The Bowerbird: london

Showing posts with label london. Show all posts

100 years of East London style

Following on from the previous London themed post, I spotted this video on by b and e and thought it was worth sharing!

The video celebrates 100 years of East London fashion in 100 seconds, from 1911 - 2011. I love all the fabulous vintage clothing and the gorgeous hats! It makes me want to change out of my boring jeans and converse shoes, and put on a cute 1940's dress for the afternoon.

Watch it with the sound on....again...and again... it's quite addictive!

I Love London

I bought this wrapping paper from Lark the other day as I just loved the quirky illustrations depicting London with classic black cabs, the big red bus and snooty business people!

The illustrations on the wrapping paper reminded me of the 'London Collection' hand screen printed wallpaper designs by British designer Lizzie Allen.

Lizzie has a fabulous quirky illustrative style, and I love these designs with their sketchy collage images of iconic London scenes and business people going about their busy daily lives. I love the 'London City Gents' reading the newspaper, the 'red buses and black cabs' - and also the classic black umbrella which is a necessity when living in England!

UK shipment of china!

I had the best Christmas present arrive on Christmas eve - the shipment of china and books that I picked up from the UK last September! As usual everything was picked up from second-hand shops and local markets (mainly in London and in Bristol) - and I am constantly amazed at what is being thrown out!

The gorgeous turquoise and olive coffee pot, sugar bowl and creamer is a G&J Meakin featuring their popular Studio shape (introduced in the mid 1960's) I just love the tall elegant shape - it's timeless!

The teapot (top) with the large rose pattern I don't know anything about as there is no backstamp - but I just loved the unusual diamond shape to the body and triangular handle. These strong angular shapes are a perfect contrast to the traditional rose pattern.

The teacup and plate trio (left) is a Midwinter design on their fashion shape and I picked this up from the fabulous Spitalfields market in the East End of London.

I am hoping to start drawing and painting some of these soon as well as making some new wall-plates!

London Kitchens

As you can probably tell by now I do love anything to do with tableware, kitchenalia and vintage / retro styles. So, I just had to buy this fabulous book called 'London Kitchens' which is jam-packed full of the above! It is a Japanese published book - and they have a great selection of other must-have titles.

The book is, of course, full of images of contemporary designers, photographers, illustrators, lecturers and artists kitchens - most of which also have a penchant for vintage and retro style elements making the book an absolute visual treat!

It's a great reference book and it's never too far from reach. It's my dream to create my own range of tableware designs - and the book is a great reminder of how creative kitchenware can be!

You can buy this book and other titles here:

.......(have I left it too late to ask santa for some other titles from this collection?....perhaps London Vintage or London Gardens......) :-)

Decorative lettering

I snapped these pictures of different types of decorative lettering on my recent London visit. I love decoration in any form - and clever use of fonts and typefaces can be extremly eye-catching and decorative in their own right.

The first two pictures were from posters in the East-End advertising Ice Cream - they caught my eye instantly and I loved the simple but strong graphic elements. The 'Toy Theatres' was from a street sign at Covent Garden (very shakspearean!) and the 'No Exit' and 'Way Out' are from original tiles in the tube station at Covent Garden.
And I couldn't have a feature of decorative lettering from London without the famous Underground logo! It's proper name is 'The Roundel' and its distinctive style and font was designed by Edward Johnston in 1913 - and remains in use to this day.

Click here to scroll through some great old photo's featuring the London underground and it's iconic logo.

Decorative tiles - London

When I was in London recently I took these photo's in Richmond of gorgeous old blue and white tiles decorating shop fronts. It's lovely to see such beautiful decoration and detail that went into older style architecture - and in such contrast to todays modern (and rather plain) style. Although they are old tiles I think they provide great inspiration for modern pattern creation.

Second-hand finds in England

Cute vintage florals and the classic monochrome 'Homemaker' pattern

Detail from one of my favourite floral patterns with its beautiful backstamp and a stunning unusual interpretation of the Willow design by Wedgwood.

I picked up these plates (amongst some others that I am now eagerly waiting to be shipped out)whilst on my recent trip to the UK. I was especially pleased with the 'Homemaker' plates; the pattern is one of the best known ceramic designs of the 1950's and is considered a design classic and one of the most popular patterns of the 20th Century. Cute backstamp too!

I also found several retro teatowels - I love the simple stylised graphic patterns - especially the cocktail fruits! The small cute floral pattern is from the 1960's, but I'm not too sure about the others. I love the Queensland print - how fab are the colours and it does seem very tropical in contrast to the Scottish brown and purple design with recipies for haggis, scotch broth and clootie dumplings!

Spitalfields Market

On my return to the UK I had the chance to visit my favourite market in London - Spitalfields market in the East End. The whole area around Spitalfields including Brick lane, Cheshire street and Columbia road has a fantastic mix of vintage, original design and independent shops. There is a vibrant and eclectic mix of artists, designers, jewellers, bookshops, homewares and second-hand treasures - and it's great to shop away from the dominating high street department stores.

I visited Spitalfields on the antiques and vintage day - it was a good job I was limited to a suitcase or the day could have become very expensive! Just check out the retro white moulded chairs above with the blue and red seating, plus vintage military and naval uniforms below - brilliant!

Of course what I was really interested in was all the ceramic and kitchenware items...

So many dinner and tea-sets in mint condition, servingware from the 1960's with coloured handles, decorative enamel ware and patterened storage jars - all so colourful and pretty.

Richmond and the Thames

I have been spending the first few days of my trip to London in the beautiful area of Richmond which is situated alongside the river Thames. Richmond houses a vast array of stunning old buildings and architecture, and with its location next to the Thames and Richmond park it has a casual village feel - and you would have no idea you were just outside of bustling London!