It wasn’t so very long ago that there wasn’t really much to visit Wood Wharf for. Those days of promissory hoardings are long gone.
MMy Wood Wharf is finding its feet, complete with a basement jazz club, Emilia’s Crafted Pasta is well established as a place for generous bowls and Hawksmoor continues to be a lunchtime hit, ably assisted by arguably one of the best bars on the Wharf – The Lowback – beneath.
But those are just for starters. Patty&Bun, a chain so hip all its melons are twisted, is serving decent drippy burgers on Park Drive and recently launched hotel Tribe has opened its doors as the first place for visitors to stay actually on the Canary Wharf estate.
Its bar and restaurant, which also acts as a workspace, is the optimistically named Feels Like June – a moniker that is entirely appropriate for a heatwave but that might be more a reach in, say, January.
For restaurant manager, Juan Esquivel, the name is more about the warmth of welcome his team and the hotel aim to extend to visitors and guests.
“First of all, we are casual – you won’t find us in suits,” he said.
“We want people to feel like they are on holiday when they come here and we don’t want people staying with us at Tribe in their rooms, we want them here.
“The social hub is the lobby and there’s a salad bar and a grab-and-go coffee shop.
Feels Like June manager Juan Esquivel
“But Feels Like June also works as a standalone restaurant. It’s inspired by California both in what we serve, but also by the state’s summer vibe.
“I think the designers have done a really good job – you won’t find a normal linear restaurant here.
“It’s more relaxed, like a lounge, so people can sit with a drink and a book or do some work on a laptop.
“We want this place to be for everybody – an approachable product with great service – a place where Wood Wharf’s residents can meet holidaymakers, Canary Wharf workers and the hotel’s guests.
“The name isn’t about the weather, it’s about the warmth we bring to our guests. The seasons may change, but here you will get that same summery feel – always welcoming.”
Originally from Argentina, Juan has worked in Mexico, Spain and London, most recently for six months at Gaucho.
“I’ve always worked for luxury brands and, for me, coming here was about asking why we can’t bring that level of service and product to a wider audience,” he said.
“Tribe is part of Ennismore (which recently merged with hospitality giant Accor), and we are really proud to be the first hotel on the Canary Wharf estate.
“As a brand it’s a new concept and this is the first in the UK – the flagship for all of the openings around the world.”
Open all day with options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, food and drink-wise, Feels Like June promises diners dishes that prioritise health and natural ingredients.
“Personally I love the sea bass, which comes with herb butter and lemon curd,” said Juan. “It’s very tasty and the steaks are good as well.
“All of our desserts are gluten-free and we do things like a banana split because that’s something fun to share – we have a lot of families at the weekend so it works for kids as well.
Food at Feels Like June
“We also have a caramelised pineapple dish with mango sorbet, which is very summery and has rum in it so there are lots of tropical flavours.
“At the bar we are looking to have lots of low alcohol versions of drinks – our versions of classics.
“For example, guests can have our Minimal Colada, a version of a Pina Colada that’s clarified and more summery with coconut rum, banana, pineapple, coconut water and salt.
“The idea is you can have a drink with lunch and be fine to do some work.”
Guests can expect to pay around £13 for a cocktail, while small plates cost between £8 and £17. Main dishes range from £14 to £25 and salads are about £12.
“We’re open for breakfast and we will have a lot of guests from the hotel, but we also have an a la carte menu for our other customers,” said Juan.
“We’ve also just introduced a brunch menu, which we think is going to be very popular at the weekend.
“Feels Like June really brings a different kind of space to Canary Wharf where everyone can find something to enjoy.
“We already have regulars and I really like our staff to engage with our customers and to have conversations with them.
“In turn I think the people who are living here are very happy that more things are opening. Here we want people to always feel that they are welcome.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
“I think there needs to be a big shift in theatre to consider disabled audiences, and how you can make work that aims to be more inclusive,” said Chloe Palmer.
“No show is ever going to be 100% accessible, but having companies that are evaluating what they can do and how they can support people with disabilities has been a catapult for us.”
Actors and devisers Chloe, Sam Brewer and Aarian Mehrabani make up FlawBored – an emerging, disabled-led company – that’s set to stage three performances of its debut production at Greenwich Theatre in September, 2022.
A work in progress,It’s A Motherf**cking Pleasure is a satire encompassing blindness, influencer culture and non-disabled anxiety about trying to get things right and do the correct thing.
“It’s really good fun, not harsh and nasty,” said director Josh Roche.
“It’s about the way some people presume to know what is good or useful for those with disabilities and gently mocks that anxiety.
“It’s very funny, very fast-paced, very playful, and it tends to let you know where the floorboards are and then unsettles you and turns things on their head.
“It’s also about how disabled identities talk to each other and how they’re competing for space.
“It focuses on a young influencer who is trying to give disability a social cachet and the compromises they have to make, just like other social justice movements at the moment.”
The hour-long show follows “megalomaniac blind talent manager” Tim who’s on a mission to rebrand disability with “ambitious but naïve” blind influencer Ross as his possible golden ticket.
Audiences can expect glittered-up canes, blind TV spin-offs and hijacked political causes in the mix. It’s fair to say there’s a lot going on, with accessible layers to match.
Sam and Aarian on stage
“This is a piece we’ve worked on for a year,” said Chloe.
“Sam came up with the original concept and approached Aarian and me to ask what we could do to explore how blindness could become dramatised?
“We then spiralled from that. A lot of our process is based on doing research and focusing on ideas we want to explore within the theatre world.
“We go away and explore a question and, because access is so important to us as a theatre company, we also make sure that every idea we come up with can be made accessible.
“Alongside the devising, we have an access language and we look at how captioning and audio descriptions can be integrated into the script and scene – it’s not something we do at the end with limited time.
“Sometimes in theatre the audio descriptions are done by companies who don’t have much to do with the production process, but we say that you should start with access in the forefront of your mind and it should be turning in your head while you create work, which will be enriched because of it.
“You think about the language you can use in a play and the form it can take, and access is just another language, which allows the audience another way to experience your work.
“For example, captions can add an extra layer of experience for anyone who can read them and you can use them however you want.
“I think the support we’ve had for this project is a testament to the fact that a lot of theatre is still inaccessible.
“You’ve got people exploring these languages but not necessarily the know-how to use them.”
In some senses that’s less of an issue for FlawBored because Sam and Aarian are blind.
Having graduated from the Royal Central School Of Speech And Drama in 2020, the three actors teamed up with the idea of making a show together, before finding support and funding in the form of a company.
One of the missions of that company is to put blind characters on stage that don’t conform to tired stereotypes.
Sam said: “I’m blind and so is Aarian, but we are very different people. We simply find ourselves lumped together by the happenstance that we are blind.
“This is one of the things we’re trying to find our way around.
“There are a lot of tropes around vision-impaired characters, historically – oracles in Greek tragedies, soothsayers, characters who see the world differently – that’s all rather boring.”
Aarian added: “We’re trying to show that people are an amalgamation of many identities – our gender, class and nationality, for example – blindness is just another one of those differences.
“Sam and I are both visually impaired but that’s just where our similarities cross – we’ve got completely different life experiences.
“All of the characters in It’s A Motherf**cking Pleasure are fully rounded and deep. Inherently they all have loveable and likeable characteristics, but are also deeply flawed.
“It’s a complicated relationship between the characters and the audience and we never want to be saying: ‘These are the blind characters – and you know how to treat them’.”
Josh said: “You always know which identities on stage are allowed to be themselves and which are treated with kid gloves.
“Visually impaired people are typically clairvoyant or see life in a deeper way than those around them.
“When you allow them to be just as flawed as all of the other characters in a play, you’re understanding that visually impaired people are just people – they’re as good or as bad as anyone else.”
Having won support from Arts Council England, Greenwich Theatre (which presented FlawBored with its 2022 LET Greenwich Theatre Award), Theatre Deli, Camden People’s Theatre, Les Enfants Terribles, Wildcard Theatre, Watermill Theatre and Extant, there’s clearly an appetite in the industry for the company’s work.
Sam said: “I think theatre can be really good at doing moments, but it’s about how those artists can then be developed.”
Josh added: “I think there’s a difference at the moment in the way arts funding is focusing towards different identity groups and the way they’re perceived in wider culture.
“I think there’s a reverence about the way funding operates, which can be incredibly useful but can also be quite restrictive – it’s not always as playful or bold as it could be.
“There’s a distinction between this and, for example, the way social media represents different identities.
“The hope is that others will find it easier to develop work in these areas and these ways if people have already done it.”
Performances of It’s A Motherf**cking Pleasure are set to take place at 7.30pm on September 14, 2022, and 7.30pm and 2pm on September 15, 2022. Tickets cost £15.
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
One of the regular pillars of the sublime Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) will once again take over Canary Wharf for a whole weekend, filling the estate with free shows for all to enjoy.
Running from 1pm to 6pm on both September 10 and 11, 2022, this year’s outing will see 12 separate companies and artists put on some 22 performances in eight locations.
Consequently, its 2022 iteration offers the familiar opportunity to both explore the estate on a Saturday and Sunday, while catching some very high quality dance in the process.
While it’s worth aiming to see all of the shows – GDIF has a well deserved reputation for giving a platform to artists of the highest quality – there’s a real buzz around one of this year’s pieces.
Sleepwalker is a collaboration between disabled dancer Joe Powell-Main and the Royal Ballet in a story that has almost as many twists and turns as the choreography.
Born in mid-Wales, Joe began dancing aged five, auditioning for the Royal Ballet School’s junior associate programme, travelling to Birmingham to train every Saturday and going on to perform with the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
“From there, when I was about 10 years old, I auditioned for the Royal Ballet Lower School in Richmond and gained a place there,” said Joe.
“There were dancers competing for a place from all over the world and they only took a dozen girls and boys each year.
“I studied there for about three and a half years, and I was lucky to perform with the Royal Ballet in Nutcracker.”
But then disaster struck – a period of prolonged growth meant Joe developed problems in his left knee that led to surgery and further complications.
Then he was involved in a serious car accident that left him unable to use his left leg, meaning he had to leave the Royal Ballet School.
“That’s when I acquired my disability,” said Joe. “It was a very tough time. Since I was young, I’d poured my heart into dancing.
“My parents had supported me and taken me everywhere. I’d put all my eggs in one basket, and having the rug pulled from under me like that at 14 was not a nice thing.
“What was difficult for me as a child and as a teenager was that I had been very active.
“Then there I was, in a place where I was having difficulty with my physical mobility – it was difficult for me to see what I could do with my life.”
It took some time, but Joe found his way back to dance.
His mother spotted some classes for wheelchair users on a trip to see his ballet teacher sister perform and, although they were in Manchester, the family made things work.
He spent a few years dancing Latin and ballroom, going on to win competitions before embarking on a performing arts course at college, initially in musical theatre before switching to dance with the encouragement of his teachers.
A degree in dance and performance at the Arden School Of Theatre in Manchester followed during which time he was making efforts to connect with ballet dancers with disabilities on social media.
These endeavours led him to connect with Ballet Cymru in Wales where he first attended a summer school, gained acceptance as an apprentice and joined the main company in 2020.
Joe and Isabel Lubach will perform Sleepwalker four times over two days
“Because of lockdown, it was a year of waiting, but in 2021 things started opening up and we did some performances of Giselle,” said Joe.
“Then someone reached out to me from the National Lottery to be a part of the ParalympicsGB Homecoming ceremony.
“They also made the decision that it would be cool to reach out to the Royal Ballet, given my connection with them previously and we did a performance last September at Wembley Arena.
“That’s how I became the first dancer in a wheelchair and on crutches to perform with the Royal Ballet and returned to that connection.
“I was asked if I would be interested in doing something for GDIF this year – another collaboration with a company – and luckily the Royal Ballet were really interested in keeping contact going between us and seeing what was possible.”
That has led to Sleepwalker, a piece directed by Royal Ballet principal dancer Alexander Campbell, which explores themes from George Balanchine’s ballet La Sonnambula.
“It’s something people haven’t seen before,” said Joe.
“We started the process of creating the 10-minute piece in March with some research and development. I think there’s a perception, especially with classical ballet that dancers make everything look easy but one of the beauties of this duet is that we’re not afraid of showing the work that’s going on
“I think the audience will have an expectation of what’s coming next, but they really won’t know. Also, because people will be all around us, everyone will view it slightly differently and that’s exciting as well.”
While he acknowledges that his childhood classical training prior to acquiring his disability puts him in an unusual position, Joe hopes his performances and career will serve to inspire companies to embrace greater diversity in the dancers they work with and the programmes they develop, not least so more people can enjoy the benefits of performance.
“While rehearsing, outside of performing, I would classify myself as quite shy,” he said.
“I don’t know what happens but when the music comes on and I’m on stage I gain confidence from somewhere.
“I’m not sure where that comes from, but it’s very enjoyable.
“What’s most important to me is the sound of the music I’m performing to.
“You can explore the choreography, but when it all comes together, that’s the most exciting thing.
“In front of an audience I’m not the world’s most confident public speaker, but when I’m dancing I can express things through movement – you don’t need words.
“Even if it’s a piece you know well it feels new every time you perform.
“It might be finding something different in the venue or in the movements and I find that really interesting.
“I’ve not been to Canary Wharf before but I’ve seen pictures and I think performing the piece outside will be a big change with people all around us.
“I hope that our audiences for Sleepwalker will have their perceptions of what a classical ballet dancer might look like challenged.
“I also hope they seek out opportunities to see more dancers like me.
“I hope companies will also be more willing to bring disability and classical ballet together – if we can keep an open dialogue, we can tackle anything.”
Sleepwalker will be presented at 1.35pm and 3.55pm on both days of Dancing City at Canary Wharf’s Columbus Courtyard.
DELIVERING THE FESTIVAL
GDIF artistic director Bradley Hemmings
“As always, for Dancing City, we like to make a virtue of the stunning outdoor spaces, piazzas and waterfronts which characterise Canary Wharf,” said GDIF artistic director Bradley Hemmings.
“We’ll be down at Jubilee Plaza, Westferry Circus and Wren Landing, but we’re also trying to explore more spaces on the estate than we have in the past so there will be events at Crossrail Place and at Harbour Quay Gardens at Wood Wharf.
“It’s an event where you can imagine you’re in a European city with all the squares and open spaces – that’s the spirit of it.
“We all know Italy, Spain, Portugal and France, with their wonderful street cultures and that’s what this part of the festival does for east London.
“This year we have a range of fantastic shows on offer including Migrare by Cia Maduixa, which is presented entirely on stilts as four migrant women fight for a new place to call home.
“Then there’s Four Seasons at Westferry Circus by James Wilton Dance with capoeira, acrobatics, martial arts and classical dance all set to music by Vivaldi.
“There’s new work from the hip hop company AndroidX + MHz called Crowd_Ctrl.
“This integrates movement with a projection screen behind, which will be like watching a choreographed graphic novel at Jubilee Plaza.
“That’s a London premiere. And there are so many other things besides.
“We’re so pleased to be supported by Canary Wharf to fill the estate with companies from the UK and overseas again for 2022.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
They say you are what you eat. Well, layers of Deptford life are folded into the pizza at The Yeast Brothers.
Firstly, the sourdough base is made by catching the wild yeast in the air around the Artworks Creekside and fermenting each ball of dough for 48 hours.
“The dough is the main thing,” said co-founder Rafael Pinto, 25. “We don’t like to talk about what goes into ours – it’s secret – but we mix different types of flour so it is very light and crispy at the same time.
“It’s all about the fermentation. If you leave it to over-ferment it’s not going to be nice and we have to control the temperature and hydration overnight. It’s a science.”
The next layer is their background. Bermondsey resident Rafael and co-founder Ale De Menezes, 43, both hail from São Paulo in Brazil, but left their homeland’s traditions behind to mix Italian style with their own modern take, which includes vegetables from Deptford and chorizo from Spain.
“Pizza is a very big thing in Brazil,” said Rafael. “They say it’s the best in the world. The Italians would disagree with that, I’m sure.
“It’s a different style because they don’t use a long fermentation like the Italians. They make the dough in the morning for that night.
“Here, the long dough is very important to us. We like to be patient and let it grow by itself and don’t try to push it.
“It makes it easier to digest because you use less yeast but, of course, without the yeast we would be nothing.”
Hence The Yeast Brothers. Except they’re not actually related. Not by blood anyway.
Ale has been friends with Rafael’s father since they were teenagers in Brazil and it was he who introduced the youngster to pizza making in Deptford.
“When my dad knew I was coming to London, he contacted Ale to help me,” said Rafael.
“Ale used to work in TV production in Brazil and made pizzas but it wasn’t his main job.
“A few years back he went to live in Australia and started working in a kitchen making pizza. When he came to London, he kept doing it.”
When Rafael arrived in London, fresh from culinary school in Brazil, Ale helped him settle in and get a job at Wandercrust at The Duke pub in Deptford.
It was here that the ingredients of The Yeast Brothers began slowly fermenting.
“Ale was the master who taught me everything I know about pizza and we sort of became brothers for life,” said Rafael.
The duo worked at Wandercrust until April 2021 when the business moved to Greenwich, building on their shared love of pizza and dreaming of their own operation.
The Brazilian duo offer a range of flavours – image Matt Grayson
It was lockdown that gave them the push to roll out their own dough.
“During the pandemic, it was just us in the kitchen not talking to anyone but the drivers, so it gave us time to talk and come up with the concept and choose our identity,” said Rafael.
“Ale’s the most hard-working guy I know, so I knew he would be the best partner for me.
“I feel like the pandemic helped because otherwise, it would have taken a lot longer.”
Money to make the dream a reality was tight, but then the team from Deptford Bus approached them with “the perfect opportunity” – a space and some equipment to get them started.
They traded there until December last year but once again were left stranded when the business closed.
Again, Deptford came to the rescue when the team from Artworks approached them with a space.
Hopefully now settled for a while, they are concentrating on developing their menu which offers up classic pizza flavours and some surprises.
“We used to do Neapolitan pizza, which is popular in London, but we thought we could do something different,” said Rafael.
“People who make it tend to follow the traditional techniques but we use a different flour and folding method and try to expand our ingredients – charcuterie from Spain, cheeses from France and not just Italian products.
“For us to actually have an impact we had to have the classics, because that’s what people look for.
“So we use tomato and mozzarella from Italy, but we try to mix it up as well. We do a pizza with Montgomery Cheddar from England and chorizo from Spain.”
His favourite is the burrata and nduja pizza and they also offer four vegan options – a truffle pizza and a weekly special.
“I feel like eventually we’re gonna get rid of some of the classics and try to have more unique flavours,” said Rafael.
It’s a very competitive market and there are so many different styles as well. You have the cheap pizzas, the Domino’s, and the more artisanal ones.
“I feel like we are in the high end of pizzas now in terms of quality and prices.”
They are also adding another layer to the business with a van featuring a wood-fired oven.
The duo have just used it for a stint at West India Quay as part of the Kerb Incubator programme and will now be heading to the street market at the Gherkin in the City.
Rafael said he couldn’t see the business leaving Deptford though – they love the neighbourhood so much and are enjoying experimenting with how they do things there.
Their wives take turns to help out in the restaurant at weekends and they have been adapting their hours and menu as they go along based on what customers want.
“We’re still figuring out when is best to be here but enjoying it all,” said Rafael.
“I don’t remember once having an argument with Ale – we are pretty chill.
“We know how to respect one another, that everyone has their moments and how to give one another space.”
So how does this bubbling, almost-finished business compare to their Deptford pizza past?
“It’s just us in the kitchen like it was before, but it’s great, because here the customers can see the pizzas being made and we get to see them eating it,” said Rafael.
“That’s what we’re here for – to see their faces when they enjoy the food.”
Did you know there are 180 islands in the River Thames? That’s 180 mysterious pockets of land most of us will never set foot on.
If your interest has been piqued, you’re in good company, because I was enthralled when photographer Jonathan Goldberg began to tell me of his journey into the unknown.
He has visited 65 islands over the last four years for his series Estuary Hopes, Upstream Dreams, which captures life on their shores including an abandoned torpedo factory and an artists commune.
“I’ve always been fascinated by islands in general, and my projects are often based around my backyard,” said the Willesden Green resident.
“Other photographers might want to go to exotic locations and travel far, but that leaves a big carbon footprint and there’s so much on your doorstep you might not know about.
One of Jonathan’s images of Taggs Island
“The Thames islands are every bit as intriguing as the more publicised locations precisely because they lie under the radar.
“I’m always quite fascinated by things that are seemingly so close yet a little bit hidden.”
He will be sharing details of his journey at St Katharine Docks this summer as part of the Classic Boat Festival, which in turn is part of the Totally Thames Festival.
The 49-year-old will be discussing his work with author and journalist Sasha Arms, whose book, Carl Goes London Islands informed his travels.
Some photographers do not have a predilection for verbosity and there is an argument that art should not be explained.
But Jonathan gallantly attempted to answer my questions about his travels, which he said gave him a greater awareness of the layers of history and many quirks to be found along the river.
His first stop was Eel Pie Island in Twickenham, one of 60 inhabited blobs of land in the Thames.
One of Jonathan’s Eel Pie Island images
“People of a certain age tend to know about it because it’s got a very colourful history,” he said.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a venue where a lot of the big music performers of the day played – The Who, Pink Floyd and David Bowie.
“It’s sort of private now, but it’s home to a lot of artists’ studios and they have an open day twice a year, so I went in the summer and it piqued my curiosity.”
He took the easier road (or waterway) next, travelling to the islands that are designated parkland or open to the public.
“I fixed on the people who frequented the islands and tried to find interesting and diverse characters and the everyday goings on,” he said.
One of his favourite discoveries was Tagg’s Island near Hampton.
“It’s quite exotic-looking because the landscape gardener has planted numerous plants and there’s a lagoon in the middle of the island,” he said.
“All around it are these houses which look really interesting because they are technically houseboats but never move – they are moored permanently.
“Something about the architecture is really ornate and quirky.”
The softly spoken photographer, who started his career on newspapers such as the Hendon Times and the Ham And High in the 1990s, was mostly welcomed ashore.
But he recalls one island that “looked like an 1980s housing estate” where his subjects were extremely reticent about appearing in front of the lens and all but escorted him back to the river after 30 minutes.
In contrast, he has spent “too much time” on Canvey Island and some of its most easterly neighbours.
One of Jonathan’s images of Lots Ait
Jonathan said: “Sheppey is one of my favourite places to photograph because it feels rather like the end of the world and is a bit weird with loads of diverse things going on – an industrial corner, a nudist beach, a tacky holiday resort and a nature reserve.”
The furthest west he has been is Osney, near Oxford, and Fry’s Island near Reading, which is almost entirely given over to the Island Bohemian Bowls Club.
He has plans to explore that area further, ahead of an exhibition in Henley next year which will showcase part two of the project.
“I’ll keep going because there are some islands that really interest me and I want to represent a few other facets of island life in my photos,” he said.
However, there are some islands he knows he will probably never get to set foot on.
“Magna Carta Island, which was where the Magna Carta was signed, has just one big mansion that’s owned by a private individual.
“I don’t feel like I’m going to get a chance to photograph that,” he said.
While that piece of history has been allowed to slip away from public view, others like Platt’s Eyot have benefited from their remoteness.
“It’s home to an enormous warehouse and used to be where World War Two torpedoes were constructed,” said Jonathan.
“It’s semi-derelict but preserved, so they’re not allowed to knock it down.
“I think that if this warehouse had been on the mainland it might have been demolished for housing.”
This project follows his series The Runway Stops Here, which documented a different kind of island – an ecological one.
He spent five years visiting and photographing Grow Heathrow – a sustainable community living entirely off-grid in protest at the proposed expansion of the airport.
One of Jonathan’s images of Trowlock Island
“I would sit around the campfire, help out, make food and that played quite a formative role in my life,” he said.
“It was really great to hang out with a lot of people who were really committed to environmental protest and living sustainably.”
Jonathan said he is often lured by the siren call of the islands to make his own escape from mainstream society.
“I often get a real yearning to snap up a property and think it would be lovely to live there,” he said. “But then again, there are practicalities that need to be considered.
“Some have flooding issues, some you have to get a boat to and, in the winter, they’re not as appealing.”
For now, he’s happy to document these snippets of land that are imbued with so much history and encourage others to look more closely at the landscape around them.
“Hopefully, my pictures will encourage people to seek out places that are surrounded by nature and wildlife, look around more and have a greater interest in the natural world in the immediate vicinity,” he said.
“The islands are a really great place to be a bit more at one with nature because, with water all around, you are, by definition, surrounded by nature.
“You get an amplified sense of the changing seasons and time of day and beautiful sunsets and sunrises – a feeling of tranquillity.”
Thames Islands: Presentation and Discussion is set to take place on September 10 from 3pm-4.30pm. Entry is free.
A free exhibition of Estuary Hopes, Upstream Dreams will be held throughout September at Watermans Arts Centre, Brentford.
The Classic Boat Festival at St Katharine Docks
EVENTS + TALKS AT THE CLASSIC BOAT FESTIVAL
The free three-day boating extravaganza returns with around 40 vintage and preserved vessels assembling in the central basin of St Katharine Docks.
They will include the Dunkirk Little Ships, Bates Starcraft and other working vessels. Visitors will be able to board some of them and meet their owners.
The festival is set to run September 9-11 in the afternoon (3pm-5.30pm) on the Friday, and from 11am-6pm on the Saturday and 11am-5pm on the Sunday.
The opening and closing will be marked each day with a salute of horns.
There will also be food stalls, entertainment, nautical goods and services available on Marble Quay. Talks will be held on the SKD events platform and include:
Tom Cunliffe – Fri, 4pm
The Queen’s Row Barge Gloriana – Sat, noon
The history of St Katherine Docks with Dr Oliver Ayers – Sat, 1.30pm
“Dancing feels liberating – to be present and grounded in the moment gives me an outlet and a medium to express, be and present myself and to connect with others – it’s powerful,” said Levan Peart, dancer, student, choreographer and social entrepreneur.
The founder of community interest company (CIC) Blackout Dance Camp is constantly striving to harness that power as a way to combat mental and physical health issues.
“I really think they are synonymous – when you address one, you address the other,” he said.
“In the digital age, we can be frequently distracted – with social media, for example – so it’s great to come into a space, connect with others and to have that freedom of expression.
“The exercise also releases endorphins so it generally improves your state of being and it stimulates your cognitive abilities because you’ll be using your brain in ways you’re not used to.
“You’re having to think and coordinate with your body but at the same time, release and let things flow.”
As a child, Levan danced with his siblings, discovering a passion that has been the foundation of his activities and one he is driven to share.
“I’ve loved dance since I was young – getting home from school and watching dance movies like You Got Served, Stomp The Yard, Streetdance, Step Up and Honey, and dancing to the music channels non-stop,” he said.
“Then two of my sisters and me joined a dance school having seen a story in the local newspaper.
“I’m from Telford originally – a very small town with not many opportunities and not much diversity, but we joined that group and that exposed us to the street dance world a bit more.
“My sisters and me also did Sky One’s Got To Dance when we were growing up as well.”
Levan now studies at the University Of East London – image Matt Grayson
While still in his teens, he first created Blackout at school, entering national competitions before the project evolved further.
“I’d been approached by some parents who wanted me to involve their dependants in dance, so we formed a group, with regular classes and entering competitions,” said Levan.
“From there, things just snowballed – I was getting into working with schools and meeting more and more teachers who wanted our services.”
Next came a partnership with local community centre The Wakes, offering free dance sessions to young people from low income backgrounds.
“That felt incredible – to give that gift of dance, because it was something, growing up, that I struggled to access,” said Levan.
“It was a real pleasure to be able to give that for free and there was a massive demand for it as well.”
Through that project, he was put in touch with Nicky Kent of Social Heart CIC who helped him set Blackout up as a social enterprise, before a move to London’s Royal Docks beckoned.
“It’s the only course of its kind and I knew with my roots that this was the sort of environment I’d feel more aligned with.
“I’m not classically trained, I don’t have that background and this programme covers dance from other origins.
“But it was a bit of a lost dream. I didn’t have the right credentials to get enough UCAS points to be accepted.
“However, I did manage to get onto the New Beginnings access course at UEL – that meant travelling every week from Telford to London, a round trip of five hours.”
Having completed that programme and been accepted onto the undergraduate course, Levan is now seeking to develop and expand his activities with Blackout in both Telford and London.
“For me, it’s being able to balance Telford and London, because Telford is part of my roots and it’s somewhere I’m passionate about,” he said.
“The course at UEL has exceeded my expectations. For me it’s been an incubation period, a time of transcendence – spiritual, mental and physical growth.
Levan started Blackout in Telford – image Matt Grayson
“Being exposed to new networks and meeting new peers – it really is a different life coming from a cold spot in the UK to such a bustling city, which is thriving and full of opportunity.
“With Blackout, we’re at the stage now of establishing a presence in London and the course I’m on at UEL is exposing me to a whole group of people we can look to work with in the delivery of our own funded projects, going forward.
“We offer a range of specialist dance, education and wellbeing services, integrating Caribbean-style dance with commercial dance to create our signature style.
“Our organisation is split into three segments. There’s the educational element, where we go into schools and deliver mass movement workshops where we can reach up to 400 children at any one time.
“We have our participatory element, which is our dance camps, workshops and intensives.
“The main aim of that is to bridge the gap between industry settings and community settings – to level the playing field for those from marginalised backgrounds.
“We welcome beneficiaries from all walks of life, however we do have a focus on members of black and ethnic minority communities, LGBTQIA+ dancers, neurodivergent groups and those living in low-income areas.
“The third element is performative, where we have showcases and the opportunity for beneficiaries to take part in short films and screenings.”
Right now, Levan, 22, is focused on growing Blackout’s operations in the capital.
“I want to continue to build up our programmes in schools in London – to build up a strong roster of people that we can use to deliver these services,” he said.
“There’s only so much you can do with a small team, so collaboration is key for the kind of mission that we have.
“I want to expand the team, expand the roll-out and also the organisation so there’s more time to focus on the artistic vision.
“Eventually it would be nice to create full-length films to raise awareness about issues we’re tackling through our work.
“Potentially, in the future, we’d even like to look at theatre.
“At the moment the programmes we offer in east London with our short films are on a call-out basis, so people should keep engaged with our social media profiles (@blackoutdancecamp) and keep an eye out for project opportunities.”
Levan is expanding Blackout’s operation in London – image Matt Grayson
GAINING RECOGNITION
Levan has recently been honoured for his achievements at the Student Social Mobility Awards organised by charity upReach, attending a ceremony at the House Of Lords hosted by Baroness Helena Kennedy.
As well as winning the top Creative Industries Sector Award, he was also named as one of the upReach 10 in recognition of his grit, resilience and determination.
The accolade comes on the back of his success in winning the top prize of £2,500 in an incubator pitch competition organised by HSBC, where he impressed the judges with his entrepreneurial vision.
Levan said: “Winning that money didn’t feel real for a moment, especially as UEL is so close to HSBC’s tower.
“I was shocked but really grateful. It means a lot when you know where you came from and what you’ve had to do to get to where you are. It felt really good to get that external appraisal.
“With the Social Mobility Award, I didn’t think someone from my demographic and origin would ever enter the House of Lords and take these awards with me.
“It’s a demonstration of what we can achieve if we work for it.
“This recognition has made me more determined than ever to succeed. I feel like this platform has made me more accountable to myself.
“I’ve set a benchmark and I know what I’m capable of.
“I’m ready to spread my wings and help create a better society for Blackout’s beneficiaries.
“That’s the core of what I’m doing with Blackout – improving the lives of others.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
Water bikes, duck eggs from the local waterfowl, hydroponically grown salad ingredients from the Isle Of Dogs – oh, and steak, a great deal of steak.
There’s something happening on the lower floors of Newfoundland tower at the eastern edge of Canary Wharf and it promises a completely different experience to anything the estate has seen before.
Open now for summer previews, with an official launch set for September 5, M restaurant has been long in the making.
For the brand’s CEO and founder Martin Williams, to see the doors open is both a thrill and a challenge.
“We signed the deal for the space when the building was just foundations and it went up pretty spectacularly,” he said.
“But it’s taken a bit longer than everybody planned, with the pandemics and the war, but it’s great that six years on the dream has become a reality.”
That dream is one that builds on the success of M’s first two sites – in the City’s Threadneedle Street and Victoria.
Cobia tartare at M restuarant
Its latest opening, in Canary Wharf, promises to further the spirit and verve of the brand.
It’s a reflection of the complementary dichotomy Martin’s character hints at – a man who is at once laser-focused on the detail of the businesses he runs, balanced by the kind of sense of fun that has seen his restaurants offer wheel of fortune prizes to Christmas revellers and an hour of free wine and cheese to mark the recent spate of Governmental resignations.
The slick operation of the venues is a given, but it doesn’t take much for him to sail away on the romance of the inspiration behind them.
“While there are small moments of self-congratulation in running a business – when everybody’s gone home and you sit there and feel you’ve achieved something – in your mind you’re always thinking what more you can do, how you can make the place super special,” said Martin.
“When you walk into any restaurant, you’re looking at the micro details – when I dine out with my wife, she makes me sit facing the wall.
“And there’s so much detail in our Canary Wharf restaurant – the inspirations are from the Cote d’Azur, the Riviera and Lake Como.
“We want to stay with the water – we’re surrounded by it with 360º glass – and we wanted to play on that with the colours.
“There are lots of net details, metalwork inspired by yachts, portholes, seagulls – real maritime inspiration and that feels very fitting.
Tuna tataki at M
“There’s nothing like this on the Isle Of Dogs or in Canary Wharf – it’s a different level in terms of decor, the level of hospitality and the quality of the products.
“When combined with the wow factor of the views, people who visit will very quickly acknowledge this is somewhere special.”
M is set to launch its St Tropez Beach Brunch on August 27 and 28, slightly ahead of its official opening.
Running from noon-3pm on the Saturday and Sunday of the Bank Holiday weekend, £65 buys a two-course meal and 90 minutes of free-flowing Mirabeau wine or cocktails.
As with other M sites, the venue has a range of facilities that will act as host to a varied programme of events in addition to its core business.
“We’ve tried to create a venue that you can use for a number of different reasons,” said Martin
“On the ground floor we have La Petite M, which is a wine and wagyu bar with wagyu sausage muffins and bacon sandwiches for breakfast – then it goes into wagyu Cuban sandwiches for lunch and, in the evening, charcuterie plates and wine
“The cafe is very much a grab and go concept and with 600 residents above us, we think it will be very popular for breakfast.
“Then, the main venue is our gastro playground, which is reached via a spiral staircase. It’s akin to walking into a hotel lobby, a very sensory environment that we hope will build anticipation.
Martin says M is a gastronomic playground – image Matt Grayson
“Go up and you’ll be confronted with six ageing chambers for our beef – it’s a bit in-your-face.
“Then there’s a cocktail bar, two private dining rooms, a private members’ lounge, a wine tasting area, a terrace and the grill restaurant specialising in Provencal cuisine.
“Throughout, you can enjoy heightened hospitality.
“It’s always our intention to give you an amazing dining experience.
“We’re cooking on wood, coal and smoke and we specialise in beef with the best meat from around the world.
“We have quality wagyu from Japan and cuts of Blackmore wagyu from Australia – exclusive to us, Heston Blumenthal and The Ledbury – so there are some incredible beef offerings
“All of our steaks are carbon neutral – the way we do that is by having partner farms across the globe where we know the farmers very well and we measure their carbon footprint and the methane output of the cattle.
“Then we measure the transportation impact of bringing all of our foods to the table, and then we mitigate or reduce that at source as much as possible, and we offset it with a charity we have that is concerned with a reforestation programme in the Amazon.
“That means you can dine knowing it’s not having a negative impact on the environment.
“We also offer a lot more besides. About 50% of our diners eat steak and that means half order other dishes – the rest of our menu has been described as Michelin level food with flair.
Wagyu scotch egg at M
“We’re very casual and accessible, but the quality is up there with the best restaurants in the UK.”
That M’s third site is in Canary Wharf is no coincidence. Martin, left Marske-By-The-Sea near Middlesborough for London aged 18, working in hospitality through his studies before deciding to take restaurants “very seriously” at the age of 24.
His first managerial role was at Gaucho’s Canary Wharf branch, a business he eventually rose to become MD at and that he is once again running alongside M.
“We had a sheltered upbringing with one row of houses between us and the North Sea and a five-minute drive to the North York Moors – Heartbeat country,” he said.
“When I came to London it was a wonderful shock to the senses, very busy and very diverse.
“You could be anyone you wanted to be. Canary Wharf has changed immeasurably since I first came here – it’s a very different landscape.
“When I launched M in 2014, I was looking at the Wharf and the City, but the Threadneedle Street site had previously been a restaurant so a lot less capital was needed to open.
“This new venue should be the making of M.
“I love Canary Wharf, the cleanliness and the safety but also the journey it’s been on over the past 15 years to become more than a sterile environment, with real culture and art and the way the waterways are being used in different ways now.
“We’re hoping to do a competition where businesses and residents can race water bikes along Middle Dock with some great prizes for the winners.
“We want to open with a bang and offer the highly competitive people of Canary Wharf a way to have some fun, get some exercise and enjoy the world’s best beef.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
What do a Nobel Prize-winning Kenyan environmentalist and a Scottish-born sculptor based in Deptford have in common?
Both felt overwhelmed by the raging environmental issues facing the world and decided to take action, no matter how small.
In the 1970s Wangari Maathai spoke of a hummingbird trying to put out a forest fire with tiny drops of water while larger animals disparaged it for being too small to help. It replied: “I’m doing the best I can”.
“That for me is what we all should do,” Wangari said.
“Be like the hummingbird. I may be insignificant, but I certainly don’t want to be like the animals watching as the planet goes down the drain.”
She went on to help reforest swathes of Africa and founded the Green Belt movement.
Half a century later, Deptford creative Dot Young is celebrating Wangari’s story with a series of delicate relief sculptures and is seeking to make her own practice as sustainable as possible.
“I work in an industry that is quite environmentally impactful,” said the 58-year-old, who has been based at Art Hub Studios in Creekside for the last decade.
“It’s on the consciousness of makers, about how what we’re doing impacts the planet. I don’t use resin anymore and I’ve been experimenting with more environmentally friendly materials.
“As a sculptor, you can get caught up in lots of non-biodegradable plastics that aren’t really appropriate anymore.
“I also run a degree course in prop-making at the Royal Central School Of Speech And Drama and I’ve been turning the focus to not ordering as much timber and using thick cardboards.”
Dot works from initial sketches before using polymer clay – image Matt Grayson
Her work on Wangari is part of her Natural Formations series, which celebrates habitats, the environment and activists.
She has based much of it on 19th Century illustrative prints from environmentalists and botanists.
She has crafted the reliefs from hard plaster or jesmonite, a more sustainable alternative to resin, and has been experimenting by casting with different papers.
Dot said to find eco-friendly methods we only needed to look back.
“I worked in Venice for a short period with the mask makers,” she said.
“The traditional Venetian mask is actually made from a woollen paper called carta lana, soaked into a plaster mould and coated in sermel gesso, another environmentally friendly, ancient material.
“This method eventually got usurped by Chinese vacuum-formed plastics.
“It’s really interesting when you turn the clock back and look at what things were made of, pre-industrial revolution.
“You find ways of making that can be reinvented in a contemporary style.
“I’m interested in experimenting in mixing dust with gum arabic.
“The possibilities are endless for looking at how you might develop a new material.”
Dot first became more conscious of eco issues through her project Chair, which tracked the history of an oak chair from the forest where the tree had grown, to the sawmill and then the furniture manufacturer.
“The only chair I could find that was fully made in Britain was from High Wycombe,” she said.
“It made me realise we don’t have a furniture industry in the UK anymore, which is very sad.
“Then I moved on to tracking other things, like hair extensions I bought in Dulwich, which I traced back to Chennai in India.
“I was getting very aware of the globalisation of materials and doing the work to give people an idea that there was a responsibility around the objects we buy, of knowing where they come from, how they’re manufactured, if people have been exploited and their carbon footprint.
“It actually got quite intense and depressing. The reality was very overwhelming.
“I could have become a political activist but I decided to go back to the studio, because I wanted to find a way to celebrate nature.”
Dot’s pieces take as long as they take – image Matt Grayson
Dot began looking at the work of people who had archived natural phenomena, such as Ernst Haeckel.
To capture them in 3D she started using a method she calls slow sculpting, allowing whatever time is required to complete each piece.
She believes that having this intense and intimate relationship with the work is communicated in the outcomes.
“I’d been doing a lot of sculptural installation work until then,” said Dot.
“It had been very conceptual and I was craving the technical challenge of traditional sculpture.
“I did some completely out-there pieces, inspired by 19th century cakes but really wanted to get more intricate, and I’ve always felt relief sculpture was something a little bit tangential to the rest of the sculpture area.
“It’s all around London if you just look up and, historically, it’s a way of telling narratives used by the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.
“I really enjoy the technical challenge and creating stories within the work.”
Dot is based at Art Hub Studios in Creekside – image Matt Grayson
It is a stark contrast to her commercial work, which has included making heads of political leaders such as Barack Obama for Oxfam.
“That work can be really fun and I like working for organisations that are making a difference,” said Dot.
“But it is fast and furious and I have to produce it to a high standard.
“What I really love about the relief work is that I don’t put a time limit on it. It will take as long as it takes to get it right.
“When you spend that time laboriously doing it again and again, it’s very meditative but it also speaks of slowing down and spending quality time doing something that’s hopefully, valuable.”
Each piece starts with lots of drawing and collaging to come up with a design, which is then transferred to a wooden board.
From there, Dot hand sculpts the design using polymer clay, which doesn’t dry out quickly – meaning she can spend several days or weeks on each piece.
Once the sculpting is finished, she makes a mould of the piece and casts it. She then sculpts out any imperfections and moulds and casts again.
“That makes it a very flexible process with lots more opportunities to add, take away and change it along the way and have a wider variety of outcomes,” said Dot.
“Sometimes it can be really frustrating. If it’s a really complex one, I do sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed if I can’t get it to work.
“But I know from experience that I just have to walk away, leave it and then come back to it.
“It’s definitely not a simple, linear process. Sometimes I do a drawing I think will work in relief, but then it doesn’t.”
“The work can’t just be decorative – I’m not really interested in that,” added Dot, who runs sculptural workshops and classes with Action For Refugees in Lewisham and has created experiential sculptural work for dementia-suffering residents in care homes.
“It’s got to have something that’s either powerful in its symbolism or be beautifully mathematical and geometric.
“I love Islamic art because it relates to the universe and secret geometry.
“That’s been a big influence.”
Dot’s croton seed sculpture honours Wangari – image Matt Grayson
Born in Edinburgh, Dot was introduced to the joy of objects and making by her father, a mechanical engineer, who was at the forefront of developing lasers.
After studying sculpture in Sheffield, she moved to London and was swept up in the 1990s era of shared housing, cooperatives and artist squats.
She then spent time in Africa, sculpting across Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and in the Tenganenge Sculpture village in Zimbabwe, which is another reason for her interest in Wangari Maathai.
Dot has already sculpted a panel inspired by the environmentalist featuring a croton seed, associated with the Kenyan reforestation programme and the African fabric associated with Wangari.
She is now working on a larger panel for the Craft In Focus event at Hever Castle in Kent (Sept 8-11, 2022), which will feature, hummingbirds, naturally.
“It will make a larger statement about her narrative – about how you can make a difference, no matter how small the effort you make,” said Dot.
“People that genuinely have an awareness of the environment are drawn to this work.
“There’s quite a limited audience when you’re doing really specialist installation pieces, whereas the work I do now is more commercial so I feel the audience is wider.
“Communicating with more people means I have a bigger voice, which I’m really enjoying.
“When people ask what it’s about then I really get to talk about the state of the planet and how my work is motivated by the concerns we have – but not in a negative way, kind of a celebratory way.”
“We’re opening this year with a truly amazing event – Spark – the creation of a Dutch artist called Daan Roosegaarde, it’s a complete reimagining of what an environmentally sustainable public celebration might look like,” said Bradley Hemmings, artistic director and founder of the Greenwich And Docklands International Festival (GDIF).
“He’s taken inspiration from fireflies to create this wondrous moment, that audiences will see lying on their backs on the grass in front of the Queen’s House.
“They will be surrounded by myriad moving sparks in the sky – something very beautiful and very much echoing the magic of the natural world.
Sat in Festival.org’s offices at the Old Royal Naval College, Bradley’s obvious enthusiasm for GDIF is undimmed as he looks ahead to overseeing its 27th iteration.
Taking place across an ever-evolving spread of locations in east and south-east London from August 26 to September 11, 2022, it promises 18 days of free arts performances selected to astonish, amaze, delight, amuse and challenge those attending.
“As always, this year’s GDIF is going to be characterised by a whole range of extraordinary and spectacular events, as well as performances taking place at a more local level,” said Bradley.
“The last two years have been difficult for everyone – certainly in mapping out, understanding and planning how things might transpire.
“We were incredibly fortunate to be able to deliver two festivals with a strong sense of confidence, so we’re incredibly proud of that.
“This year we’re in different territory, with new challenges and new contexts. We’ve always been a free festival and that’s something people can make the most of as we’re in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
“It does put into sharp relief the power of a festival like GDIF – it is there for everyone, accessible, and we try to go the extra mile to make sure we attract people who might otherwise not attend the arts.
“For 2022, we’re going out to new sites, like Rathbone Market in Canning Town, Avery Hill Park in Greenwich as well as Thamesmead near Abbey Wood and Deptford, to bring performances to different areas.
“That’s one of the challenges of going outdoors, because for each site we have to create the theatre as there’s nothing on the ground.
“Of course there are venues we work at every year – Greenwich town centre for Greenwich Fair on August 27, for example, but actually discovering new sites and venues, as well as returning to places after a period away, is what keeps GDIF fresh and audiences awake and excited by what we’re doing.
GDIF founder and artistic director Bradley Hemmings
“For example, it’s great to be working with Tower Hamlets again – we have a wonderful audio piece at Island Gardens called Final Farewell, that takes people on a journey through the streets and parks of the Isle Of Dogs.
“Then we also have a new production from Air Giants called Unfurl over in Bethnal Green Gardens, which features ingenious, soft robotic technology – people will walk in a garden of giant inflatables that come in a whole range of different colours and react to the public passing by.”
The problem when writing a preview piece about GDIF is the sheer depth and number of the performances it offers.
With limited space, it’s hard to convey the often surprising blend of art, acrobatics, dance, circus, theatre and spectacle the festival offers – soaking the locations it touches in the unexpected to create memories that still echo many years after.
In previous years I’ve watched an acrobat tussle with a huge robotic arm, seen a whole band swing on a giant chandelier suspended from a crane high above dancers in an imaginary ballroom and been charmed by two performers being silly with a stack of buckets.
Bradley is, understandably, at pains to select highlights given the embarrassment of riches on offer – a reflection perhaps of the fact that all the performances have the potential to be affecting in their different ways.
“We care deeply about all the events, although one of the things we’ve done is continue to work very closely with Flanders House in London and this year we’re focusing on Flemish circus,” he said.
“There’s an amazing performance as part of GDIF 2022 called Follow Me, by a company called Be Flat, which will take people on a completely wondrous tour of a part of Thamesmead using acrobatics, Parkour and ingenious staging to draw the audience in.
“They are incredibly skilled performers who will leave amazing images in people’s minds after it’s gone.”
The best thing to do, of course, is just see as many performances as possible and decide for yourself.
DIARY DATES
While there are far too many performances to list over the 18 days GDIF runs in east and south-east London, here are a few highlights that demand a place in the diary
Artist Stephanie Lüning will use mountains of rainbow-coloured foam to transform Greenwich Peninsula.
Bradley said: “This is a UK premiere, a very exciting, unpredictable event with a huge outpouring of foam as Stephanie controls the palette and how the colours behave.”
Sept 1-10, 8pm, free – Limmo Peninsula, Royal Docks
Originally created for the Burning Man festival, Peter Hudson’s kinetic installation is a 32ft-high zoetrope powered by volunteers.
Bradley said: “Audiences arrive at the artwork having gone on an immersive sound journey. This is an extraordinary piece sited right beside the River Lea with the figures appearing to move.”
Sept 7-10, times vary, £10– Here East, QEOP Multi-storey car park
This unapologetic response to rising Islamophobia uses verbatim speech from members of modified car clubs.
Bradley said: “This play by Zia Ahmed casts real people using their own words as they tell their stories, all while stripping down a car and putting it back together again.”
Discover Ukraine: Bits Destroyed will be at the Old Royal Naval College
Aug 26-29, times vary, free – Old Royal Naval College
This work sees mosaics destroyed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine projected onto the buildings of the Old Royal Naval College.
Bradley said: “This is a project that really speaks to the destruction of the country’s cultural heritage since the February invasion, and shares with us this remarkable tradition of mosaic-making.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
“You cannot manage what you can’t measure,” said Paul Sheedy, the CEO and founder of Unifi.id.
“The one thing we focus on is giving clients the right measurement tools so that they can manage their buildings better.”
In the mouth of a lesser individual, technology designed to track building occupancy in real time and adjust systems such as lighting, heating and air conditioning accordingly might seem a little dry.
But Paul positively vibrates with passion when it comes to his specialist subject.
On the one hand there’s the engaging Irish lilt of a Dubliner and a glint in the eye.
On the other there’s a burning frustration and exasperation that more isn’t being done to tackle climate change and humanity’s continued overuse of resources.
He’s disarming, funny and deadly serious.
“We talk a lot about smart buildings,” he said, waving a hand to indicate the London skyline stretching out to the City and beyond as we gaze out of the 39th floor of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf.
“But 96% of buildings around the world are not smart.
“What we’re trying to do is deliver the things companies need to actually make them smarter.
“In most buildings, energy wastage is about 30% – just think of that in the wider context of cutting emissions and gas and electricity prices rising so quickly.
“My focus is all about using less energy and so lowering organisations’ carbon footprint very, very rapidly.”
Unifi.id’s long range RFID cards are logged by its detectors
Based at Canary Wharf’s tech community Level39, Unifi.id has developed technology embedded in entry and exit swipe cards that allow its detectors to log employees as they pass key points in a building.
Paul is quick to stress this isn’t about tracking the exact movements of individuals as they go about their day, but rather knowing who is in what general area at any given time and then using that data in a number of different ways.
“The lingering effect of the lockdowns is a good example,” he said. “Almost all buildings are being run as they were pre-Covid.
“Companies have all their cleaning staff, their restaurant staff and security staff in as though the occupancy was the same.
“But some buildings still have only around 2% of staff in on a Friday.
“That those buildings are being run in the same way is ridiculous.
“Before Covid, the way buildings were occupied was consistent, but now there’s not a single one that we run that has any consistency.
“Occupancy is so sporadic and it can be extreme on Mondays and Fridays.
“It’s criminal that all the lights are on, the air conditioning is cooling every floor, with only a fraction of the staff in.
“That’s why our technology can have an impact – the more we monitor, the better our predictive analysis gets. For example, we can see the effect of external factors.
“We see that about 7%-12% fewer people come to the office on a Thursday if it’s raining.
“In contrast, rain on a Tuesday hardly affects anything and we think there’s a psychological reason for that because if you’ve been working from home on Friday and Monday, by Tuesday you’ll be feeling a need to return to the office despite the weather.
“On a Thursday, you might just think it doesn’t matter so much, especially if you’re working at home or off on the Friday.
“Then you have other factors such as train strikes, which can affect occupancy over an entire week.
“Occupancy detection also allows building owners working with us to tell the buildings in advance so they can adapt – keeping floors closed and turning down the air con, for example.
“What we’re really trying to say to organisations is that they can adapt to this new way of working, but there will be consequences, so they may need to use hot-desking because certain areas won’t be open.”
The key for Unifi.id is giving organisations this ability to track change so they can adapt what their buildings are doing in real time, rather than simply guessing what’s happening.
Paul says energy is wasted in the vast majority of buildings
“We think there will be a change,” said Paul.
“People working from home, paying for all the lighting and heating, will recognise that it would be cheaper for them to go to work, so it will get busier later in the year.
“In many sectors where there is flexibility, we already know what’s happening.
“Staff are seeing that it’s the right time to go back to work, socialise and interact with other people again.”
Greater numbers back in buildings makes Unifi.id’s technology even more relevant, given its obvious safety benefits.
Should a building catch fire, for example, knowing exactly how many people are in it and where they are is potentially life-saving information for the emergency services.
“This is something I’m particularly passionate about, because back in Dublin when I was a child, we had 48 of our neighbours die in a dance hall fire – they couldn’t get out of the building,” said Paul.
“What we want to do for the London Fire Brigade and for the tenants of buildings is to bring in a new policy where, in real time, if something does go wrong, the emergency services and building managers know the occupancy of the building.
“That means they can monitor the evacuation of the building and could save firefighters’ lives if they then don’t need to go in.
“Also we look at how many people in a building have mobility issues and where they are, so efforts can focus on getting them out safely.
“People don’t always do sensible things when it comes to an evacuation.
“We have mechanisms in place where, if we can see people heading the wrong way, a completely automated communication is sent to their mobile to tell them where to go and what to do to get to the ground floor, even if that’s to avoid a certain evacuation route.”
Paul created Unifi.id following the success of Symphony Retail AI, a company he co-founded that analyses loyalty card transaction data to better understand the behaviour of shoppers.
Originally conceived to create beacon technology – the idea of sending messages from companies to people’s phones based on their location and profile – his firm switched its focus to property when it eventually became clear in the advertising world that this was a non-starter.
“I hate to admit failure, but I will,” said Paul, who has been based at Level39 since it launched as a tech accelerator hub in 2013.
“The world was convinced that beacon technology was going to be the next big thing in advertising, but it never happened.
“No retailer anywhere in the world ever made it work to detect the right customer at the right time to send them the right offer.
“In reality it didn’t work because it didn’t think about the individual and what they would have to do.
“So now we focus on making technology that isn’t dependent on people doing certain things to make it work – the more you do that, the better your product is going to be.
“It’s more difficult for the company, but hey, I wouldn’t get out of bed if I didn’t know it was going to be a challenging day ahead of me.
“I enjoy squeezing the grey matter and the brains of brilliant people I work with to find what piece of physics we can break, bend or enhance.
“So we transformed into a proptech company, delivering simple essential data to those managing buildings so they can make them more efficient and better for the environment.
“Over the past two years, it’s not been a great time to be working in occupancy technology, so a lot of what we did in 2020 was to go back to our clients and say: ‘This will end, tell us what we could do to be even better after Covid’.
“With their responses, my tech team sat down and we just worked relentlessly on building new solutions, working out what the next steps would be.
“We saw that the market was moving from card-based access control to apps.
“But we know this doesn’t make sense because people don’t tap in and out so much using an app, whereas the RFID technology in our cards means we automatically detect people walking into or out of a building or past our detection points.
“We realised that the way to get around this was to develop a facial recognition system.
“We only hold the vectors of a face in the camera, and only when an employee of the company walks in or out of the building – this would be detected and put in the database of who is in the building.
“Then we’d mesh that with 3D counting cameras – with these, we don’t know who you are, but we do know how many people pass them, so in reality we have absolute accuracy on the usage of each floor of a building.
“This means that if we do have an evacuation, for example, we know the numbers of people on each floor and we can detect them as they enter each stairway, so we can see the flow and quickly identify where there might be blockages or problems and allow the fire brigade to get to them.
“We really believe that this will become a global system, which will go into major cities around the world, like Dubai and New York.
Paul is clear that Unifi.id’s technology cannot be used to monitor the exact position of employees – this isn’t about tracking who’s at which desk and how many trips they take to the toilet in a day.
He said this would not only be an invasion of privacy on an ethical level, but also that such data would not be very useful.
“We have been careful with every client that we will never be a Big Brother solution – we’re only detecting people as employees or visitors who are allowed access to a particular floor of a building,” he said.
“Secondly, we will never put our technology into places like toilets or cigarette-smoking areas. If an employer wants to do that, they will be doing it without our technology. That’s not what this is about.
“One of my key points is that it should be actionable data, which would deliver the best solution, not just collecting data for the sake of it.
“The world isn’t taking climate change seriously enough.
“We’re failing on every single metric and we have to realise this isn’t about governments – its about organisations and individuals making the right choices on every single thing they do. We have to contain energy with every single device we use.
“What the UK does have is an amazing ecosystem of accelerators for technology companies and a lot of them are now focused on proptech.
“We’re now working in collaboration with a lot of those companies and, because we’re working with them, this country is now at the forefront of this sector going forward.
“We work with people on LED lighting and automated building management systems and by using our data, businesses can rapidly cut energy wastage now.”
- Jon Massey is co-founder and editorial director of Wharf Life and writes about a wide range of subjects in Canary Wharf, Docklands and east London - contact via jon.massey@wharf-life.com
