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Signorelli opens Italian bakery and cafe, expanding to Wood Wharf

We catch up with co-founder of the Stratford-based business, Rebecca Rosmini as it brings coffee, parties and focaccia to Canary Wharf’s Union Sq

Chocolate cookies at Signorelli Italian bakery and cafe - image by Jon Massey
Chocolate cookies at Signorelli Italian bakery and cafe – image by Jon Massey

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Wood Wharf is enjoying a potent injection of energy.

8 Harbord Square has seen nail specialist Awe London, stylist Wayne Hairdresser Salon and florist The Flower Club all open their doors in recent months. 

But these arrivals are very much in the vanguard of a cascade of launches to come.

With Union Square acting as a wide boulevard through to the eastern edge of the estate – picnic and ping pong tables already attracting a healthy flow of Wharfers – it’s perhaps the ideal time for Signorelli to arrive in the neighbourhood.

The people need refreshment and this Italian bakery and cafe business is here to provide it, opening daily from 7am to 7pm. 

“The message is simple,” said Rebecca Rosmini, CEO of Signorelli, which she founded with husband Alberto a little over 10 years ago.

“We do great coffee, pastries, focaccia, cakes, cookies and biscuits. 

“In Italy, you have places where you buy your croissant and your coffee, have a chat with a neighbour and then go on with your day. 

“Our recipes are Italian-inspired – the ethos is very much from Alberto’s mum’s way of cooking – but we’ve adapted them for the UK market. 

“Our coffee is fantastic, Italian blends and roasts, different to much of east London where there has been a trend for darker roasts.

“Our espresso is really lovely.” 

Signorelli co-founder and CEO, Rebecca Rosmini - image by Jon Massey
Signorelli co-founder and CEO, Rebecca Rosmini – image by Jon Massey

the learning curve of Signorelli

 Wood Wharf will be the fifth branch in what has become a finely tuned east London operation.

However, Signorelli’s genesis was not without its learning curve.

“My background is as a surveyor in commercial real estate,” said Rebecca, originally from Hartlepool. 

“My mum started investing in residential property in the 1990s and needed a mini-me to go around building Ikea furniture for her.

“I still like doing that – it gives me a very tangible before-and-after feeling and you can see the results immediately.”

Joining the Tesco graduate scheme having mastered the allen key, Rebecca forged a career with the supermarket giant before a move to Sainsbury’s property team.

She then founded RSR, her own commercial real estate advisory company, that has since worked with the likes of Deliveroo, Asda, Boots and local authorities.

“After starting the business, I met Alberto, an agronomist – he moved to London to look for a job because it wasn’t the right time for me to relocate,” said Rebecca.

“Then he started baking at home. He can be very obsessive and it got a bit out of control.

“We started giving out baked goods to our neighbours, then we started doing picnics and having big dinner parties at home in our tiny flat in Camden.

Freshly baked loaves for sale - image by Jon Massey
Freshly baked loaves for sale – image by Jon Massey

“People started joking that we should have our own catering company.

“One day, an Italian pizzeria company approached me to find a site in London and they were looking for a manager, so I put my husband forward.

“We went on a journey with them and went through the process of finding locations but we discovered they wanted to import frozen food from Italy and defrost it here to serve.

“That wasn’t what we wanted, so we parted ways.

“Alberto was so disappointed. He’d spent six months developing recipes and was really down, so we thought: ‘Stuff it, let’s do it ourselves’.

“I knew that East Village in Stratford was launching retail units and thought we should go and have a look.

“I  hadn’t been back since my time at Sainsbury’s and it was October 2014, windy, cold and empty.

“There could have been tumbleweed.

“There was no transport hub, no retail – I just didn’t see it. But Alberto thought it was perfect.

“He said I should imagine it, that it was just like Italy – pedestrianised with water and trees – that it would all be about people walking, talking and interacting.

“I made peace with it.

“We designed the unit ourselves, it immediately felt like home and we had friends popping in to help.

“The Ikea skills came back too and then the vinyls came down, even though I didn’t really feel ready to have people in.”

Filled focaccia at Signorelli - image by Jon Massey
Filled focaccia at Signorelli – image by Jon Massey

opening the doors

“It was carnage,” said Rebecca.

“We had no idea what we were doing and, before we opened, I suddenly decided we were going to do scrambled eggs, because that was what people needed.

“We looked up how Jamie Oliver did them and then we opened.

“We forgot to hire people, so we had a queue out of the door and people came to help us.

“We had lawyers and accountants, some vegetarian, cooking sausages – we didn’t even know that you had to prep food ahead of service. 

“We were cooking like you would at home – we just thought it would be the same. 

“We went on a three-year learning curve and there were so many terrible stories along the way.

“I think it was the community that made us survive – we had so many people rooting for us. 

“People wanted us to succeed and I was blinded to how crap we were. It took a long time.”

Latte art on the coffee - image by Jon Massey
Latte art on the coffee – image by Jon Massey

fighting for Signorelli

In the end, the pandemic was part of the solution. The first lockdown provided a forced stop, time to rest, regroup and rethink.

“I always say we’ve had two businesses – the crap one from 2015 to 2020 and then 2.0,” said Rebecca.

“We decided we were determined to fight for Signorelli – we had put so much into it and we weren’t just going to kill it.”

Salvation began with a serendipitous decision taken in 2019 to install a serving window out onto the street.

This reopened in April 2020 to serve pastries and coffee. People queued in socially distance fashion. 

Back as a small team, with Alberto – as ever – baking overnight, Signorelli had two baristas serving and Rebecca doing deliveries in her trusty  25-year-old SEAT. It was a fresh foundation.

Suffering “PTSD” from the smell of burnt eggs, they resolved never to offer brunch again and set out on a new path – baked goods, coffee and alcoholic drinks for later in the day.

The arrival of the couple’s second child prompted another change as Signorelli opened its Bakehouse, centralising production in part to allow Alberto to work fewer antisocial hours.

Instead, the new direction was the catalyst for creating the current shape of the business, allowing greater capacity for more staff and the founders to step back a bit from the day-to-day. 

The cafe serves coffee, pastries, sweet treats and savoury options - image by Jon Massey
The cafe serves coffee, pastries, sweet treats and savoury options – image by Jon Massey

a complex symphony

“No-one in our baking team trained as a baker – they have all learned in our business and they’re doing an amazing job,” said Rebecca.

“It’s like a perfect symphony – you just watch them and everyone knows their role.

“We chose Canary Wharf for our latest expansion because it’s about 15 minutes from the bakehouse by cargo bike for deliveries.

“In lockdown, my husband, me and our little boy came to E14 a lot – we used to do these really long walks along the canal.

“Both Alberto and I grew up by the sea, so being close to the water felt familiar. 

“Our strategy now is about creating mini pods of branches to grow Signorelli and we’d love to create one in Canary Wharf.

“It’s always been my husband’s dream to recreate the town squares of Italy in the UK, bringing people back to the table, to conversation.

“The Wharf allows us to share that energy.

“We are so much about getting people together, getting them off their phones and getting them to talk to one another.

“It requires patience and you can’t go into it expecting a quick turnaround.

“It’s a journey that you go on with the landlord, with the community, and everyone needs to work together to make it come alive.”

Stuffed with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella - image by Jon Massey
Stuffed with tomatoes, pesto and mozzarella – image by Jon Massey

sustainable baking

Signorelli’s arrival in Canary Wharf also brings with it catering services and celebratory cakes, all delivered with a consistent focus on sustainability and healthy ingredients.

“The Italian philosophy is to have really good raw produce from rich soils, then you can create something really amazing from just three or four ingredients,” said Rebecca.

“We’re not about cutting costs to produce a better margin.

“We’re really happy to accept less profit on our baked goods to deliver better quality.

“My rule is that if I wouldn’t feed it to my three-year old, then I will not feed it to my customers. 

“We guard massively against ultra-processed foods, although we haven’t yet found an alternative to Nutella, so there is one naughty thing. 

“We also monitor our waste really carefully.

“We’re always looking to re-use anything that goes unsold, but is still delicious.”

Signorelli Wood Wharf is located in West Lane off Union Square, Wood Wharf - image by Jon Massey
Signorelli Wood Wharf is located in West Lane off Union Square, Wood Wharf – image by Jon Massey

key details: Signorelli Wood Wharf

Signorelli Wood Wharf is located at 5 West Lane off Union Square and is open every day from 7am-7pm. 

The bakery and cafe operates a “once it’s gone, it’s gone” policy to minimise food waste with customers seeking pastries advised to visit before noon for the full range.

Find out more about the new opening here

Read more: Brother Marcus opens its doors in Canary Wharf

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Vertus Edit review: Aparthotel is smart, funky Canary Wharf offer

Split across two buildings in Wood Wharf, the venue delivers carefully thought-through, design-led facilities whatever your length of stay in London

The view from Jon's room at Vertus Edit - image by Jon Massey
The view from Jon’s room at Vertus Edit – image by Jon Massey

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The launch of an aparthotel in Canary Wharf is a smart move.

Those wishing to live on the estate long-term already had two options – they can buy a property from Canary Wharf Group or rent one through it’s subsidiary Vertus.

Short-term visitors can, of course, stay in Water Street at Tribe. But now Wood Wharf also offers something in between.

Vertus Edit, which celebrated its official launch this month, houses 378 studios of varying sizes split across two buildings in West Lane, overlooking Union Square for short or extended stays.

That could be for one night or six months and every inch of its design embraces that level of flexibility.

In contrast to trad hotel rooms, guests get fully equipped kitchens and access to communal rooftop spaces as well as more intimate lounge and terrace areas.


Please clean my room – a wooden sign for the door at Vertus Edit - image by Jon Massey
Please clean my room – a wooden sign for the door at Vertus Edit – image by Jon Massey

comfort at Vertus Edit

This is a place laser-focused on the comfort of its inhabitants whether they’re just passing through or living in Wood Wharf for a while – perhaps visiting family or working locally.

On my stay, we’re allocated a “Cosy” studio for a single night.

While this is the second smallest on offer, its 257sq ft feels palatial in comparison to many hotel rooms with an expansive bathroom and shower.

The strip of kitchen running from the door to the bedroom includes an oven, a toaster, a kettle, a proper four-burner hob and a real fridge – enough to cook a complex meal. 

In-room, what Vertus delivers best is functional luxury.

Aside from the colourful East London Printmakers artworks, the aesthetic is plain, even minimal. But what is provided in spades is quality.

The furniture and appliances have a solidity, a dependability about them, which promises reliability – a kind of subtle reassurance to aid a good night’s sleep in the supportive cloud of the bed.


Rooms at the aparthotel are decorated in a cosy, minimal style - image by Vertus
Rooms at the aparthotel are decorated in a cosy, minimal style – image by Vertus

a clean, green stay

Sustainability is here too.

My room features toiletries supplied in refillable metallic dispensers from Kankan.

Nothing feels throwaway. 

Chief among Vertus Edit’s attractions is its location.

About five minute’s walk from the eastern exit of the Jubilee line station, it’s within easy reach of the whole of Canary Wharf and much of central London thanks to the area’s transport links.

But a close second is definitely the facilities on offer.

While the rooms are relatively neutral in their design, the lounges, co-working spaces, meeting rooms and private dining space pop with personality.

There are rich colours, exotic wallpapers and even a neon ice lolly installation (it’s art).

Its facilities for guests to do their own laundry, an honesty market pantry system for ingredients, snacks and drinks plus a gym for workouts really cement Vertus Edit’s proposition for practicality.

It may not feature some of the trappings of a traditional hotel (although staff are always on hand), but the clear depth of its communal spaces marks it out as something special.

Then, of course, there are all the benefits of being moments from Canary Wharf’s increasingly vibrant offering.

And with more to come in Wood Wharf, stays will only get better. 

The spaces are decorated with art by East London Printmakers - image by Vertus
The spaces are decorated with art by East London Printmakers – image by Vertus

key details: Vertus Edit

Rates at Vertus Edit vary depending on the date and length of stay, but those booking can currently get 15% off using code HELLOEDIT in celebration of the aparthotel’s launch.

Find out more about the aparthotel here

Read more: Brother Marcus opens its doors in Canary Wharf

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Canary Wharf: How Marcus Lyall is set to illuminate a Wood Wharf tower block for 2024’s Winter Lights festival

Festival is set to return to the estate from January 17-27 with 12 temporary installations for all to see

Marcus Lyall’s Idle Time is set to be shown at Wood Wharf’s Union Square in January 2024

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I first met Marcus Lyall beneath a flyover in Royal Docks.

It was December 2020, the wind was biting and various restrictions were in place thanks to the pandemic’s Christmas-cancelling second wave.

As a result, his epic installation Presence was attracting the attention of only a few, shifty passers-by. 

Nevertheless, the piece remained the most impactful work of that year’s Join The Docks festival – with viewers performing short messages into a microphone then seeing them echo between the concrete pillars of the roadway, with visualisation courtesy of an urgent laser and plenty of smoke machines.

Had the times been normal, it would have been a blockbuster – recalling the success the artist had at Canary Wharf’s Winter Lights festival in 2017.

Then, On Your Wavelength – a series of 32 square LED-lit portals drew visitors in droves to Crossrail Place’s once empty shopping level.  

This year, the Homerton resident is set to return to the estate for Winter Lights 2024 – with something much bigger than either of these creations.

Idle Time will be projected onto a 50sq m canvas formed by white-wrapped scaffolding behind Wood Wharf’s Union Square. 

“The idea for it came from our lives today and how we’re encouraged very much to think about optimisation and efficiency – what we can fit into a day,” said Marcus, who works from studios at Fish Island near Hackney Wick.

“There have been various anthropological studies of pre-industrial societies and one of the things the scientists noticed when they went to hunter-gatherer cultures was the amount of time that people spent not doing anything.

“It feels right now, when everything is being optimised, that there is very little time for not doing anything, despite the fact that everything has apparently been made more efficient so we all have more leisure time.

Marcus Lyall’s On Your Wavelength from Winter Lights 2017

“To me, it doesn’t feel like that.

“The question now is: ‘Are you spending your free time productively?’.

“With Idle Time, there are three elements connected to efficiency and productivity.

“Firstly there’s the backdrop – Canary Wharf – a global centre of hyper-capitalism, where companies dedicate every moment to trying to extract capital from labour. 

“Secondly I’m using lasers, which are a hyper-efficient light source.

“You can use them in lots of ways, but here I’m using them like a big pen to draw and animate an image.

“With lasers you have the beam and a couple of mirrors that move at something like 30,000 times a second.

“Projecting 50 or 60 drawings per second lets the eye perceive the image as though it’s moving. 

Artist Marcus Lyall – image by Matt Grayson

“Thirdly, I’m also working with motion capture technology where we have people act out various movements and use the data captured to drive the image.

“Normally this is done with dancers, acrobats, stunt people or physical theatre performers – subjects that are incredibly good at moving, so the data can be used to create animation sequences.

“It tends to be about capturing stuff that’s exceptional – actors performing the most amazing moves they can.

“What I’m doing with Idle Time is deliberately using people who aren’t terribly good at movement as my subjects – they’re mostly artists from the building I share in east London and they are doing things that are not terribly productive.

“One of the real pleasures of being an artist is that it’s not all about the effort you put in.

“A lot of it is about talking and thinking – stuff that’s difficult to quantify or capture.

“What I’m trying to do is celebrate the more mundane bits of life, the fact that most of our experience comes through incredibly subtle movement.

“Our experience of other people isn’t necessarily about them doing cartwheels.

“What’s interesting is that, when we’ve done tests on this work, people find these characters we’ve captured quite intriguing.

“Viewers immediately try to work out what they’re doing and then project characters onto them. It’s leaving a bit of a gap for the audience.”

Idle Time is one of 12 temporary installations that will pop up across the estate for Winter Lights 2024. The festival is set to run daily from 5pm-10pm and is free to visit.

Having seen around 1million visitors come to the estate for 2023, new one-way systems have been implemented to help manage numbers, with larger, more crowd-friendly pieces commissioned.

Alongside the visiting works, six permanent artworks will be illuminated for the show, including an LED twist on Shine Your Colours at Canary Riverside.

Marcus said: “It’s great that Canary Wharf Group is commissioning work and nice that they’re valuing art – it makes a difference.

Idle Time is a bit more of a slow burn rather than a five-minute spectacular.

“Part of it is getting people to look at how they spend their time, getting people to question whether this constant drive for productivity is the best way to live their lives.

“I’m also hoping they feel some sort of empathy with the people they’re seeing, that there’s a connection with them, that they put themselves in those characters’ places.

“It’s very much about reflection and contemplation.

“There’s something nice about the fact that it’s projected onto a building that’s not in use yet – something that’s still going up.

Marcus Lyall’s Presence in Royal Docks

“It also feels a little bit subversive to be doing a bit of graffiti with lasers in a part of the estate where people actually live.

“Sometimes this kind of work can be more for show, but this has been designed as something people can live with for a while.

“It’s ironic – I’m creating something in a hyper-efficient location with hyper-efficient projection technology and hyper-efficient motion capture, where my subjects are actually doing very little.”

The perfect antidote, perhaps, to the hustle and bustle of the Wharf – especially during the festival.

You can find out more about Winter Lights 2024 here

Read more: How Level39-based WyzePay offers discounts at MMy Wood Wharf

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- 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
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Canary Wharf: How the Mandala Lab aims to transform emotions into wisdom

Installation by The Rubin Museum at Union Square on Wood Wharf is based on Buddhist philosophy

Tim McHenry of The Rubin Museum Of Art in New York

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Tim McHenry’s job is essentially to get people interested in things.

A lithe and slender man with a strong shirt game, the chief programmatic officer of The Rubin Museum Of Art in New York is an erudite guide as he takes me round the institution’s Mandala Lab in Canary Wharf.

The cylindrical installation popped up in Wood Wharf’s Union Square in September, is free to visit and opens daily from noon until 6pm (8pm on Thursdays).

It’s set to remain in place until November 25, 2023 – but what on Earth is it?

“As the name might indicate, it’s an experiment,” said Tim.

“All we do at The Rubin is inspired by the significant body of Himalayan art we have in our collection – it’s an exploration of mind and a negation of life and death, the deep stuff.

“In order to welcome people into that, we thought we might want to bring them into the shallower end of the pool until they learn to swim.

“It needs to be accessible, not only because the wheelchair ramps work, but also because if you look at a painting in the collection, you might not understand it.

“Walk inside this version of a painting that we’ve created here in Canary Wharf, however, and its meaning becomes clear because it’s a visceral journey, and it will help you see what it is about you that you have the capacity to change.

The Mandala Lab is located in Union Square, Canary Wharf

“The experience is based on a Tibetan Buddhist painting in The Rubin’s collection – a mandala, which in Sanskrit means circle.

“It has no beginning and no end, it’s all encompassing. This is a microcosm of your mind.

“Your embarkation point is on the outer rim and you’ve got to find your way to become the middle.

“At the centre is all-encompassing wisdom, but this only comes about by fully understanding what ignorance is.

“The Lab has four segments, each of which has a portal, the green room for envy, blue for anger, yellow for pride and red for attachment.

“You can enter through any of them.

“We’ve represented the mandala in the painting physically so people can step inside – it’s a metaphorical embodiment of the principles in the painting.

“All we’re doing is asking that people step inside – like Mary Poppins and Bert jumping into chalk on the pavement.”

For Envy, visitors synchronise their breathing with a pulsating light

The experience comes in four parts.

  • Envy sees visitors synchronise their breathing with a light, together with others in the same space.
  • Pride is a chance to look at oneself in a distorted mirror before deciding which of four categories one fits into.
  • Attachment is an opportunity to explore scent and memory.
  • Anger is a chance to hit a gong before lowering it into a tank of water and seeing the furious vibrations quickly dissipate in the calming liquid.

Incidentally, the gongs have been designed by various prominent individuals including celebrated percussionist Evelyn Glennie and Peter Gabriel, formerly of Genesis.

Tim and The Rubin are more than happy to call in celebrities to further the museum’s reach and expose more people to the ideas in its collection.

“Since joining The Rubin when it opened just over 20 years ago, it’s been my job to make Himalayan art accessible and popular, using many techniques including high profile people, contemporary artists and culture,” said Tim who ran events for the New Yorker magazine prior to his role at the museum.

“What was really transformative was recognising that Buddhist art is largely about an exploration of the mind and with that came the interesting idea of looking at this philosophy in comparison to what we understand about how our brains work – the latest neuroscience. 

For Attachement, visitors explore smell and memory

“We ran a series called Brainwave where we would have a scientist on stage with someone from a different walk of life and we’d try to unpack our behaviour and the choices we make by virtue of the context. 

“We had Jake Gyllenhall on dreams, for example, and Whoopi Goldberg on time, which brought The Rubin attention – particularly secular – that it might not otherwise have had given that the art is largely Tibetan Buddhist and to some degree ritualistic in that it’s an exercise of the mind.”

That’s exactly the point of the Mandala Lab and you don’t need to be famous to experience it – although, incidentally, actor Brian Cox (Logan Roy in the excellent Succession) did pop up at the launch party to bash a gong in anger.

It’s intended as a journey of self discovery – a series of activities designed to provoke thoughts about the self, our place in the world and our relationship to others. 

“Envy, for example, is devoted to this exploration of this rather sharp-elbowed, competitive thing that sometimes inhabits our minds and hearts,” said Tim.

Percussionist Evelyn Glennie performs at the Mandala Lab launch

“Why did someone else get a pay rise and I didn’t? Whatever it is, it’s something that we feel we lack in ourselves – it’s always self-centric.

“Here the exercise is super simple – if the first thing you did in your life was take a breath, then it will probably be the last, and that’s all we’re asking people to do.

“They breathe in time with a light source. 

“One of the most interesting advances in psychology and neuroscience is the idea of entrainment, where individuals sit in the same space and do something at the same pace. 

“Their heartbeats start to align and that starts to develop that subliminal bond and, over time and repeated exposure, will start to foster pro-social behaviour, because we think of ourselves as one.

“When that happens, there’s nobody left to be envious of. It’s a metaphor, but it’s an experience metaphor, and this is what Mandala Lab is all about.”

Over the course of the four segments, visitors are gently exposed to the idea that we are all connected, that we are all the same and that we are also all different and individual – that these things are all true at the same time. 

Actor Brian Cox watches his anger dissipate at the Mandala Lab

“It’s about establishing these teachings which are all about how we navigate our emotions – how we can harness the energy that we expend on maintaining them into a greater understanding of how we can deal with life,” said Tim.

“The aim is that we’re not buffeted by these reactive feelings of anger, attachment, envy and pride, which we find hard to control. Indeed, when we can’t control them, we tend to lash out and damage others and ourselves, which can lead to grief. 

“Those behaviours can become habitual patterns that are ultimately harmful.

“What we’ve experienced in New York with the Lab is a move to a more selfless nature – from the individual to the community – that’s something we could certainly do with a little more of.

“I hope this installation is a spur to understanding for people on the Wharf – it’s free to everyone so come on down.”

Find out more about the Mandala Lab here

Read more: Sign up for the Santa Stair Climb at One Canada Square

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- 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
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