of The World, to use in it,” he said.
Aged 14 he started working for the civil defence association, delivering messages and putting out fires around the Docks.
“It was terrible – the Blitz,” he said. “One day you would walk down a road in Canning Town and the next it was all gone.
“As a young kid I took it all in my stride. My poor mum was a widow and had to bring up five kids with no pension.
“We lost our house and got evacuated. Our family was really lucky to come out of it in one piece.”
In the 1960s his father-in-law helped get him work at Millwall and Royal Docks, but Stan said he was “very suspicious” about risking his house by giving up his £17-a-week job at William Warne rubber factory in Barking.
“There were thousands of dockers waiting to pick up work,” he said of his first day. “I was told by an elderly docker ‘no matter what, you don’t go on the ships.”
By hometime he had earned £17 loading flour and said: “I couldn’t get on my motorbike quick enough to tell my missus.”
The places he knew have all been flattened but Stan said he loves having the chance to go back and visit with Garry and to see where his son is working.
“He’s a wonderful bloke,” said Stan, “Good looking and everything he does is good.
This image is a great big pile of old tech (albeit American in this instance).
While coin has been around for thousands of years, there’s a growing sense that physical money has had its day.
Go to an ATM – machines once used on an almost daily basis. Try and remember your PIN and extract some cash.
See how odd the plastic notes feel, how strange the idea that they might be taken to a shop and broken down into small metal discs representing value.
Currency was digital before the pandemic but now physical euros, dollars and pounds seem increasingly otherworldly.
That’s one reason, perhaps, why cryptocurrencies seem less and less exotic.
If wealth is simply represented by numbers on a screen, maybe changing the logo next to them with the hope of making money on the trade is a little less scary than say, walking up to a currency exchange counter and converting a familiar set of notes into something completely alien.
Maybe it’s why about a fifth of British people have owned cryptocurrency as of March this year – up 103% on 2018.
Statistics like these will doubtless be welcome reading for Asher Tan, co-founder of CoinJar, which operates from bases in Australia, and Level39 in Canary Wharf.
He created the company with business partner Ryan Zhou in 2013 after the pair took part in an incubator scheme in Melbourne as interest around Bitcoin, which emerged in 2009 grew.
“CoinJar is a simple way to buy, hold and sell crypto assets,” said Asher.
“We also have tools, such as a debit Mastercard, so that people can go to any ATM and convert their crypto to any currency they want or spend it where the card is accepted.
“That part of the business has been a long time coming – we’d had previous versions, but we were a small company and nobody wanted to work with us until now when we’ve partnered with Mastercard.
“Most people use CoinJar for some form of asset investment, to just buy and hold crypto.
“The popularity of doing that comes in waves every two or three years.
“You have a huge upswing as crypto rises in value, then cryptomania resumes, but that’s just the nature of the cycles. It’s been easing off in the last three months.”
CoinJar co-founder Asher Tan at Level39 in Canary Wharf
Such fluctuations are not unusual and Asher exudes the air of a business owner content to play the long game.
Bitcoin, the most well-known and first cryptocurrency is famed for its rapid fluctuations in value, having gone from a few pence in value in 2009 to more than £30,000 per coin in 2022.
It’s still about 50% of the total crypto market but has since been joined by a bewildering array of digital coins – Injective, The Sandbox, Synthetix and Bancor, for example – many of which can be bought on CoinJar for a few pounds.
Ethereum, perhaps the second most well-known, can be bought for about £2,300 at the time of writing.
Doubtless people will continue to buy and sell the stuff in the hope of a big pay day.
But there’s another way to make money from crypto and that was the niche Asher and Ryan spotted.
“Being a startup in 2013 was a good vintage – we travelled quite a bit, saw other companies being built and, in the UK, saw the fintech bubble beginning,” said Asher.
“The message was already being pushed out that London was the fintech capital of the world and Level39 – Canary Wharf’s tech accelerator – was created about that time too.
“That was a bold move by Canary Wharf Group, to combine the existing financial infrastructure with fintech and it’s one that has really paid off.
“Being part of that early group, crypto was a movement – we were all trying to figure out this piece of technology.
“Everyone was trying to push for something but not everyone knew what that was yet.
“Everyone was trying to build services – some people created crypto point of sale businesses, others wallets to keep crypto in and some exchanges so people could buy it.
“Would you use it to pay for coffee? There was even a Bitcoin ATM in Old Street. Back then it was underground, people looking for consumer services.
“Now, in 2022, after the pandemic, crypto is almost accepted as an asset class, not just Bitcoin.
“There’s some debate about how you use it, but no-one argues that this isn’t the status quo.
“The premise has shifted and the imagination continues to grow.
“It might seem crazy to some people, but it’s the job of entrepreneurs to make these things happen. We’re trying to create an alternative financial system for the whole world.”
Bitcoin remains about 50% of the total cryptocurrency market
While the currencies it trades in are very different, CoinJar operates in a similar way to a conventional exchange, charging a fee to change money from one currency to another.
It also levies a 1% fee on in-store and online purchases and cash withdrawals for those using its debit card, available in either physical or digital form.
Having operated consistently in Australia, CoinJar has maintained a presence in Canary Wharf, deciding in 2018 to expand its business in earnest overseas.
“It’s been nine years since we started the company,” said Asher.
“In that time there have been so many peaks and troughs about Bitcoin – it’s died a thousand times. In the early years, you were wondering if this was a fatal step or whether cryptocurrency even needed to exist.
“At some points the overriding opinion was that crypto was just going to evaporate. So you do need belief and it takes time.
“Like with most good things, you have to wait. When we first came to Level39 we never fully launched and there were questions about whether we should just focus on Australia, but we always kept the membership even when we weren’t operating in the UK.
“So, in 2020 we had a proper launch and now we have six people based at One Canada Square. I think the UK market has always been slightly under-served in terms of crypto services.
“But there are some things it has in common with Australia, such as strong regulation.
“It’s always been a market we wanted to enter because the two countries have a unique friendship. It’s a good place to come for Australian startups.
“In terms of the future for CoinJar, the product is always changing.
“We started this business to provide consumers with an alternative way to use finance, so that means we’ve also got to keep up and change as the industry develops.
“As a business, we’re first generation crypto – we now have staff who are much younger and their views are very different – everything’s going to change, right?
“Now it’s Non-Fungible Tokens and these seemed very strange to me when I heard about them in 2017, but nine years ago crypto was very strange to everyone. It’s important to keep challenging yourself about the reality of the online world.”
The question all those teetering on the brink of their first investment want answered, is whether it’s worth it?
“Different people have different strategies,” said Asher. “Personally, I’m not a trader day-to-day – I don’t really see crypto as get rich quick.
“With fintech there’s no cap to what it could be, so it captures the imagination and then the sky’s the limit.
“In the early days there were a lot of predictions around crypto – everyone would be using it, the banks would all take it. But, come on, seriously? It might happen.
“The premise of crypto has always been about choice. You can opt for something different – you don’t have to choose one of the big banks – you can use alternative platforms in terms of investment. Right now, that means there are more options.
“Crypto has always been something for people who want to try different things. Right now, I do believe the promise has benefit for everyone in terms of buying and holding cryptocurrency – an experience most people should try.
“You can get into it for £10, so it’s not a huge financial commitment to try to understand what this movement is about.
“Use it, try to make sense of the technological mystery behind it, and I think that’s the first step to a better understanding of why it even exists.”
Cryptocurrency remains a very volatile investment. What you do with your money is your own affair and this article should in no way be seen as recommending the purchase of cryptocurrency.
There’s a subtle shift taking place at Humble Grape.
The bottle shop and wine bar, which has its Canary Wharf branch at Mackenzie Walk overlooking Newfoundland and Middle Dock, will always be focused on supplying bottles and glasses you just can’t get anywhere else.
But the venue is also increasingly focused on the variety and flavours of the food it serves to its customers.
The man whose blue eyes are tasked with overseeing that operation across the company’s five locations is executive chef Dane Barnard.
“I started off as the head chef at the Battersea branch and, back then, there was no executive chef or a real food identity across the business,” he said.
“Each branch was doing its own thing. To an extent we still do, because you should be able to taste each head chef’s personality on the plate but as we’re becoming more and more about food – it’s about coming up with that identity.
“Now we know what we are and where we’re going – to really drive that side of Humble Grape.
“We’re not food-led, but it’s about half our business now, which is where we want to be.
“Humble Grape is a place you can come with friends or colleagues to enjoy wine along with something to eat.
Humble Grape is located in Mackenzie Walk in Canary Wharf
“Our founder and CEO, James Dawson has done such an amazing job finding all these niche wine suppliers that you can’t find anywhere else in the UK.
“My vision is to bring the food in line with that – to use as much free-range, organic and sustainable produce as we can and to really try to mirror what we’re doing with the wine.
“That starts with our suppliers – it takes a long time to find the right ones and to build that relationship.
“For example, we use Donald Russell, which is a big one but they source produce from individual farms. We go to them with a detailed spec and they come back if they can help us.
“We certainly don’t know everything, so if they give us an ingredient then we can always try to do something with it.
“Even though I’m executive chef, I’m learning from my head chefs every single day – we have people from Spain and France and we’re constantly teaching each other. There’s a lot of passion and knowledge.
“We meet up for menu development and swap ideas – that’s what we’re looking for here and we’re always looking for talented chefs.”
Octopus carpaccio at Humble Grape (£14.50)
That process has led to a menu of small plates at the Canary Wharf branch, including baked Camembert with sourdough bread, octopus carpaccio with compressed cucumber, stem broccoli with a lemon dressing and crab on a flatbread with chilli.
“My style of cooking is more about flavour than delicate presentation,” said Dane.
“A lot of my training was with a chef from America and we used the whole animal – that’s something we are teaching our teams at Humble Grape.
“For example, if we get a whole pig we take it apart, cure the legs use the cheeks and render the fat down to use when cooking.
“Every part of it has something to offer, you can even use the skin. You can see it on the menu where we’re using lamb neck for a small plate, served with freekeh.
“That’s more of a common cut but it has loads of flavour and you’re starting to see the upper echelons of the restaurant world jumping on that bandwagon.”
Stem broccoli with lemon dressing at Humble Grape (£8)
Dane, who joined Humble Grape in 2018 following stints at The Lockhart and Shotgun BBQ, is also keen to showcase vegetables.
“Spring is amazing,” he said. “If you can’t cook in this season, you can’t cook – there’s such a range of flavours and we try to use English seasonal ingredients.
“Vegan food had already come along big time before the pandemic hit – back then it was about 10% of diners and now we’re looking at perhaps 30%.
“We don’t go down the route of using products that look like meat – we’d rather use vegetables that look and taste like vegetables and try to enhance those flavours.”
With around 400 wines available at Humble Grape, the majority exclusively available through the business, the emphasis is on accessibility rather than prescriptive pairing.
“We regularly taste the wines,” said Dane.
“It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it and it really helps when we’re developing new dishes.
“Our staff will be on hand to help with suggestions, of course, but we don’t tell people what wine to have with a particular dish – this is a place where people choose.”
Lamb neck with freekeh at Humble Grape (£13.50)
The venue, which offers bar snacks, sharing boards, sweets and a range of meats and cheeses, also serves more substantial dishes such as herb-crusted chalk stream trout with Jersey royals, steaks and a spring pea and asparagus pasta.
“The Sunday roasts are probably the best place to start here,” said Dane.
“We serve lamb, chicken, pork, beef and nut roast – all sustainable and organic – as something traditional but more in a sharing style with Yorkshire pudding, grilled cauliflower cheese, roast root veg and gravy for £18.
“We used to do a bottomless brunch, but everybody does that, so now we do a bottomless lunch on Saturdays.
“I didn’t become a chef to cook eggs for people, so we thought it would be better to showcase our small plates
“You get three plus unlimited Prosecco, red wine, white wine or beer for 90 minutes for £35 between noon and 4pm.
“Our intention is, when the summer comes, that we will expand the food offering a bit more.
“We’ve got a massive grill in the kitchen, so when it’s sunny and people are on the terrace, we’ll be looking to maximise the use of that and really make it a place to come and sit outside.”
Herb-crusted chalk stream trout with Jersey royals (£20)
To go with the food, Humble Grape boasts plenty of regular wine offers including Retail Monday (our favourite), where bottles can be drunk at takeaway prices, Tasting Tuesday – a mini flight of four wines for £15 per person, and Icon Thursday And Friday, where more expensive bottles are sold by the glass.
Booking is not required to participate in any of these events – just drop in and place an order.
The Canary Wharf branch of Humble Grape is also launching an Express Lunch menu from Wednesday–Friday with a main course for £14, two courses for £19 or three for £22.
When branches of The Sushi Co have swept the nation, with outposts in every major city and restaurants every couple of miles in London, remember that it all started on the Isle Of Dogs.
The business opened its first restaurant and takeaway at the eastern tip of Westward Parade opposite Crossharbour DLR in January and already it’s one of three locations in the capital.
Targeting rapid growth, with plans for at least 13 restaurants this year, its owners believe they’ve spotted a gap in the takeaway market and they’re moving fast to claim it as their territory.
“We already had a background in food, running pizza franchises,” said Sam Reddy, who oversees operations on the ground for The Sushi Co.
“We’d seen the trend for sushi and initially we thought we’d become franchisees but we decided to create our own brand instead.
“Doing that gives you a lot more freedom – you are able to determine the quality of everything and you can make decisions much more quickly.
“Personally, two years ago, I’d never even tried sushi so we had to do a lot of research. We ate in so many places, we must have tried every brand in London.”
That included eating at the restaurant of Peng Zheng, whose food impressed so much that The Sushi Co approached him to join the project.
“Peng has designed the whole menu from scratch,” said Sam. “He’s our head chef, so while we’re good at building the sites, finding the best suppliers and investing the money where it needs to be, he can concentrate on creating the right food.
“We told him our idea – to create a UK-wide brand – and he really liked it.”
Part of the reason for that is a shared commitment to the quality of the food. Walk into The Sushi Co’s Isle Of Dogs branch and you’ll see a chiller cabinet with a selection of drinks and a couple of cheery signs explaining that the kitchen hasn’t run out of food, but that all dishes are made to order.
“When we were doing our research, we realised there were lots of brands storing products in the fridge,” said Sam.
“But that’s not sushi. It should never be stored that way and you shouldn’t eat it chilled. It should be eaten warm and freshly made.
“That is what we do. It’s not instant, customers have to wait five or 10 minutes. But because they want to eat good quality sushi, they’re happy to do that.
“Whether a customer has come to the restaurant to collect the food, or it’s being given to a delivery driver, it’s all made and served to order.
“Top sushi restaurants would never put their products in the fridge, so why would we?”
While the first restaurant has some seating for diners to eat in, The Sushi Co has primarily been conceived as a takeaway and is available through Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat.
Sam said: “Our main target is that customers should receive food from our restaurants in under 25 minutes.
“Our focus now is on scaling up because there’s nobody else in this market in terms of delivering fresh sushi. There are some independent restaurants, but we want to grow quickly.”
With an eye on maximising accessibility, Peng and the team have developed a menu rich in sushi and sashimi but that also includes a range of poke bowls, gyoza dumplings and hot meals as an alternative to the core dishes.
“Some people think sushi isn’t for them, but it is for everyone,” said Sam.
“To be honest, I had that feeling two years ago, but not anymore and that’s because I experienced it.
“When people see that it’s raw, some wonder if it’s safe to eat, but our brand follows the highest standards of food hygiene.
“We think we’ve developed a really good product, quite different to pre-prepared boxes you might buy at the supermarket and now we just really want people to try it.
“Once people come to us, they will realise how much better sushi that hasn’t been chilled really is.
“The feedback from customers has been really great – in the end you can’t build a business if the product isn’t right.”
As for the future, The Sushi Co plans to roll out branches across London first, with slightly larger outposts in big cities across the country being an ambition for the future.
Food-wise, having found its feet, there are also plans afoot to collaborate with chefs on signature dishes on a regular basis.
The brand serves an extensive range of sushi including nigiri, uramaki, hosomaki and futo maki as well as selection boxes. Hot dishes include the likes of curries, noodle dishes and soups.
“Personally I really like the prawn katsu, which is fried in breadcrumbs,” said Sam.
“But I also really enjoy the rolls we offer, many of which come with special sauces that we also make in-house.
“I really like to eat sushi, but my wife doesn’t, so having that variety on the menu is very important because it means we offer something for everyone.
“Not every takeaway business does this but we think it’s essential.
“There’s still a lot to learn for us on this brand, of course, but the first two branches have been really, really successful and we’ve just opened the third so we’re very excited about the future.
“I really believe you can’t get the quality of food that we’re serving in any other fast food takeaway.
“Of course you can go to an expensive sushi restaurant, but many of our dishes are only £10-12 and we use top quality ingredients.”
The Sushi Co is trading on the Isle Of Dogs and in Chiswick and Holborn with branches in Woodford and Lewisham set to be open by May 9.
Expect to see quite a few popping up over the coming years.
Unusually, this is a story that starts with retirement.
At the age of 49, having worked extensively in commercial property and run a big public company, Andy Lewis-Pratt decided he hated what he was doing, resigned and headed to the Algarve with his wife and daughter.
“I had no intention of doing any kind of work ever again,” he said.
“I burnt all my suits and it was one of the most cathartic moments of my life.”
But after five years of Yoga, tennis and golf, boredom was setting in.
Coupled with a desire to see their daughter educated more effectively than ex-pat life allowed, the family decided to return to the UK.
“Being retired in your 50s in Portugal is great because you find people like yourself – the average age of retirees like me out there was 42 and we had lots of fun,” said Andy.
“But it’s not fine in the UK – I was bored out of my skull, so I started googling some ideas about what I might do before we left.
“Then one of my friends asked if I’d been to this market hall in Lisbon. It was in an old fruit market and it was fantastic.
“There were lots of different restaurants – all kinds of food from all over the world – and communal seating.
“You could get what you wanted, when you wanted it and there were bars too that were full of life. I just loved it.
“Then, about five years ago, I’d travelled to the UK for an ‘old farts’ reunion where I saw an old friend who was CEO of a big property agency and I asked how many market halls there were in London.
“He told me that, while there was street food, there wasn’t anything like the one in Lisbon.”
Market Hall Canary Wharf will be based in the Cargo building
From those seeds of an idea, Andy swung into action and put a team together, researching the business in Europe and New York.
Convinced this was no passing fad, he raised finance and launched Market Halls with its first location in Fulham in the old ticket office next to the station.
“People loved it, we made lots of mistakes of course, but then we opened our second site at Victoria which was in an old ticket hall that had become a nightclub on two floors,” said Andy.
“I was nervous of that because my old retail background said don’t put anything on the first floor.
“But it had a big roof and so we created a roof terrace and it was an unbelievable success, almost from the moment we opened its doors, it was full all of the time.”
The venue will have two bars and eight food traders
A third site at Oxford Street also proved successful but, at twice the size of Victoria, proved unwieldy and has now been altered to fit the latter’s template.
The original site in Fulham has also closed, more a recognition that to reach its best, the business is dependent on office workers.
Which brings us to Market Hall Canary Wharf – set to officially open on the ground floor of Cargo, off Adams Plaza, on April 7.
“If I’m honest I was reluctant to come here,” said Andy. “I was a bit reticent as to how traditional City suit types would take to my cool venture with independent traders.
“But my colleagues had told me the area had changed. I read up on it and I had to learn that my impression was wrong.
“I spent time on the Wharf and realised it was ready for Market Halls – that’s why we took the lease on the space four months before lockdown.”
Wharf favourite Black Bear Burger will be returning to the estate
So, having overcome the “interesting journey” to get to the point of opening and with the pandemic receding, what can Wharfers expect from the latest hospitality venue to hit the estate?
“Market Hall Canary Wharf is a slightly more premium offering than our sites at Oxford Street and Victoria, but the concept is the same,” said Andy.
“We have eight independent traders that serve bloody good food and that’s their only job.
“As a business, we do everything else – we provide standardised kitchens – so the cost of entry is very low for them.
“There’s no deposit and they don’t have to worry about paying a quarter’s rent up front – we just take a percentage of their turnover every week.
“We look after the clearing of the tables, the dishwashing, the promotion of the venue and we operate the bars.
“They just do what they’re good at, which is making great food with all the hassles taken away.
“We have a long list of people who want to be in our venues but they need to show their quality and that they can serve food fast and consistently.
“In Canary Wharf, the lunchtime trade will be big and that’s 45 minutes. If you can’t cook your food in seven minutes, you’re probably not going to have many customers coming back.”
Diners can expect Mexican cuisine from DF Tacos
Visitors to Market Hall Canary Wharf will be free to order from any of the traders and bars, with buzzers given out so diners know when their food is ready.
The opening line-up of eight restaurants includes Le Bab’s modern gourmet kebabs, Baoziinn’s dim sum and Chinese dishes, Mexican cuisine from DF Tacos, Malaysian roti canai from Gopals, fried chicken from Chick Chick Crew and Italian food from Pasta Evangelists.
There will also be Japanese flavours from Inamo Sukoshi and a welcome return to the Wharf by Black Bear Burger, which used to serve up fine patties at Giant Robot before its closure due to the pandemic.
Andy said: “This is a starting place for some with us and growth ground for others, so I’m particularly excited about opening up here.
“People ask me why I do it. I’m not young any more, but I go to the gym and I feel 30, even when I’m not.
The Canary Wharf venue will have dim sum by Baoziin
“I’m not a foodie, but I love seeing people having fun – joy is the word we keep using – I like to see people having a bloody great time, and that’s why I do this.
“I get real enjoyment in seeing people smiling, laughing and having a blast.
“The great thing about Market Halls as a concept is that you can come here by yourself, in pairs, in a group of 10, 15 or 20 – it doesn’t matter.
“You can arrive any time, eat what you want to eat and there’s no grumbling about who’s going to pay the bill because mostly everyone has paid for themselves.
“You can come and choose what you like, when you like and then just concentrate on enjoying yourself.”
And here’s a little music, appropriate for stepping into the hall of the food court king…
Canary Wharf’s architecture can seem impersonal – impenetrable edifices of glass and steel, containers for businesses and institutions rather than buildings on a human scale.
But it’s important to remember those vast floorplates are populated by people – individuals with needs, desires, ideas, frustrations and aspirations.
The word ‘company’, after all, can be defined as a commercial firm, or as simply being with others.
In recent years, there’s been an increasing realisation among large organisations that it would both be wise and morally right for them to populate themselves with a much more diverse range of individuals.
The idea is that both they and wider society will benefit from the fresh ideas that brings, while the prosperity delivered by their activities will spread to communities and areas it never reached before.
Such sentiments are at the root of JP Morgan’s partnership with The Sutton Trust to offer Opportunity Bursaries to students for at least the next decade.
The first cohort of 51 students from low income backgrounds recently received awards of between £3,500 and £5,000 – cash that will be put towards facilitating a wide range of experiences and projects aimed at boosting their life skills alongside their studies and improving their long-term job prospects.
They also have the option to work with a mentor from JP Morgan as part of the scheme.
The bursaries are awarded annually to applicants in the UK with the aim of assisting 350 over the first decade.
Around 60% will go to black and minority ethnic students to reflect the additional barriers they face in society.
“We truly believe that we need to create a more inclusive and diverse community,” said Cecil Peters, head of advancing black pathways, EMEA, at JP Morgan.
“Not a lot of people from under-represented communities would think they could get to an organisation like JP Morgan, because they just don’t aspire to do the things that other people do.
“When I was 17 or 18, I never thought I could be with JP Morgan in a role like this.
“But through experiences I’ve got to learn what exists. We think it’s important to give people exposure and experiences that enable them to compete in a world where they might not have seen the opportunity or had the ability to take it.”
Without doubt, JP Morgan would be delighted if some of the recipients wound up working for the bank in future, but it’s not doing this for itself.
“Some of the students may be interested in banking and want to work in our sector, but for a lot of them it’s about how we can help them get to where they want to go in their careers and their lives,” said Jess Ferguson, head of international employee engagement and volunteering, global philanthropy, who jointly oversees the project with Cecil.
“Out of the 51 in the first cohort, there’s one doing film studies, lots of people doing law and psychology – a whole range of different disciplines. They all have varied ambitions for what they want to achieve in their lives. One wants to work in humanitarian law and we heard from someone else who wants to be the next Sir David Attenborough.”
Jess Ferguson of JP Morgan
In February 2021, the Sutton Trust launched some research into how university students needed to have essential life skills as well as their academic qualifications, recognising that those skills were really important to employers.
“It found that some students were not accessing opportunities to enable them to get those essential life skills.
“It identified a gap between individuals from affluent backgrounds and those from more socially disadvantaged, working class backgrounds in terms of things like participation in societies, work experience placements and study abroad trips.
“So, as partners with the trust, we started discussing with them how we could help address those issues.”
JP Morgan intends to finance as many bursaries as the fund’s growth allows.
“Every person you can give an opportunity to is now able to compare themselves with and compete with someone from a more affluent background, said Cecil.
“It means that when they go looking for a job they can talk about experiences they’ve had beyond their studies, that they worked with the UN or went trekking abroad to do research.
“The bursaries are also an opportunity to create a perception within each student’s community about what can be achieved, hopefully elevating the aspirations of those around them.
“If you’re the first person in your family to go to university, and you do really well, you’re going to pull other people with you. That’s what we’re trying to do.
“Without money it’s hard to access those extra experiences, tough to commit to going half way round the world to do something.
“These kids are smart – I was talking to a young woman at the launch event and she was homeless when she did her A-Levels. She got into Cambridge to do law. These people are the cream of the crop and they have had to fight to get where they are.
“The one thing they don’t have is money, so instead of giving them access to courses, for example, we wanted to give them what they’re missing to help level the playing field.
“It’s about creating equity. Everyone has different needs.
“Black and minority ethnic communities are just as under-served as poor white communities, but they also have the obstacles of racism to deal with.
“So for JP Morgan it was important for us to make sure there was space so they can get those opportunities as well.
“It’s a learning curve and a jump into the unknown for both us and The Sutton Trust. There are no measurable targets – we gave the money freely and willingly and invested it for them to make this work.
“Sometimes you have to do things that way – we give these students lived experiences, but there’s no way of knowing what the impact will be until they’ve lived them.
“The return for us is to hear their stories, not just next year, but in 10 or 15 years. We want to know where they’ve got to career-wise, because they’re just at the start.”
“I feel very proud of what we get to do, because we’re changing people’s lives for the better, and that is exciting,” added Jess.
“One of the ways we’ll stay in touch with them is through the mentoring scheme. We made it optional, but at least 34 of the 51 students have taken up the offer and we’ve had some more who have expressed an interest in it.
“It’s one-to-one matching with a volunteer from JP Morgan – some have come to us and said they’d like someone who works in cyber security or communications, for example.
“What we hope is that the mentor is able to help the young person think about their goals and ambitions for the future – what steps they may be able to take to get there.
“They can also help with things like articulating and reflecting on the skills they’ve got through the experiences funded by the bursaries and how to articulate that to future employers or to themselves. Mentors provide that impartial sounding board.
“It’s the first year, we’ll learn a lot and we will listen to the students’ feedback, but we’ve seen the benefits in our other mentoring programmes.”
THE CHALLENGE OF MOVING THE DIAL ON SOCIAL MOBILITY
Social mobility in the UK isn’t in a good place. There’s much debate about where the nation actually sits in the developed world, but we’re either vying with the USA as the least socially mobile country or squarely in the bottom half of the rankings.
“The Sutton Trust was set up 25 years ago by Sir Peter Lampi with the aim that every young person should have the same chances to get on in life no matter what school they go to or where they live,” said James Turner, the charity’s CEO.
“We work with almost 10,000 young people every year to help them get into university, onto the best apprenticeships and get jobs in some of the most competitive sectors.
“We also work to shed light on social mobility and make sure it remains at the top of the agenda, whether that’s with employers, universities, schools or the Government.
“We’ve known for a long time that barriers to social mobility don’t end at 18.
“Getting into university is a great start but poorer people may not go on to have the same success in their careers as their better-off counterparts.
“We know from employers that education is necessary but not sufficient, so we’d been thinking about ways to address that when we had the conversation with JP Morgan, an organisation that has a deep commitment to social mobility.
“The idea was that we would use these bursaries to support students to do extra things – taking part in clubs, societies, internships, years abroad – to help them develop their skills and confidence, so putting them in a better position in the job market.
“The applicants had to put forward a case – what they would do with the money, why it was important to their employability, their academic work and why they wouldn’t be able to do what they wanted to without it.
“We had 400 applications, which we reviewed alongside JP Morgan and we interviewed the most promising ones – it was a very difficult process to get it down to 51 because of the high quality of applicants.
“The projects students applied for were a real mix – some were about travel, some for training courses, to boost their skills, and others looking to become social entrepreneurs in the UK.
“We really hope this first group will come back and talk to the next cohort to help shape future applications.
“As a project this is the first time we’ve been able to give bursaries like this and it really moves on what we’re doing in a substantial way because of the varied activities they are funding.”
CASE STUDY: HEATHER FERGUSON
In every respect, this is the most important part of this article.
Heather Ferguson – no relation to Jess – is one of the 51 successful applicants for a bursary.
She is 19 and from the small town of Wigton in Cumbria, just north of the Lake District and is currently studying psychology at Durham University.
A qualified gymnastics coach, she recently coached children at a summer school at the university. This is what the money means to her.
“I want to be a researcher – my interest is to explore how we can make children happier in schools via their physical wellbeing, as a way of improving their mental health,” said Heather.
“I didn’t have the best time in primary school, so, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I wondered what I could do to fix the problem.
“Of course, it wasn’t just me that experienced that – a lot of children go through a lot worse.
“But a school is meant to be a safe place. Children spend five, six or even seven hours a day, five days a week there and I feel we have this time where we can really make a difference and shape their lives.
“I’m a young carer myself. When I was at home, I’d have to look after my disabled mother and that’s still the case now.
“When we have kids in school, we have time to help them and make a difference.
“Physical activity is a lot more than just becoming the next Usain Bolt or Jessica Ennis – it’s more about keeping ourselves active and how we can introduce children to different types of physical activity in a fun way that will also improve their mental and physical health.
“In 2018 I applied for The Sutton Trust summer school, which they offer each year, and I got onto that and went to Durham University for a week.
“That’s how I wound up studying there.
“I was in the trust’s alumni network and that’s how I heard about the Opportunity Bursary. At the time, I’d just applied for the MITACS Globalink Research Internship.
“It’s a competitive research post in Canada, and they run it each year, and they take high-achieving undergraduates.
“It’s a great experience to get onto, but I realised that if I did, I would need a little money to support me and to buy a suitcase and things like that.
“So I applied for the bursary to cover things like travel costs, was selected for interview and got accepted.
“Going for the internship was already a great experience because you had to write a CV and an application, which will be very helpful when I apply for a masters and a PhD.
“I’ve been matched with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is a U15 university – a bit like the Russell Group in the UK.
“I’ll be looking at how children regulate their positive and negative emotions, a perfect project for me, working for three months over the summer.
“I can see from chats I’ve already had with the professor there that there will be other opportunities opening up too including the chance to work alongside a PhD student.
“It’s an opportunity to develop so many research skills along the way.
“I’m just so grateful to have been awarded this bursary and to the Sutton Trust for helping me get into Durham.
“I wouldn’t be able to go to Canada without it. If there is an emergency with my mum, I might have to go home and I don’t have money lying around for a plane ticket.
“This takes the worry out of that – it provides me with the extra security I need to go there and take part.
“I come from a low income background, my siblings and I were on free school meals for a time.
“I’m not looking to be in a job where I just make as much money as possible – I’ve always thought that if you have a roof over your head and you can have the odd holiday here and there, then that’s enough.
“I want to be in a job that makes a difference. Research is the area that will do that for me, helping children in schools. That will pay me more than money ever could.”
“I call it an urban resort,” said Doug Acton, head of sales and marketing at Berkeley Group and the man responsible for driving the success of its Poplar Riverside development.
“It’s close to nature and it has facilities such as a gym, a pool, a spa, a cinema room, shops, bars and restaurants.
“It could almost be a self-contained little town, but it’s open to everyone – somewhere to get away from the hustle and bustle of Canary Wharf.”
To describe Poplar Riverside as ‘tucked away’ is both accurate and somehow inappropriate.
Officially launched in June last year, the development covers a 20-acre site, will take around two decades to build and will see about 2,800 homes delivered in the East End.
This is major regeneration by Berkeley division St William – a project that will also provide a new 2.5-acre public park, a couple of bridges across the Rvier Lea, 500m of riverside walkway, 90,000sq ft of commercial space. The list goes on and on.
But take the 20-minute stroll over to the site from Canary Wharf to the soft tranquillity of Leven Road on a sunny day and you’ll find it’s something of an oasis, albeit one where the concrete superstructures of its first phase have quietly risen.
The waters of the Lea flow lazily past as cranes perform their slow-motion ballet. There’s something happening here and it’s only just begun.
Head of sales and marketing at Berkeley Group, Doug Acton
“When people come here, they’re really excited about the regeneration story – they can see it’s a part of this massive growth corridor that’s happening along the river,” said Doug.
“They can see the potential with our investment in things like the bridges – how that improves the connectivity to Canning Town station.
“The challenge for us is getting more people to come here. Once they see it, they know it really is a transformation, that it’s a step change.”
And “step” is the right word, because Poplar Riverside is a scheme of many levels.
There are the public parks and walkways themselves and, of course, the river, all framing the buildings.
Then there are raised podium gardens for residents, underground parking and private balconies lining the pointed elevations of the brick-clad blocks.
It’s partly the attraction of these features that have seen buyers purchase about 100 of the 156 homes at the first building in the first phase of Poplar Riverside – Calico House.
The next to go on sale will be Porter House, which is right on the river and is expected to hit the market in July.
That will be followed by Bowline House and Sisal House, which all together complete the first phase with 643 properties.
Construction of the first phase of Poplar Riverside
“With Porter House we’ll be launching three-bedroom homes for the first time to go alongside the studios, one and two-bedroom homes available,” said Doug.
“It’s right next to the Lea so many will overlook the river and enjoy views across the London skyline.
“They will also benefit from the Leven Banks park, which includes a children’s playground, so it’s an exciting block to release.
“One of the things we’re really good at as a company, having learnt from projects like Royal Arsenal Riverside in Woolwich and Kidbrooke Village in Greenwich, is that you would never know, as a resident, that construction is going on.
“We commit to the landscape nice and early, not as an afterthought, so people moving in can enjoy it.
A range of properties are available at the development
“We’re also constantly speaking to our residents to get feedback and find out what they want and what they don’t.
“One of the things we’re creating at this development is the Riverside Club – 16,000sq ft of facilities that will help foster community here.”
Laid out over two floors that includes a co-working space, a cinema room, meeting rooms and a games room as well as a residents’ lounge, a spa, steam room, sauna, salt room and a 20m swimming pool.
“We also have The Great Room,” said Doug, who was recruited by Berkeley from the luxury hotel industry to help it deliver the kinds of facilities normally found at such resorts at its residential property developments.
“It’s somewhere to work, play and meet just so people can have that strong sense of community.
“We’re really keen to create that feeling of togetherness and that goes for families as well – it’s not just for adults.”
All apartments at Poplar Riverside feature outdoor space
The homes themselves feature floor-to-ceiling windows, underfloor heating, Bosch appliances in the kitchens and Italian terrazzo worktops.
All have some form of outdoor space and the two-bedroom show home features a jack and jill main bathroom, effectively offering both bedrooms en suite facilities.
“There’s mood lighting in the bathrooms and good storage comes as standard,” said Doug.
“There’s even a nod to the golden age of industry with the taps and that’s a theme we’ve carried throughout the properties.
“The principal bedroom has built-in wardrobes and there’s an option to have those in the second bedroom too.
“We know storage is really important, so we’ve also put full-height cupboards in the kitchens to maximise the use of space.”
Properties currently on sale at Poplar Riverside start at £410,000. The earliest completions are expected in the second half of this year.
The Poplar Riverside sales and marketing suite, which includes a two-bedroom show apartment, is open for viewings.
An artist’s impression of open space at Poplar Riverside
“I got shouted at, I burnt my hand and I started work there the next day,” said James Goodchild, recalling his first experience of working in a professional kitchen.
“I’d finished school in Essex, where I lived, without many qualifications – I was a having a year out and my mum forced me to get some job interviews.
“So I went for a role as a barman because I thought it would be a nice easy one with plenty of money.
“That had gone, but they asked me if I wanted to do a shift in the kitchen, which I did to keep my mum off my back.
“But I absolutely loved it – and that’s where my career started. Now my mum is my biggest fan.”
It was the start of a journey that eventually led him to the role of head chef at rooftop members club Upstairs At The Department Store in Brixton.
Then a fresh opportunity presented itself. His colleague at the south London venue – Emilie Parker-Burrell – was leaving to become general manager of The Pearson Room in Canada Square in preparation for its post-pandemic reopening last month.
“I knew she was going to Canary Wharf anyway and I was looking to do something else,” said James.
“So I came over to see the venue – it was a blank canvas, which was very appealing, so I thought I’d give it a go.
“I’d loved working with Emilie at Upstairs and I think we work really well together.
“I’d never had a job in this part of London before or really visited it – it’s very new to me – so I was quite surprised by the number and quality of the bars and restaurants on the estate.
“The Pearson Room is owned by Third Space and we had a briefing from them, to make sure we have dishes that work for what they’re doing on the health side of things, but we’ve had pretty much free rein to do what we want in the kitchen, which is great.
“We’ve created a menu that’s a little bit more casual than some of the other venues around here, food that’s a bit more laid back, but we’ll see, over the coming months, what Canary Wharf wants from us and we’ll adapt what we do.”
Pan-roasted cod with white bean, tomato, mussel and prawn stew
Guests will find the familiar warm browns of the venue filled with the scents and flavours of James’ creativity, ranging from healthier options to more decadent temptations.
Starters (£7-£14) can all be served as mains and include the likes of seared tuna with watermelon, sesame and ginger; quinoa, mint and spring vegetable salad; and poke bowl wakame with daikon and shiso.
Larger plates (£16-£21) include dishes such as roast chicken with carrot salad and whipped Feta, foraged mushroom risotto and pan-roasted cod with white bean, tomato, mussel and prawn stew.
“Flavour is the number one thing we look at here,” said James. “It’s the reason to go out for dinner – to be hit with great big flavours – and that’s what we do throughout our menu.
“I really like simple food. When I was younger, everyone had ambitions to win Michelin stars, but the older I get, the cooking and the food become more relaxed and I think that’s a much better direction to go in.
“I want people who eat my food to be full, content and happy having experienced some bold flavours. A full restaurant, with happy customers, is success in my eyes.
“Staff play a huge role in that. The team of people I have around me is absolutely phenomenal.
“I have great faith in my colleagues. They are all outstanding chefs and we’re all on the same page in the kitchen – everyone can work on every section.
James’ poke bowl wakame with daikon and shiso
“We discuss the whole menu at the end of every session and, if we need to tweak, we do, and so it carries on.
“We never sit still – we’re always looking to be better, and hopefully that will show on the plate.
“We did an incredible number of tastings before we opened and I love the banana tarte tatin because I have a sweet tooth, but my favourite dish is the cod.
“I’ve always loved eating cassoulet – it’s a chef thing to try and get a huge amount of flavour out of it and this recipe started off as a dish we used to have for lunch in the kitchen.
“There are lots of fresh herbs in it, and lemon at the end, which is very French.
“With mussels being in season at the same time as cod, and the prawns adding a bit of luxury – we use the shells for the sauce – it’s great that it’s become a restaurant dish.
“One thing I hate is to change the whole menu on one day – it’s a recipe for chaos and disaster.
“After we’ve been open for a couple of months, then we’ll start introducing new dishes when ingredients are in season.
“We will have an ever-changing menu so when people come there will always be something new.
“It keeps the chefs on their toes as well and gives them a chance to develop their own dishes, get these on the menu and get a bit of recognition.”
A Hoist The Colours cocktail with rum and coconut
The Pearson Room’s bar has also been refreshed with a new cocktail list including beverages such as Fraisier (East London Dry gin with Fraise liquor, lemon and raspberries) and Hoist The Colours (a showstopping combination of Discarded Banana Rum, coconut syrup, pineapple juice, lime juice and kiwi).
James said while there were plenty of healthy options on the menu for those visiting Third Space, The Pearson Room was very much a separate entity.
Plans for the future include creating more dishes inspired by the venue’s wine list, bringing in a dry-ageing cabinet so guests can see the meat they will be eating and setting up an oyster bar to pair with the English fizz on offer.
The Pearson Room is now open Monday-Friday from 10am for lunch and dinner. The venue is also available to hire for events with an extensive range of food and drink options available.
James said: “You have to be approachable – we’re always happy to work with people so they get what they want.”
How do organisations best support and encourage the arts?
Having long brought art into its buildings, the natural step for Brookfield Properties was to recognise makers’ achievements with an annual prize.
The company, which co-owns Canary Wharf Group and is based at One Canada Square, teamed up with the Crafts Council to do just that, recently naming its latest winner.
“We came up with the Brookfield Properties Craft Award in 2020,” said Saff Williams, curatorial director at Brookfield.
“It came out of a collaboration with the Crafts Council. We’ve always hosted free exhibitions in our buildings – it’s part of the Brookfield experience where you have all sorts of things such as art shows, events and wellness seminars.
“I needed work for those exhibitions and people were asking why I was putting pieces in these spaces and what the decision making process was.
“I’d been having an ongoing conversation with the Crafts Council about collaborating and renting pieces from their private collection to show.
“They told me about Collect craft fair, which showcases the best works from makers in this country and internationally. So we developed the concept of a prize to be awarded to an exhibitor at the show.
“Brookfield would then acquire the winner’s works, show them in a free public exhibition and gift them back to the council’s public collection so they can be shown elsewhere.
“So that’s how it started and it’s accidentally become one of the biggest craft prizes in the UK.”
The prize is for £60,000, split between the maker and their gallery, which in Christian’s case is IntoArt – a visual arts charity based in Peckham that works with people who have learning disabilities.
“We work collaboratively with the Crafts Council to decide the winner,” said Saff. “Their curator – Annabelle Campbell – shortlists hundreds of makers at Collect – the top artists they want to add to their collection.
“Then we come up with a shortlist of five, based on work Brookfield would like to show and, after the winner is announced, we buy the work and build an exhibition.
“This year we were lucky enough to be able to go to the studios, see the artists in their space and speak to them about how they make their work, so that helped us identify a winner.
“It’s also a chance for us to talk to them about their story and define who we think has the best work from our perspective of adding to the collection.
“All of our shortlisted artists would have made incredible shows, but with Christian’s work there was such a kind of joi-de-vivre about the light and his colour – a new way of exploring screen-printing in ink.
“I remember when we went to IntoArt, we were blown away by the colour. His work is so beautiful, and he is so prolific in his desire to articulate his work in different media, in silks and also in his drawings.
“It was exciting and I got caught up in it – I thought it was exactly the kind work we should show – the kind our community and tenants would really respond to.
“Art is subjective in so many ways, but Annabelle and I thought Christian’s work was so moving and very exciting.
Christian at work at IntoArt in Peckham
“Because he does his screen-printing on silk, his pieces have this kind of movement about them.
“A lot of them are figurative works, inspired by the Ballets Russes and a lot of research he’s done at the V&A.
“There’s something about the nature of his brushstrokes, that made them feel like figures dancing.
“Even in his drawings of flowers, for example, the petals were almost falling off.
“There is something very gestural about his work. I feel so many artists try to achieve that, but he seems to do it naturally.”
Alongside Christian, makers Anthony Amoako-Attah, Dawn Bendick, Cecilia Charlton and Irina Razumovskaya were shortlisted for the 2022 award.
“What we do is often quite bold and colourful,” said Saff. “If you’ve got 9,000 or 3,000 people coming to work in a building on a particular day, then not everyone is going to like everything, but it’s so important to get art into these environments.
“In the wake of the pandemic, people’s expectations when they go to the office are so much greater now.
“At the beginning people thought it was great to work from home, but now they want to go into work because they can see friends or drop in on a pop-up exhibition opening and have a drink.
“When people hadn’t been into their offices for months and months and saw a show with work by our 2021 winner Anna Ray – so bright and vibrant – people emailed saying that seeing her pieces really helped them.”
As part of the award, Christian’s work will be shown by Brookfield Properties at 99 Bishopsgate in the City during the summer.
Ella Ritchie with Christian Ovonlen
BECOMING AN AMBASSADOR FOR EQUITY IN THE ARTS AND FOR CHARITY INTOART
Brookfield Properties Craft Award winner 2022 Christian Ovonlen makes his work in Peckham with charity IntoArt.
Director Ella Ritchie said: “I co-founded the charity with Sam Jones when we left art school. Based on our experience of volunteering with people who have learning disabilities, we really wanted to make a change because there was no resource for those people to have access to art education as adults.
“We are ultimately an alternative art school that has the same rigour you would find at an art school.
“We introduce people to materials, techniques and opportunities. Our vision really is about equity in terms of access, learning and ambition in the arts.”
Christian joined the collective in 2013 and has been developing his practice for the last nine years.
Ella said: “Most people start with us on a foundation course so they’re learning lots of different techniques, they may never have done much art – it’s very much about exploration and opportunity.
“Over this last three years Christian has taken his drawing practice into this really unique language of textiles, which I think is what has excited people.
“They’re very large scale silks that hang as though they are the drapes of theatre backdrops.
“The series he made for Collect is inspired by the Ballets Russes – the performers, the scenography and the costumes.
One of Christian’s drawings
“He starts with drawings and silk screen prints them onto silks using a very delicate dye technique.
“The resulting textiles are very light and really float in their settings.
“Everything is made by hand including the dyes he uses – he controls the vibrancy and strength of the colours and how that is translated onto the fabric.”
Ella said the prize clearly recognised Christian’s work as on a level with other makers at Collect
She said: “Winning just blew him away. It gave him a direct relationship with the other makers and galleries at Collect – he went round to talk to them as a fellow practitioner and that comes back to that equity.
“Christian is an internationally recognised maker and an ambassador for all of us and our mission to challenge the notion of who can be an artist, maker or designer.
“For me personally, I feel that’s been a long time coming. I’ve always known this work is amazing and the people we work with have such potential.
“I think when people see it, they get it and what’s great about this award is that Christian’s exhibition will be so public and so open to people.”
