Posts Tagged Bars and clubs
Ouseburn: the beating art of Newcastle
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on January 4, 2010
Ouseburn's once derelict factories and warehouses are buzzing again with artists' studios, music venues and cinemas. Stephen Emms guides us around
Ouseburn was, until 10 years ago, a monument to an industrial past, its derelict factories, red-brick warehouses and mills lurking in the shadow of Victorian bridges and viaducts less than a mile from Newcastle city centre. Now, this picturesque valley, either side of the river Ouse (once used to carry coal by boat from Spital Tongues down to waiting barges on the Tyne), is the creative heart of Newcastle.
Following years of post-industrial decline, its regeneration, kick-started by community-driven enterprise rather than corporate business (the Ouseburn Trust in partnership with the local authority), has given the area's unique architecture and riverside setting a new lease of life – in the form of artists' studios, live music venues, an independent cinema and galleries. Here's a quick tour to get you started.
1. Cumberland Arms
Not just the best pub in Ouseburn, but arguably the finest in Newcastle itself. Built in 1836 (owner Jo will show you the hatch where women, refused entrance to the main bar, used to be served), it's boozer heaven: wood-panelled, roaring fire, simple furniture, leaded windows, a smattering of salvaged art, and shelves heaving with paperbacks. Session ale is the "Rapper", named after the Northumberland sword dance, and there are six guests, as well as 12 types of cider. An upstairs room plays host to music, theatre and comedy. Its isolated position overlooking the valley means stunning views not only from its terrace, but also the windows of its four spacious, very comfortable bedrooms.
• James Place St, +44 (0)191 265 6151, thecumberlandarms.co.uk.Doubles from £70 a night including breakfast.
2. Star & Shadow Cinema
A converted former prop department for Tyne Tees Television, this tiny cinema is run by volunteers, from film programming and projecting, to gigs and promotion. Every year there is a charmingly named "Building Festival" where volunteers come and help build, improve and restore. One Sunday a month there is a "Make & Mend" arts, crafts and flea market. Meetings every Monday at 6pm, films every Thursday and Sunday, and gigs, films, club nights and art events programmed on Weds, Fri and Sat.
• Stepney Bank, +44 (0)191 261 0066, starandshadow.org.uk. Open daily.
3. Biscuit Factory
Britain's biggest commercial art gallery is a whopping 35,000 square feet over two floors of exhibition spaces and artists' studios. Paintings, drawings prints, ceramics, and jewellery including artists such as Emma Tooth (whose Concilium Plebis are Caravaggio-style portraits of those dismissed as "chavs and hoodies"), and Maria Rivan's stunning 3D collages. My tip is to refresh yourself at the café, which groans with inviting home-made sandwiches and cakes, while contemplating the industrial views over the Byker Wall (see below), rather than at the blandly-furnished, expensive restaurant.
• Stoddart St, +44 (0)191 261 1103, thebiscuitfactory.com. Open daily
4. The Cluny
A former whisky bottling plant a stottie's throw from Byker Bridge, The Cluny is owned by iconic party boozer the Head Of Steam (worth a visit, opposite Newcastle Central Station). As well as a live venue, which showcases both young Geordie bands and international artists, the simple main bar and lounge (runner-up in the Observer Food Monthly's awards 2006 for best quick eat in north-east) offers local ales and informal yet hearty snacks, such as good quality house salads (£6), home-made burgers (£6) and Sunday roasts (£7).
• 36 Lime Street, +44 (0)191 2304474, theheadofsteam.co.uk.
5. Seven Stories
The first museum in the UK dedicated to the art of British children's books protects the heritage of British classics for families and curious adults alike. Temporary exhibitions at the former flour mill (such as the current retrospective for Tiger Who Came To Tea author Judith Kerr, which runs until May 2010) complement the permanent collection, whose earliest acquisition was Puffin Books editor (and Puffin Club founder) Kaye Webb's archive. Philip Pullman is a great supporter and has given work from the His Dark Materials trilogy and the Sally Lockhart quartet. The huge bookshop is free to enter, as is one of the best cafes in Ouseburn, which offers sleepy views over the Ouse – and great mugs of coffee.
• 30 Lime Street, + 44 (0)845 271 0777, sevenstories.org.ukpen Mon-Sat 10-5pm, £5.50 adults £4.50 children
6. Mushroom Works
The scream of gulls and clink and hammer of the docks fill the air outside this hard-to-find gallery, originally a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, in an area once known as the "Mushroom". Opened in 2004 by furniture-maker Nick James, there are 12 studios, including painters, illustrators, jewellery makers, animators, architects, and glass artists. They host eight exhibitions a year, and the shop, with its emphasis on affordability, currently stocks work by 32 artists. The Stairwell Gallery has just opened upstairs, given over to exhibitions by other artists. A 50% off "studio sale" runs from Jan 9-Feb 6.
• St Lawrence Road, +(0)191 224 4011, mushroomworks.com. Open 12pm-5pm Weds-Sat.
7. Northern Print
Northern Print began life in 1994 on Fish Quay, North Shields, and moved in 2006 to a former pottery in Ouseburn. Now a gallery and contemporary print-making studio offering affordable prints as well as classes, it's worth also spending a penny in ceramic artist Paul Scott's impressive tiled toilet. Also, don't miss the large screen-prints decorating the sides of the offices opposite.
• Stepney Bank, +44 (0)191 261 7000,northernprint.org.uk. Open Weds to Sat 12pm to 4pm.
8. Byker Wall
Set between the roar of the flyover and silence of the river, the Grade II-listed Byker Wall, a 1970s primary-coloured brick, wood and plastic-built unbroken block of 620 maisonettes, was placed on UNESCO's list of outstanding 20th-century buildings. Designed by Ralph Erskine in Functionalist Romantic style, the low-rise construction represented a break with the high-rise architectural orthodoxy of the time. Its iconic, triangular Tom Collins House is visible from miles around.
9. Victoria Tunnel
Testament to the achievement of Victorian labour, this two-mile tunnel was built in 1838 for transporting coal from Spital Tongues colliery on the Town Moor to the river Tyne, and in the second world war converted to an air-raid shelter. A short section, with its last remaining accessible entrance on Ouse Street (behind the Hotel Du Vin, see below) re-opened in 2008 to give visitors and locals an experience deep below the city.
• newcastlecommunityheritage.org.
10. Hotel Du Vin
The first hotel in Ouseburn opened in 2008 in the former headquarters of the Tyne Tees Steam Shipping Company, which once served as the company's maintenance depot and storeroom. As such, a nautical theme pervades the 42 rooms, many of which have outstanding views over the Tyne Bridge. Its glass and brick bistro is the most glamorous evening eating option in Ouseburn, even if you're not a resident (great value too with two-course menus boasting locally-sourced ingredients from £15.50).
• Allan House, City Road, +44 (0)191 229 2200, hotelduvin.com/newcastle. Standard rooms from £160. On Sunday nights, spend £75 in the bistro and room is only £25 if you book online.
• Newcastle is served by East Coast Trains: for the best deal on advance fares, book online via nationalexpresseastcoast.com, or call 08457 225225.
Back on the bloc: an architectural tour of East Berlin
Posted by The Sheet in Architecture News on December 8, 2009
Twenty years after the fall of the wall, young Berliners are finding a new love for GDR architecture, which is being reclaimed for galleries, bars and clubs
Berlin has been melded back together so well over the last two decades that there are now very few obvious visual clues to the division that once was: the shiny "golf ball" TV Tower, the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the wall), and the odd scattering of blocky GDR buildings, which defined eastern development in the 1960s when the city was in dire need of reconstruction. Although many of these East German government buildings were knocked down after 1989, and many of those that still stand are ugly, cheap monstrosities, the most iconic remaining examples of this era-defining architecture are now winning the interest of a new generation, thanks in part to the current buzz around the 20th anniversary of the wall coming down. Many young Berliners now think of the GDR era with nostalgia; it's no longer something to forget.
The distinctive buildings – clean and modernist, inspired by Bauhaus or grandly Soviet – which did away with the sharp corners and rectangles of Nazi buildings – have been adopted by businesses, and are now home to many of the city's coolest nightspots, galleries and cafes.
One of the city's most exciting conversions is Soho House Berlin, complete with hotel and pool, which is due to open early next year in the "Big House", the former headquarters of the SED, the Socialist Unity Party. The politics may be gone forever, but the form is back in fashion. Here's where you can see it.
Capitain Petzel
This new gallery, housed in a classic Soviet-modernist glass-box which is flooded with light, was designed in 1964 as a showcase for arts and crafts from across the eastern bloc. The name Capitain Petzel comes from Cologne dealer Gisela Capitain and New York gallerist Friedrich Petzel, who joined together to open this gallery last autumn. It shows a roster of celebrated international artists in a building with a huge wow factor.
• Karl-Marx-Alle 45 (+49 30 2408 8130, capitainpetzel.de).
Club Rechenzentrum
This building used to be the technology centre for East German radio (the name means "computer centre") and is hidden away in the woods on the banks of the Spree. The minimal house and techno club is in a vast single-story rectangular prism, with a frosted glass and wood exterior. In the winter, all the fun is in the vast low-ceilinged main room, but on warm nights there is an adjacent man-made beach – both with celebrated sound systems. As well as dancing, you can chill out on deckchairs by the water, eat from a barbecue and when you're done, rent one of 40 tents in the woods provided by the club and sleep off the excess.
• Nalepastr 10-16 (club-rechenzentrum .de). Entry €8-12, tents €10.
Galerie Im Turm
This "Gallery in Tower" sits in one of the two white Stalinist-style towers flanking Frankfurter Tor, East Berlin's grand square. The towers were once the crowning glory of Karl-Marx-Alle, the monumental socialist boulevard designed by the GDR's star architect Hermann Henselmann, who trained at the Bauhaus but was persuaded by the government to design in the Soviet style. The towers now contain luxury apartments, plus the gallery, which opened in 1965, and used to be a space for official GDR art. Today it supports the work of up-and-coming young artists. Be sure to peek out the windows and marvel at how undeviatingly straight Karl-Marx-Alle is leading to the Fernsehturm (television tower).
• Frankfurtur Tor 1 (+49 30 422 9426, kunstamtkreuzberg.de/k_galerieimturm).
Klub Der Republik
This bar/club takes its name from the Palast der Republik, the GDR's showcase building which was a huge glamorous hall for concerts, parties and events that also housed the East German parliament. The original building was controversially torn down last year but this club, which occupies a former ballroom, scavenged some of the fittings and furniture from the Palast before demolition – from multi-bulb wall lamps to Formica tables. A favourite of Prenzlauer Berg locals, the pre-clubbing ambience is relaxed and the music ranges from electro to pop.
• Pappelallee 81, Berlin 10437 (+49 30 4403 5653. Free entry, but €1 donation to the DJ.
KMA 36
This is a great, unheralded bar that has no signage – but you can see it's a bar as it is housed in a stocky glass cube of a building that was formerly a cosmetics showroom and shop for GDR make-up and hair products. Barely furnished, with an upstairs mezzanine level resplendent in mirrors, on warm nights there are plenty of wooden cinema-style chairs lined up outside for drinking on the wide pavement.
• Karl-Marx-Allee 36. Free entry.
Restaurant Schönbrunn
One of many brilliant outdoor spots to while away a sunny afternoon in Berlin, Restaurant Schönbrunn sits bang in the middle of the Volkspark Friedrichshain with a prime spot by the fountain pond. The building, a low glass-fronted construction with its original sign, was a pavilion in GDR times. While open until late, the best time to visit is during the day when you can take advantage of the large terrace or the beer garden that snakes alongside. The food is waiter-served Bavarian fodder with a twist, such as chicken with beer risotto, or spätzle pasta – or you can just take advantage of the beer selection. Inside, there are retro 60s-style details, including the ball-chair bar stools, and cluster ceiling lights.
Volkspark Friedrichshain (+49 30 453 0565, schoenbrunn-berlin.de).
CSA Bar
A super-stylish cocktail bar that was formerly the ticket office for Czech Airlines, though you can be sure the offices didn't look half as good back then. Now there's a minimalist retro interior – glass panels, low leather seating, sculptural lighting – very James Bond film set. There are myriad cocktails on offer and this is the kind of place you could happily challenge the bar staff and order off menu.
• Karl-Marx-Alle 96 (+49 30 2904 4741, csa-bar.de).
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