Mindful Doing & Creative Space

Relaxing spaces took on a major importance in my life following the second—and hopefully last—of two very unexpected breakdowns. Although I’d previously needed a little time to settle in to new surroundings, I could still be content in most places. Once my mental health had been shattered there were very few places I could go without heavy consideration. This meant that I now spent a lot of time at home; I love my house and it is definitely an anchor for me, but too much of a good thing always has its downsides.

This deterioration in health pushed me into creative experimentation, along with my sister and best friend Lottie Suki, who in a spooky coincidence had experienced a similar breakdown that closely mirrored my own. Coming from a creative family and each with creative backgrounds, it was no surprise that we found our solace in making and crafting. The first smile of excitement on my face in months came from making a teeny, tiny 25mm badge. This unofficial course of discovery proved to be our tonic: we both began to recover and rediscover our authentic selves as we lost ourselves in creation. 

Once my sister and I had regained our confidence and joie de vivre, we began to daydream about developing a community of introverts, who, like us, would rejoice in the opportunity to calmly and quietly experiment with crafts. A weekend stroll down North Street, Bedminster, Bristol, landed us with the perfect location to make our dream a reality. I was heading to Storysmith (an idyllic independent bookshop on the same street, where you can browse what feel like dream bookshelves) and from the corner of my eye I noticed a sign calling for creative professionals who wanted to rent space to lead workshops. The coincidence was too exciting for us to ignore. 

Even on first impression, Creative Space seemed heavenly. Settled amongst the pleasant hustle and bustle of North Street, the entire shop front comprises of windows which let the light flood in. Inside, the space is spacious and yet still cosy. The studio is an inspiring place to be; like a gallery, the walls are white, and the artificial lighting is bright. The windows are filled with reupholstery projects that are still in progress, along with creations from the wide variety of teachers who also run workshops in the space. 

Having come such a long way in our own lives, my sister and I decided to be brave. We knew how much our wellbeing had improved through doing things mindfully, and so we made the bold step to begin our own course: ‘Mindful Doing’. Whilst we both do rather different things with our days and careers, we both discovered that the act of creating was a major contributor to our improved wellbeing and we wanted to share this with others. We devised a short course which explored some of our favourite ways of making things through writing, drawing, paper making and bookbinding and we ran it for the first time last summer. That was when we discovered our own 'Community of Introverts'. 

Even though anxiety has haunted us throughout, what has been most wonderful about this little venture, is that we have both felt the healing of these sessions at least as much as the people who have come along to them. We travel to the venue filled with nerves and the overhang of daytime stressors, but by the time we leave we are filled with positivity and calm. We both feel the benefit so much from supporting others to be mindful in their ‘doing’. The community within our sessions is wonderful, the space and what it stands for within the local area closely aligns with our values, and the area is itself is a magical little nook of a vibrant city.  

Beckenham Place Park

I recently moved three miles down the road. But it feels a world away. I’m used to having multiple shops and restaurants within a short walk. All that is next to us here is a station and a park. I worried when I moved that I’d feel isolated, but I’ve found that the benefits of the park far outweigh anything I had before.

The largest green space in southeast London, Beckenham Place Park was used as a golf course for over a century until 2016. Thanks to a National Lottery grant, the park has thrived since the closure of the golf course (something that understandably caused a lot of upset at the time). The Georgian swimming lake has been reinstated (I haven’t been brave enough to try it yet mind you), and the original stable blocks have been turned into a lovely cafe serving not only coffee and cake but pizza and booze! There’s a huge play area and stunning formal gardens. The centrepiece is a grand Georgian mansion—currently managed by the people behind Peckham’s Copeland Park & The Bussey Building—hosting regular markets and events, plus another cafe, basement bar, record shop, yoga studio and sewing school.

Really though, my favourite things about the park are all-natural: the bluebells starting to sprout, the maze of muddy paths, the bats that skim the lake as it gets dark, the frosty grass, the sound of the woodpeckers working away in the ancient woodland, the way the Ravensbourne River rages after a night of heavy rain and then seamlessly calms the next day and the surprising flash of bright green as the parakeets come in to roost at sunset, which I like to think of as south London’s answer to the Northern Lights.

If you like dogs, this is the place for you. My other half calls Beckenham Place Park a “dog safari”—you’ll spot every type of dog imaginable if you visit at the weekend. You might even stumble on a meetup—a grumble of pugs or a shout of schnauzers (yes those are semi-legitimate collective nouns). And yet, as busy as the park can get at the weekend, I very often find myself completely alone, listening to bird sounds and leaves crunching underfoot. How lucky I am to live this close to something so peaceful. It does my mental health wonders.

When I first visited—dog-free—I was amazed by the number of people in the park who said “good morning” to me. People interacting with strangers voluntarily in public? This wasn’t the London I knew! I need not have worried about feeling isolated. The park and the dog mean I talk to far more people in a day than I ever did before... Even if I only know their dogs’ names. 

If you’re thinking of visiting, Beckenham Place Park is only half an hour from Blackfriars on the train. Alight at Beckenham Hill. Find out what events are happening at Beckenham Place Mansion here.

The Good Life | A conversation on sustainability with founder Shelley Brown

We lured Shelley Brown away from stock-taking to talk to us about The Good Life, the waste-free mini market that she founded in northern England just a year ago. We discussed why local still matters, what led her to start the space, and how to deal with the challenges of being a store owner. This conversation restored our faith in our High Streets to do good for our communities, our planet and ourselves. We hope you feel the same!

What inspired you to start The Good Life?

The Good Life had been brewing in my subconscious for some time. It was the sudden death of my sister which spurred me to start the project with my father. It became something positive to focus on during a very dark time.

How do you bring a sense of community and connection into your space?

The Good Life is very much a community enterprise. It has been unexpected quite how much! Customers constantly tell me what the shop means to them and what it has done for the area. It’s been so rewarding. I live down the road in Heaton Moor and my daughter goes to Didsbury Rd School, a four-minute walk away. I knew that when I opened a shop like this it would be vital that I was connected to its location. The Heatons is full of independent businesses and the residents are passionate about supporting them. It is an area where people tend to stay. The shop stock has been built around the customers; if they ask for something, if I can get it I will!

Do you ever think about wellbeing, your own or others, in what you do?

Wellbeing is very much connected to The Good Life. I have always embraced life, but even more so since losing my sister. It is not unusual for customers to bring us home-baked goods, cards, and flowers. The shop has become an open space for customers to come and have a coffee or sometimes a glass of wine, to have a chat or even a cry. I feel very connected to my customer base; some have become dear friends.

Are you finding that there's an increasing interest in sustainable lifestyles? Do you think that people are starting to change their shopping habits? We've noticed more people going on plastic fasts and bringing reusable cups, for instance.

Absolutely. A change is certainly happening and people know they have to make changes. We are also seeing big corporations responding to a demand for this because of the action of individuals.

What one thing could people do to live a more sustainable life?

Refill! The household/beauty refill side of the business has grown month on month since we opened. We look for new products all the time. As well as the obvious choices like laundry liquid we now do everything from micellar water to deodorant to baby oil. It's a very easy swap for people to make and massively reduces their personal waste.

Why was a physical space important to you (rather than online)? 

This business is all about relationships. The internet has, of course, contributed to the death of the High Street, but also the death of communication. Our demographic is from 0-90 and I am very aware of the isolation that older generations must feel and how important shops like this are to them.

What’s the best thing you did to achieve this dream?

I just got on with it! Failure was never an option!

What’s been the toughest moment and how did you get through it?

It's a financial juggling act. Building the stock has been hard as it's vital to buy in large bulk to compete with the supermarkets.

Who or what did you draw inspiration from?

I drew inspiration from other zero waste shops to build my base stock. An old friend Pete helped me realise my shop vision through the design process and Charly Tudor (introduced through Pete) was vital in creating the brand identity.

The shop is named after the TV programme. My sister and I watched it growing up and I re-watched it all after her death. It's not an original name, but I couldn't call it anything else!

What would be on your ideal High Street?

I love living in the Heatons because we have what a traditional High Street looks like. Independent shops offering everything from glasses to gifts to clothes. We even have an independent cinema. I hate cheap shops selling crap. Budget supermarkets who rip off suppliers and farmers. Convenience stores that sell air-freighted food all year round! We have lost the value of good, local, seasonal produce. The high cost of living has forced people to demand cheaper and cheaper foodstuffs and it's been to the detriment of the planet and of the nation’s health.

We wanted to mention how much we love the apron 'We're Naked in Here!' and your design approach overall.

All down to our designer Charly Tudor! It was certainly a talking point!

To find out more: Website, Instagram, and Facebook

The Eden Project

“Transformation — it’s in our nature.”

There are many visitor attractions that wear us out. The traffic at parking, overcrowded visitor buses, long walks between the ‘highlights’ and queues once we’re there, overpriced and unhealthy food options, and the inevitable sugar crashes with tantrums from all ages: collectively these make the places that should hold excitement and wonder feel fractious and underwhelming. 

But this wasn’t our experience at Cornwall’s Eden Project, one of the most popular places to visit in the UK — even though one of our kids complained the entire day that they were not in a swimming pool! We managed to keep that sense of awe and wonder from the moment we arrived — and glimpsed that first truly stunning view of the biomes which are tantalizing hidden until the last moment — to when we left, of course, through the gift shop but one which played out on its shelves the same story of sustainability and impact that we’d been following all day.

What captured our imagination most were those things you might immediately think of — the largest indoor rainforest with over 1,000 different species (and a cloud-making bridge), those other-worldly bubble domes, the zip line (!) moving its daring-doers across the valley. But there was also the wonder of the Core Building which houses permanent exhibition Invisible Worlds and includes Studio Swine’s interactive art installation Infinity Blue and Peter Randall-Page’s serene Seed sculpture which takes our understanding of the natural world right down to the Fibonacci sequence that shapes it.

There’s something else magical about the place though. Something that extends beyond the natural world on display. What’s striking is that even though it’s about plants, trees, biodiversity, what its really about is us. The story it’s telling is not just one of presentation, it’s one of impact. We’re increasingly realizing that the story of our environment is the story of the people it sustains and that we’re becoming leading characters in each’s narrative. Speak now of anything within one realm and you are speaking to the other. That’s an interconnected relationship that’s on fast forward and in conversation in ways we’d never considered before. And we need to get it, quickly.

But here’s the correlative — for the moment anyway — there’s an optimism latent in these landscapes. It’s very existence a testament of the will of people (well one person at first, co-founder Sir Tim Smit) to create something out of nothing, in this case transforming the massive hole in the ground that was a former working china clay pit into a place of possibility. There’s an optimism just in that act and it gives foundation also to the belief that each of us, working together, carries the potential to make real change happen. That’s inspiring in a different way, and as necessary as the green knowledge we’re on catch-up with.

That inherent belief in our capacity to be different, to do things differently, is taking the Eden Project ethos beyond its famous biomes. This social enterprise/education charity also hosts Nature’s Way, a social prescribing project in which GPs refer patients to initiatives within the community that might have wellbeing impacts beyond traditional pharmaceutical and medical treatments. It was the Eden Project that pioneered The Big Lunch — one weekend when neighbors across the UK are encouraged to sit down and eat lunch together (it’s taking place on 6-7 June this year and last year’s event attracted millions of participants). Then there’s Deep Roots New Shoots, which invites grandparents and their grandkids to participate in nature-based activities. The spin-off initiative Eden Project Communities promotes the idea that small acts of connection make stronger communities and happier humans.

The Eden Project isn’t just an entertainment project, or an educational one either. It’s also a wellbeing endeavor — from the micro, like keeping our soil healthy, through to the macro, like keeping our communities healthy. Yes, it’s a fun place to visit (particularly for the music sessions), but we’re betting (as are they we think) that the wonder, optimism, and connectedness that you take home with you, will last longer than the honey you bought in the gift shop.

To find out more (and to keep up with new development Eden Project North): Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Hauser & Wirth Somerset

“Hauser & Wirth Somerset is a pioneering world-class gallery and multi-purpose arts center that acts as a destination for experiencing art, architecture, and the remarkable Somerset landscape through new and innovative exhibitions of contemporary art. ”

In the unlikeliest of places — outside a small village, on a working farm — sits one of the most well-regarded galleries of contemporary art in the world. Maybe it's the giant bucket at the entrance that gives away the fact that something different is afoot in these fields. 

Opened in 2014 Hauser & Wirth Somerset joins the esteemed network of galleries launched by founded Iwan & Manuela Wirth (with Ursula Hauser) in Zurich and which now includes such places as Hong Kong, New York, London, and Los Angeles. You can see why Somerset sits oddly within this company.

But the Wirths, though globally roaming, are now locals and they have cultivated the once derelict 17th-century Durslade Farm into a hugely popular arts destination in an area known more for cows than culture (though that’s all definitely changed — see also The Chapel, The Newt and favorite local brand Selfish Mother).

That they did this not just by continuing to focus on the high-end art that is the heart of their business, but by bringing in other values to make that heart beat, namely education, conservation and sustainability, is probably the most striking aspect.

Yes, here are the shining lights of the visual arts and architecture — the derelict buildings were renovated by French architecture firm Laplace into white-walled galleries (albeit in barns) and a six-bedroom Kinfolk-worthy renovated 18th-century farmhouse available to rent (note vintage furniture next to a Pipilotti Rist installation). The gardens were landscaped by Piet Oudolf of New York’s High Line, who has crafted an abundant yet tempered (though in ways you won’t expect) version of an English landscape, dotted with a changing display of outdoor sculptures, like Franz West’s incredible talking heads.

The striking pavilion by Smiljan Radić was brought in space-ship like from the Serpentine Gallery and is a liminal place of imagination and learning for grown-ups and kids alike (note — running up that ramp, also note the talks series). Even restaurant Roth Bar & Grill is art-orientated, with a site-specific bar by Björn and Oddur Roth, the son and grandson of artist Dieter Roth. And that’s all before you get into the galleries themselves, that show the kind of artists you’d find in a MoMA or Tate: you know Louise Bourgeois, Martin Creed and Phyllida Barlow.

But with Hauser & Wirth Somerset, the Wirths haven’t just plopped a little bit of the art world into the countryside. Even as it exhibits its bonafide visual arts roots, it also blazons its community, local Bruton village leaning, credentials. There’s an active education and events program that brings in schools and the local community — see ArtHaus, Open Source Salons, Family Saturdays, seasonal Pumpkin Festival and Summer Party. There’s also a permanent library and learning center built into those barns.

And if that’s not quite enough to shift the cultural landscape in this part of Somerset, in 2018 the Wirth’s opened Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset in the heart of the village, exhibiting works of contemporary makers, emerging and established, available to purchase. This storefront also offers workshops like charcoal drawing or spoon carving. And they haven’t abandoned completely the farm on which the gallery is situated; this autumn Durslade Farm Shop will open, stocking produce from it’s still working 1000+ agricultural acres.

Where we least expect it, though maybe also most need it, Hauser & Wirth Somerset proves the point that culture can go anywhere, and be for anyone. Its barn doors are open to whoever chooses to cross its threshold. Though you might want to leave your muddy boots at the entrance.

Find out more: Website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

DO | The Encouragement Network

“The idea is a simple one. That people who Do things, can inspire the rest of us to go and Do amazing things too.”

It’s only fitting that we should mark the transition from one decade to the next with a company that’s all about the journey, about how we can get from our ‘A’ to whatever our ‘B’ might be. For over a decade now, DO has helped with the moments that come before, during and after someone decides to navigate their own way — from how to get started, maintain momentum, face your inner critic, contend with the longing for new lives and the dread of old ones, and most of all to being confident that your ‘crazy dumb idea’ might actually be worth it. 

Based in West Wales and founded by Clare and David Hieatt of Huit Denim, DO is like the generous friend who tells you how they did what they did, and how you might do the same. It’s a helping hand approach that spreads knowledge as much as encouragement.

If you are curious about different pathways or living a good life on your own terms, you’ll want to try to attend their annual Conference. The original DO Wales (others have run in Australia and the USA) is still an intimate gathering in an Old Farm (now rebranded an Ideas Farm with concepts replacing livestock as the product of choice) and offers 24 talks, dozens of workshops and six bands over three days and three nights to just 100 attendees (places are much sought after and registration is now open). Speakers — authors, academics, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and ecologists from thematics like the environment, creativity, food, adventure, social change, and business — are given a simple invitation: to tell their story in 20 minutes.

But it’s as much about the action as the narrative arc. Those who do, share their whys and hows and offer what we — on the other side, as attendees, audience, and readers — can learn from them, so that we can do things ourselves. There’s no intimidation of the genius mind here; rather storytelling meant to inspire and initiate you through your own life, to, as they say, the Story Doing part. 

With a tree trunk podium, camping as accommodation and a Cow Barn as the venue, DO Wales builds in intimacy and connection as the signposts to change. But, here’s some of the magic — those small scale moments take on a large scale reach — all those talks are available for free on the website. From last year’s conference, we recommend Running past addition, food as a way home, and love for impact. You can also listen to these talks on the podcast; there are 300 episodes now available on Spotify.

But DO is not just the Conference. During the year this ‘encouragement network’ authors standalone lectures, which share the same intention of getting people that Do in front of people who want to. Coming up, take a look at DO Story Masterclass, DO Events and DO Breakthrough.

Or, feeling the inertia, from the comfort of your couch, their publishing wing DO Books is similarly founded on the belief in life changing storytelling, namely that the right book in the right hands at the right moment can change lives, maybe even the world. Though these publications cover ideas and skills that may feel idiosyncratic in their range (childbirth, wild baking, start-up law) they tick the bases of what a modern life could look like — whether that’s leading with purpose, learning how to pause, or even how to bottle pickles. 

As founder David Hiett says: “One of the things that I love is that two films idea of your life. There are two stories that you can tell. One that is safe and full of regret and one that is risky and full of pride and joy.” What will this mean to you in 2020? What will you do?

 To learn more, Website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

The Poetry Pharmacy | A conversation with Founder Deborah Alma about why poetry still matters

When we first heard about The Poetry Pharmacy, we thought it was a kind of dream. A shopfront dispensing poetry for modern day ailments. It’s something from a children’s book, or a gorgeous idea of a place developed over excited conversations. But just last month, in the town of Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, poet Deborah Alma (with her partner Dr James Sheard) opened the world’s first Poetry Pharmacy. And she readily admits its dream-like quality even as it now exists as a reality for her, and the people it serves. In the first months of opening, we were lucky to grab some time with Deborah to talk about why real-life places and poetry matter more than ever. 

Claire: We’re enthralled by The Poetry Pharmacy, as I think are many people who are reaching out to you. Can you talk us through the space?

Deborah: We’ve converted a beautiful Victorian shop that had been closed for 13 years into an apothecary from which to dispense poems. It’s located in a small town on the wild west borders between England and Wales that’s full of writers and artists.

When people come into The Poetry Pharmacy, they’ll find books of poetry face up and filling the shelves. We’ve designed it so that people can browse by ailment — like ‘Matters of the Heart’, ‘Carpe Diem’, ‘Now I Become Myself’, ‘Be Alive Every Minute of Your Life’, and ‘Hope is the Thing with Feathers’ — and shop accordingly. We offer free one-on-one consultations on Friday afternoons, or people can make an appointment outside of that. We’re also happy for people to just come in and chat.

We also have a Dispensary Café which serves tisane, teas, coffee and cakes, as well as a shop that offers poems-in-pills for different needs such as a Bottle of Hope and Existential Angst Pills. Upstairs, we have The Distillery space from which we host book launches, workshops and other writing events.

We’ve kept the original architectural details like the old mahogany counter and till. We’ve allowed for as much natural light as possible (there are no neon lights). We’ve also painted the walls in muted paint colors.

There’s definitely something about the space that appeals to people in and of itself; a kind of therapy in not having technology everywhere. We’ve explicitly designed The Poetry Pharmacy for people to sit longer over coffee. There’s no pressure to move on and people are encouraged to talk to each other. It’s a place also for people to come to read and write.

Claire: Why in this moment when we’re rushing more and more of our everyday lives online and our High Streets are sadly struggling was opening a physical space important to you? 

Deborah: I see the Ambulance as a physical space too; for years I operated as an ‘Emergency Poet’ from a converted vintage ambulance, prescribing poems to people at festivals, conferences, hospitals, libraries and schools around the country. But I felt like I was getting too old for all that travelling around, and it was often cold working outside in the UK. As the editor of four books and the writer of two of my own, I felt like enough people had heard of me, that if I set up a permanent location, they would already know what I was doing.

I do believe that people still want to touch something real. To be in a place that feels like it might last. The online world has a terrible power to cut connections with people in real places. The Poetry Pharmacy offers nothing like we can replicate when we are online. I also feel like if it’s there then it’s not hard for people to engage. People here are so delighted to find this place open; a place they can drift into and have a coffee and chat

I’m aware that it’s a gamble though. It’s an experiment, that comes with a certain degree of optimism and maybe even self-indulgence. 

Claire: What need in the world do you think The Poetry Pharmacy responds to?

Deborah: We offer a therapy in slowness and a nostalgia for something lost: old fashioned service, friendliness, even listening. 

People can come in feeling miserable and we give them a free ‘pill’ as well as the chance to talk about what they need. Then we prescribe a poem.

Claire: Why poetry? What’s the value that you see in it when applied to people’s lives?

Deborah: I realized a long time ago that most people are frightened of literature and poetry within that. And that the people who create or understand that art can be possessive. I used poetry in my work with people living with dementia. From that experience, I saw first-hand how you can change someone’s mood by taking them somewhere with a poem and that I could share the intimacy inherent in this form. This underpinned the Emergency Poet idea; I wanted to stop poetry from being intimidating and I wanted to show that it can literally be a vehicle for talking to people. That project effectively bypassed how poetry usually gets to people and how they then get to use it.

I’m aware that the Poetry Pharmacy idea is a bit mad. That putting poetry on the High Street is unusual. We keep hearing that poetry doesn’t sell, and this is a quiet town, but I’ve done it because I really do believe that poetry is a good thing. It’s beautiful. We’re putting it front and center instead of in the corner. Why not have piles of poetry books and say that has a value equivalent to other genres? With The Poetry Pharmacy we’re bringing poetry to the forefront and there’s an art in curating it — picking out the ones that speak to certain subjects, putting them with other things, and saying,“Take a look!”

Claire: And they are. People are enamored with this idea. Why do you think that’s happening?

Deborah: When I first started, it was a mad faith thing. People said, “you know why there is no other Poetry Pharmacy in the world? Because no one wants it.” But we’re finding differently; the idea of it even existing in the world seems to be a nice thing in the middle of all this darkness — BREXIT, Trump and just continuous bad news. It’s a piece of optimism and faith in something. It’s a positive thing, and light-hearted in lots of ways

It’s lovely that The Poetry Pharmacy exists in the world. It’s like a piece of fiction and reminds me of The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. In that novel Monsieur Perdu opens a floating bookstore on the Seine from which he prescribes books for a broken heart. 

We’re only in week six and it’s been busier than I thought it would be. People get in touch across the world, we’ve had BBC News in here, the local Bishop’s Castle / Shropshire or West Midlands community is delighted, and people are seeking us out from outside of town and even from outside the UK.

We need all the elements though for it to work: the coffee shop to have a treat and a good coffee or tea that is nicely presented, like a ceremony; music that is welcoming and low-key, that makes people feel comfortable; a shop of desirable items, the consulting room and workshop space; and lots of events going on. 

Claire: Would you place The Poetry Pharmacy within the world of mental wellbeing?

Deborah: I shy away from the word therapy, but I do say that it’s therapeutic. When I prescribe poetry to people, poems that I know and love, then people can make a poem their own; just reading it will take them to another place. What poetry is doing is taking you somewhere else in your head when you are busy. It’s telling you things that you may not be hearing from other people. It underlines something to yourself. Even imagining it, is a moment of benefiting from it. 

At The Poetry Pharmacy we also include material for how to look after our lives in other ways beyond poetry. There’s a section ‘For days when the world is too much with us’, where we have Wordsworth next to psychotherapy and self-help books. We have another section that’s the ‘Best Medicine’ which includes gardening and nature — like counting butterflies, sitting in a patch of sunlight, and going for a walk. 

Claire: When I think of The Poetry Pharmacy, I think of it as helping people with their anxieties, but I also think of it as supporting people in their loneliness. Is that fair?

Deborah: Yes, the poetry community has traditionally been good for the lonely as often people come to things on their own. People don’t have to be in a couple or with a friend to attend these events, like they might for say a dinner party or other social gatherings. It’s easy for people to come here on their own. Most of our events are on Sundays and quite a lot of people have said that Sundays are always difficult when they live on their own, but now they can come here for company. Rural isolation can also be a problem. This can be a place that people can come on their own and still feel comfortable.

Claire: Now we’ve established the life-affirming magic of the place, can we talk a little about the practical side? Like how you made it happen?

Deborah: We ran a successful Kickstarter campaign and I was amazed at the response. The crowdfunding raised money to pay for the build-out, including things like wiring the shopfront! We found that strangers turned up and said we love this idea and want to support it, because they don’t want closed-down shops on the High Street. We also received a small Arts Council grant. 

We were very resourceful. As much as we could, we turned The Poetry Pharmacy into a project for both the local community and the literary/poetry one. We had many people volunteering their time and expertise.

Claire: What advice would you give to other creatives thinking of starting a bricks-and-mortar endeavor?

Deborah: It’s difficult, which I think is why so few people do it. But for me, it was huge just knowing that there’s a community of support behind me. I think it’s critical to have a few key people to support you in the first instance, and other people believing in you. The doubters are also quite useful because they test your resolve. Maybe they are right, and you don’t do it. But for me it was: ‘Bloody Hell, I’m going to prove you wrong matey.’ You’ll know in that fierce moment whether to do it or not. 

Claire: How else has The Poetry Pharmacy impacted you? How does being front and center sit with the more private practice of writing poetry? 

Deborah: Yes, there is that dilemma of reconciling this public project with the country mouse part of me. I do think (without overgeneralizing) that people who write who are novelists tend to be introverted, while poets tend to need to connect with other people more often. They work on a poem, then go out because they need to talk to people. For me, I crave being on my own and periods of time to write, and I’m aware that that’s not in balance at the moment. There are two sides of me; they don’t exist in the same place, but they do need to communicate, all the same. I hope that will settle down.

I do believe in The Poetry Pharmacy and it seems to be working in the way that I hoped. Also, for me too. Because I’m now so busy, I’m not online so much. What I wanted to do — and needed to do — was to have an open door and to welcome people in. To say: “Come in. Who are you?” To say. “ I’m interested in you. “

To find out more: Website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

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Discover more places for a happier life

Choose Love

“‘The world’s first store that sells real products for refugees.’”

Holiday Fatigue. Compassion Fatigue. Everyday life fatigue. 

At this time of year, as the days get darker and our schedules more frantic, many of us find ourselves exhausted, overwhelmed, maybe also panicked. We’re under pressure to consume, to shop, to scramble for all the things that we don’t need and that we probably won’t even remember in January. Some of us are starting to realize that we don’t love this Black Friday to January Sales treadmill, that it benefits someone’s bottom line but not us. We’re starting to look for ways to do the holidays differently. 

Like Choose Love. No, that is not just a cute Instagrammable aphorism (though it does take a covetable merchandise form). It is an urgently needed pop-up that takes that holiday spending money and uses it for good, not seasonally appropriate greed. The Choose Love stores brought to us by Glimpse design collective—there are now 3, in London, New York, and Los Angeles—only sell things that refugees vitally need that you get to gift to them. The stores are arranged by the different stages and shifting requirements of displaced people. There’s ‘Arrival’, ‘Shelter’, and ‘Future’. A life jacket. Children’s boots. A hot shower. Safe spaces for women. A Bundle of Warmth. Think about these things for a second. Think about how and why they are needed. We defy your heart not to break just a little. 

As CEO of Help Refugees (the NGO behind Choose Love), Josie Noughton sums it up: "It's easy to forget how lucky we are to have a bed, a blanket and a roof over our heads. For thousands of refugees this winter, these basic human needs are completely out of reach. This shop is all about one simple idea: that we should all Choose Love and help those in need."

Choose Love stores fill that compassion gap between the moment that we’re shocked by the news and the horrors that refugees fleeing climate change, war and persecution face, and the moment that we don’t know what to feel and what to do about it. By holding everyday items in our hands that people need, it returns essential humanity to the stories that we’ve become numb to and the headlines that we learn to forget. Simple things like baby items, clean and safe water, a bag of school supplies, restore the idea that these are real people, not just statistics, who need our help and deserve our kindness. 

Though these brightly colored stores feel like a boutique gift shop, they are designed for you to leave with nothing except the knowledge that whatever it is you purchased is now finding its way to one of 120+ partners who support displaced people. You may be empty-handed, but you’ll definitely feel big-hearted. This is gift-giving as its best: we now know that doing something for someone else has a more lasting impact than doing something just for yourself.  And beyond the 40,000 customers that it has to date served, Choose Love has a significant impact on the recipient too.

Since Choose Love launched in 2017, these pop-ups with a purpose have sent 1.5 million items to refugees, assisted one million displaced people in Europe, the Middle East, and the US-Mexico border, and raised 3 million pounds. Those statistics are staggering, particularly when you think that Choose Love is a relatively new concept on our High Streets. As brick-and-mortar retail is supposedly dying, they indicate a way forward for how our stores can change the world. Needs on both sides are now being met through something we’re overly familiar with, shopping and a place that has lost its own way, our High Streets. 

Choosing Love matters; at a time when we’re divided across borders and beliefs, this simple mantra, and the enterprise behind it reminds us that we have options. We can choose to help people who really need it with our purchases this holiday season.  And if you need any more encouragement, let’s give Banksy the last say: “For the person who has everything, buy something for someone who has nothing.’

(Also to look out for: You can also shop Choose Love for a Holiday gift – the recipient will receive a downloadable gift card with details of your item. Also, as these stores are staffed entirely by volunteers – you can gift your time.)

To learn more: Website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Second Home

“Second Home is a social business with a mission to support creativity and entrepreneurship in cities around the world.”

Coworking is no longer just about finding a place to plonk your laptop. Now it’s about so much more: finding alignment with your values, finding your tribe, finding the brightest people and the shiniest ideas, and yes, finding ways to support your mental wellbeing in ways that fold into such things as design, community and culture. That’s where Second Home steps it. It’s coworking as more than the seat you occupy; it’s coworking for a better-designed life. 

We’re been in thrall to Second Home since we visited London’s Spitalfields branch with our kids, who thought it was a play space—which in a way it is. Maybe it’s the colors (that blazing brand orange), the fun textures, the transparent curvilinear walls, the sunken lounge space, the wavy ceiling. Maybe it’s the table that drops down when needed or the rooftop terrace where you can stand amongst ponds while taking in the cityscape. Maybe it’s all the green on green on green in the thousands of plants, the attempts to bring in natural light, the mix-mash of different furniture. It doesn’t feel like the kind of office space that you know, and my kids got that as they rushed through its spaces wanting to climb the chairs rather than the corporate ladder.

But it’s all been very, very intentionally designed to be this way—the playful appearance is its serious intent—to create the most positive environment for our wellbeing and productivity. The Spitalfields branch (Second Home’s earliest, opened in 2014)– and all but one of its other outposts—are the work of architect SelgasCano whose approach is deeply influenced by biophilia and evolutionary psychology. 

SelgasCano also designed the recently opened, template-shifting Hollywood coworking space, which has a cacophony of yellow islands (that top tubular pods), a magic ballroom and a dense urban forest. The firm was behind the brightly colored Serpentine Pavilion purchased by Second Home and moved to La Brea Tarpits to be a pop-up/love letter/ ‘Coming Soon’ announcement to Los Angeles. At the Holland Park branch, the firm designed a space where trees grow out of the floor and a courtyard roof fills with bubbles; at Clerkenwell Green there’s a subterranean event space; in the Lisbon space an Yves Klein Blue ceiling and signature 1,000 indoor plants and trees. Only the London Fields space is designed by someone else, and then by sister company Cano Lasso, but it shares the same bold design credentials—see its impossible to miss futuristic façade – and maybe equally as radical on-site nursery and childproof café? 

But beyond the outward design co-founders, Rohan Silva and Sam Aldenton had two other major principles in play: community and culture. The people who get to populate this environment are as important as the pot plants and pops of color. Second Home curates its community, aiming for a mix of start-ups, not-for-profits (it offers charity memberships), corporates, creatives, and entrepreneurs. Each inspiring, supporting, and collaborating with each other. Then there’s the culture piece, the third angle to this design-community triad; Second Home gets how ideas sustain us as much as people and place. Overlapping its space as workplace is space as creative venue, with an active cultural program that puts authors, podcasters, thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in front of its members and the public. 

Collectively that greenery, the doing good piece, the feeding of curiosity and connection, are all about sustaining our wellbeing, in the same ways as the yoga sessions, running clubs, and even surf lessons on offer depending on the venue. Second Home weaves in all the multiple threads of our working lives—the design of our environment, the people we get to connect with, the culture that gets to feed us—and throws them out into as much as a real-world context as its principles allow. But there’s some fantasy at play too when you enter its doors.

(NB: There’s a special place in our heart for Second Home’s tightly curated bookstore Libreria (in Spitalfields & LA) and the poetry bookstore at the Holland Park branch. Check them out too. They probably shouldn’t be in brackets.)

To find out more: Website, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Tate Exchange

“A place for all to play, create, reflect and question what art can mean to our everyday”

Does art have the capacity to change lives? And if it does, should it? And if it should, how can it? And if it can, where, where would this even happen?

On the fifth floor of the Blavatnik building within the cultural behemoth that has become Tate Modern, you can find an initiative that is right there, at the crux of those questions, wrestling with the how’s and why’s of art’s role in society: Tate Exchange. Here, one of the most successful arts institutions in the world is creating physical space for art to be functionally in our lives and in dialogue with society more widely. It’s also staking out this territory up North, within the walls of sister-space Tate Liverpool.

We can argue for a while that art does this anyway – that art speaks to our lives. We could even argue that this is particularly the case in the vast cultural campus that has become Tate Modern (also beloved site of my first curatorial job). Yes, there’s the beauty and solemnity of the Rothko room, the drama of the Turbine Hall, the reverie of just wandering through the permanent galleries and the inspiration-making qualities of the rotating exhibitions. Yes, you have probably experienced one work of art that has affected you without that effect being branded. 

But with Tate Exchange, we get to experience that question of art’s relationship to self and society more directly, to play with Impact (that elusive idea thrown around more in tech and non-profit sectors). With Tate Exchange, the organization is confronting the very idea that art has the capacity to affect our everyday lives and to answer to, and maybe also shape, society. The lines that divide life (real time and space, the big and little questions, conversation, knowledge and experience), the arts (objects, materials, storytelling, the big and little themes) and us (as the viewer, person, consumer, maker, activator) are porous. Museums are no longer perceived or positioned as separate from society, they are located, produced by and understood within it. Similarly, as we enter these white-walled spaces, we are not a blank canvas, we’re bringing biases, backgrounds, assumptions, feelings even.

Who are we? Counterpoint Arts at Tate Exchange

ArtLab at Tate Exchange

Tate Exchange is the place where the museum gets to be something different, to morph and adapt and interact in ways that push against that traditional relationship of presentation and display. To pivot on ideas of co-learning, collaboration, production, and yes that wellbeing piece. Here Tate gets to be relational, and vulnerable. To step away from its esteemed baggage. Because maybe it’s here that the museum challenges its very reason for being—not to show, and collect, and explain works of art but to examine purpose, meaning, and relevance in the realm of the arts as they hit the pressing concerns of our modern lives. To bring to the fore questions of can we do this, and does it work, along with other questions around such things as climate change, inequality, technology, the economy, and immigration. 

In its four years, two of which have been headed by socially-engaged art and placemaking advocate Caro Courage, Tate Exchange has taken a deep dive in annual thematics, headliners for life each led by an artist. Tate Exchange has explored ‘Exchange’ with Tim Etchells (2016) ‘Production’ with Clare Twomey (2017), and ‘Movement’ with Tania Brugera (2018). This year, the program is roaming across ideas of ‘Power’ with Hyphen-Labs, an international female collective who explore ideas of technology. 

These themes are played out within a collaborative network of over 80 world-wide associates; cultural organizations, charities, community groups, and health trusts, who draw from the fields of art, education, mental health and community (such as ActionSpace in London and dot-art Schools in Liverpool). This wide network, in turn, shapes the form that these questions take within the spaces: anything from workshops, performances, conversations, prompt cards, reading lists, curated walks, festivals, mood and pattern workshops, reskilling sessions, seed swapping, radical myology, symposia, and even podcasting lessons. It’s all here. 

Tate Exchange isn’t the easiest to explain, because it does so many things; Over the years there have been myriad perspective and platform-shaping ways that its curators, artists, practitioners, students, and associates, have found to raise their voices and engage audiences. Tate Exchange is many things to many people. But it’s all linked by a single thread: it stakes territory for the importance that culture has in our very real, every day, messy lives. It acknowledges that no one checks their lives or themselves at the door when they enter a museum. As we wander its different pathways, we inevitably feel, think, and are something, someone. Tate Exchange returns to us our place to be within museums. 

To find out more: Website and Instagram

Re:Mind

“Find Your Calm.
Drop-in meditation classes in the heart of London.”

Re:Mind speaks to a future where mindfulness studios are as common as your local gym. We all now understand the benefits of exercise, even as we procrastinate to get ourselves to that yoga class, or Soul Cycle session, or just out the door for a half-arsed hike. But we’re now coming to understand the benefits of being in our bodies in a different way, in ways that are slower, gentler and much less sweaty than cardio. Breathwork and meditation once meant retreats or a niche happening-over-there kind of thing. They were definitely for other people. Now we strive to bring these self-care practices into our working weeks and everyday attempts to keep it all together.

Re:Mind helps us negotiate that shift in how we see and experience mindfulness techniques. And it does so by removing some of the woo-woo that might have put us off before—incense sticks, tie-dye, those draped curtains. Founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs and wellness warriors Carla von Anhalt and Yulia Kovaleva, Re:Mind is London’s first drop-in healing studio. Bringing a lustrous charm to self-care practices, Re:Mind takes out the intimidation factor around more alternative wellness approaches.

That all starts with the space. It has been designed to hold you in your practice; to be an instant balm as you walk through the doors. The colour palette is soft, more akin to a high-end boutique. Attention has been paid to best practices for air quality, comfort and serenity. An abundance of greenery (including an air-purifying floor-to-ceiling plant wall) and cascading natural light, nature-derived materials liked the covetable buckwheat filled floor mats, and a mandala of Himalayan Salt Lamps (which are having their moment), create the setting for finding your calm. And if something looks this good, it must be good for us, right? 

Actually, right. There’s now study after study to back up the techniques on offer. The intimate studio offers a wide range of equilibrium finding drop-in sessions: There’s yoga, in restorative movement class (Re:Store), mindfulness techniques (Re:Heal), and energizing breathing (Re:Breathe). But there’s also more intriguing sounding offerings such as healing sound baths (Re:Sound), rituals for connection with one another (Re:Connect) and the one we lean towards, bringing in kindness and self-care practice (Re:Caim).

In this serene urban oasis, practitioners are called ‘Calmers’, clients are invited to relax before or after a session with herbal tea, and a small library offers some context (or diversion to those of us who feel less comfortable in new environments). The on-site eco-wellness store is stocked with small businesses who are doing some of the work of sustaining us and our environment, with handmade soaps, flower remedies, chimes and the requisite crystals.

Bringing some Californian lifestyle savvy to the streets of London, this pristine boutique studio for the stressed-out gives both the space and the permission to pause. Here is a place to actually practice some of those concepts that are increasingly talked about as vital tools for navigating modern life; jumping off the pages of a lifestyle magazine or a wellness manual into our real-world. LA would be proud.

To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook

RISE

“A place to relax, play, work, eat. A place to be together”

Above the entrance is a simple sign that says ‘Rise’. This sets the tone for all that goes on inside: a café, bakery and play space, an active calendar of workshops, events and activities, office space for socially-minded businesses, and a contemporary art gallery that shouts out local and national talent. Here, in a sensitively converted church, are all those components that once made this space so appealing to the congregation it previously housed: community, positivity, hope and connection. 

Three years ago, Io Fox and Ed Roberts, a former teacher and nurse, bought this church, originally built in the early 1800s. It had fallen in recent years on its own hard times. The congregation of the United Reform Church had been dwindling for a while, so much so that the building was put on the market. But rather than shape this space into luxury apartments or private offices, the new owners did something remarkable. They shifted the emphasis to a wider purpose, giving a modern spin to the architecture, history and ideals this church once offered. Through their renovations, they weren’t intent on erasing what had once past, but rather building on it. Everywhere there are traces of what the building was before: etched arched windows, stone plaques, a working organ that dominates the main space. Keeping the look and feel of the place, they acknowledged its abiding history, and even embraced its former community and intent (a couple has since got married here). 

They also did this, they allowed the community in which it sits in Frome, a small town in Somerset known for its creativity, a say in how this project evolved. They kept those long-time hallowed doors open to whoever needed them in maybe a different way, inviting in businesses, practitioners, parents, and charities who were seeking space to develop initiatives of their own. They welcomed everyone, with the aim of similarly nurturing people within its walls, so that Rise could truly reflect the community in which it is situated. And the local people that it served, answered the call, creating a new sense of life in this space, forming and shaping its content, giving this building new and more relevant purpose. 

Three years on, Rise is now a buzzing multi-use space. The central atrium has been given over to Rye Bakery which runs a friendly café incorporating local suppliers, simple food and organic sources where possible. On Friday it hosts community building pizza nights. There’s also a play space (Alfred’s Tower) for the little ones, which has a handmade feel to it, a nice antidote to the bright plastic that usually comes with the kid’s area, and a sweet reading space. Most laudable though is the stunning woven nest space, a semi-private huddle for nursing moms and for smaller gatherings. 

The mezzanine space where the congregation would once have sat, has become an increasingly well regarded contemporary art gallery, The Whittox Gallery, curated by Sara Robson. It shows local and national contemporary artists and designers in an exhibition program that roams across all media.

Sort of behind the scenes, The Old School and The Sun Room, have become spaces to hire by anyone, for private and public events. The downstairs offices and work spaces have been rented out to socially-minded organizations, like OpenStoryTellers, a charity that aims to empower people with learning disabilities and autism.  

Across all these spaces are an active range of classes, workshops and events for all ages, abilities and backgrounds such as yoga classes, wellbeing sessions (like one on unleashing creative genius), exercise groups (see the popular Mojo moves and hoop dances), art and science clubs. A therapeutic choir just started in the space.

Rise is a modern-day church without really being a church at all. It works within that rich history of places where people gather, connect and believe, and gives those very fundamental human needs a thoroughly modern-day twist. In its name and its mission, Rise uplifts those who work here, engage here and play here. There’s a reason churches were once the heart of the community, and there’s a reason why Rise has become a space that local people flock to again.

To find out more: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

The Joy Cafe | A Conversation with Becky Playfair on community

On an unusually hot summer morning in the little town of Boscombe, in England, I was introduced to a friend’s local cafe with a difference. As I stepped into the Joy Cafe, I lit up. In this converted shipping container, there was a hum of friendly chatter amongst families with young children and seniors sat together. The cheerful decor of sunshine yellow and dove gray gave the cafe a warm home-from-home feel. The smell of fresh coffee and sausage sandwiches wafted under my nose as I took in the delightful display of homemade brownies, cookies and cakes. As I ordered, I spotted a Suspended Drinks noticeboard whereby someone can buy an extra drink that gets ‘suspended’ on the board until someone who needs a free tea or coffee claims it. It’s a beautiful way for the locals to give or receive in their local community.  

But the Joy Cafe offers so much more than free hot drinks and an insanely affordable menu of homemade food. It’s the little thoughtful details that reveal the heart and soul of this space, in initiatives that support the local neighborhood in heart-centered ways. The Joy Cafe provides positivity and connection to others through a variety of organized events and activities that bring different members of the community together in fun ways, that support mental wellness and ease loneliness.

Some of these include: Safe & Sound Ladies Craft where women can spend a couple of peaceful hours relaxing over a warm drink while crafting together. Awaken Conversations where guest speakers come and speak about personal development and life skills. Chess Club happens every week and there are regular community dinners for all ages that feature pop-ups from local cooks and food businesses. Local families who use the playground outside are supported with free breakfast mornings and art workshops during school holidays. Dotted around the Joy Cafe you can also find unstructured play opportunities for all ages with plenty of art supplies, books and board games on offer, perfect for rainy days. 

The Joy Cafe was founded four years ago by Becky Playfair who had a vision to turn a rundown youth center in the park of Churchill Gardens, Boscombe (one of the most deprived areas in England), into a life-giving not-for-profit community cafe. From its first iteration as a pop-up bake sale with boxes of hula hoops, frisbees and crafting materials, the project progressed to a lease and planning permission to convert the old youth hut into a café. Key to making this happen was a JustGiving campaign to raise money in which 11 members of the Coastline Missional Community were sponsored to complete a 3 Peak Challenge, climbing the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in just 24 hours!

I talked to Becky about the hard work and determination (with the huge support of the Coastline Vineyard Church and young volunteers) that helped make her dream of a very special community-centered cafe into a reality:

Sophie: How did the concept for the Joy Cafe first begin and why did you believe that it was needed? 

Becky: I first had a dream to open a café when I was 18 years old. I was jogging (not very fast!) around my neighborhood in Birmingham realizing that I had little ambition but desperately wanted some! I wanted (and prayed for!) something to aim for in life. I wanted to dream big, to achieve, to make a difference, to have life goals. So, as I ran, I pondered, and prayed and pictured a café.

In the same moment I just knew that it would be more than your average British high street café. It might be a place where people had not just great food and drink but also got to encounter something more. A little bit of heaven on earth. Where people would feel safe, genuinely known, loved, appreciated and accepted. Where they would be spoken to, listened to, given hope, encouragement, a compliment, a smile, conversation or creative activity. 

After studying Psychology at Exeter University, I moved to Bournemouth, then a year later to Boscombe, the most deprived area of Bournemouth. In the bottom 3% of deprived areas in the whole of the UK, the area was impacted by huge issues with drugs and alcohol, crime, poor housing, and health, etc. I moved into a house known as NO10 (the house number of where we were); we all worked part-time and gave the rest of the week to making a difference in our neighborhood. We opened our doors at NO10 and had all sorts for dinner and mentored in the local schools. Living in a truly beautiful but broken area, made me realize the need for a third space. Most of my neighbors lived in bedsits, they stood outside and smoked with only the rubbish bins to lean on. They were friendly but lonely. The communal space was the pavement. … they desperately needed a café and one that they could afford to buy coffee from! 

Sophie: How did it progress from a pop-up to a proper cafe? 

Becky: I started the pop-up Joy Café a year after moving to Boscombe. The two trestle tables, simple refreshments and kids’ activities were all stored in my hallway and taken in and out every day. We had an incredible first summer… local families loved us and thankfully so did the Council. They could see the transformative potential and gave us a chance. When the hut in the small park in the heart of the neighborhood became vacant, we were given the lease and allowed to renovate, making it fit-for-purpose. We’re been open as a “proper” café since February 2018.

Sophie: What were some of the challenges you found opening the Joy Cafe? 

Becky: Getting the lease then planning permission for the renovations took ages and was beyond me! I would never have managed it without the support of a very wise surveyor from my church. Without his endless negotiations and skills, it wouldn’t have happened. But the toughest thing was definitely project managing the renovations. It took four months and though I had the most amazing team, largely made up of hugely generous and skilled volunteers who gave hundreds of hours to the project, I cried most days! (I was also wedding planning and later found out I had glandular fever… no wonder I was a mess!). I was consistently out of my comfort zone but somehow made it through! I’m now in my element being a barista, chatting with people, and building community.

Sophie: What is the mission of the Joy Cafe and how did you want it to benefit the community? 

Becky: Joy Café is a lush little café with a big heart for building life-giving community (our strapline). We want to create a safe space, a home from home. We want to be the friendliest café. We like to make people’s day. I love blessing people with the occasional free coffee or cake or go out of my way to make something off-menu that they’d love and really appreciate. We celebrate our customer’s birthdays with cards, banners and gifts. We also partner with local people, groups and organizations. We do Suspended Drinks. We love Young Volunteers and have the best and youngest baristas in Bournemouth. We want to try to listen to what our community and neighborhood needs or would like and do our best to make it happen. We have free bike repairs, chess club, creative events, eco-workshops, games groups... all sorts! 

Sophie: How do you want people to feel spending time at the Joy Cafe? 

Becky: Known, valued, accepted, listened to, themselves, joy, at peace, loved, part of a community.

Sophie: What are the ways that the cafe has impacted the local community, you as an owner and your staff? 

Becky: So many people talk about the impact of the Joy Cafe… from local families, individuals, councilors, tradesmen, the police, people who used to live around the area and are now back… People from every area of society have commented on the dramatic and positive impact the Joy Cafe has had on the area and park. It's safer, busier, lighter, has a better atmosphere… because of the Joy Cafe. Yay! 

Sophie: What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the Joy Cafe. And will there be more?

Becky: I love where we’re at and want us to continue growing. I don’t know whether there will be more Joy Cafes but if the opportunity arises then I probably wouldn’t say no!

To find out more about Joy Cafe, head to their Instagram or Facebook. 

Frazzled Cafes

“We live in a time where to have a life crammed to the hilt is considered a success story. But with all this pressure, so many of us have nowhere to go to meet and talk about it. Frazzled Cafe is about people coming together to share their stories, calmly sitting together, stating their case and feeling validated as a result. Feeling heard, to me, has always been half the cure.”

— Ruby Wax

Modern life burn-out is as ubiquitous as M&S but we have this idea that we have to be all in with therapy or medication to deal with it. And we’re not knocking either (we have been and sometimes still are there), but sometimes we just need access to what we see as mental health maintenance, safe spaces to talk it out and talk it over. That’s where the network of Frazzled Cafes come in. They fill that gap between sitting alone with something, with the struggle and the frankly frazzled feelings that infiltrate our lives and our days, and pouring resources like money and time into talking cures, to committing to sessions and schedules. We need both. In fact we need all the different things, the different kinds of spaces and initiatives that might meet us where we are and hold us for the time that we’re there in whatever way we need, without judgment and with compassion.

Frazzled Cafes were launched a couple of years ago by the comedian Ruby Wax, who has recently become known as the popular author of books that include How to be Human, in which she discusses with a monk, and a neuroscientist the fundamentals of how we function as people, and A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, an approachable and funny course in mindfulness. During the tour for her books, Wax had people again and again come up to her needing to talk and that was her lightbulb moment—that we all are running on empty and still finding our way through, and that we all need a way of expressing that feeling while connecting with others who are probably experiencing the same thing. 

On why that word ‘Frazzled’, Wax explains: “A neurobiologist might say that someone is ‘stuck in a state of “frazzle”. They mean that, for this person, constant stress is overloading the nervous system, flooding it with cortisol and adrenaline; their attention is fixed on what’s worrying them and not the job in hand, which can lead to burn-out.”

The genius of the idea though is that Wax reached out to M&S, the widely beloved British High Street institution, to host these talk gatherings. And with that one call, you are in seriously stigma busting territory. If the venerable M&S is in that space of talking about our emotional and psychological lives, then surely that’s ok and allowed. Plus, who doesn’t want to spend time in an M&S after hours where the sessions are held?

Frazzled Cafes now take place in M&S locations across the UK, in their cafes and sometimes community rooms. Recently the idea was also tested at High Street Bakery Le Pain Quotidien. People are invited to RSVP beforehand and some weight is given to those who have attended before. Each session lasts 75-90 minutes and starts with a meditation to bring people into the room and ground their experience. The meetings are run according to the rules of therapeutic spaces, with a set of guidelines that promotes ideas of confidentiality, kindness and support. 

If you interested in joining one of these meet-ups, sign-up for the newsletter which announces dates and venues and will link you to the RSVP for each cafe session. Just note that Frazzled Cafes are keen to point out that this is not designed to replace therapy but rather fills a need that most of us have just to be heard.

In our busy, often overwhelming lives, sometimes all we need is a safe space to talk. Frazzled Cafe is that space. And with that the issue of our mental wellbeing has now hit our high-street. Let’s keep it there. 

To find out more: Website www.frazzledcafe.org / Twitter @frazzledcafe / Facebook @frazzledcafeuk / Instagram @frazzled_cafe

The Canvas: Vegan Cafe | Creative Venue | Community Hub

“What started as one woman’s idea has now evolved to become a living, breathing embodiment of all the best parts of humanity: generosity, positivity, kindness, hope and love. This is thanks to the people who have joined The Canvas along its journey, adding their voices, ideas and energy, nurturing the space so that it’s constantly growing and evolving to be something greater.”

Brick Lane’s Canvas Café is part of Action for Happiness’ network of Happy Cafes (yes there are more) throughout the world. In fact it was London’s first. 

But what exactly is a Happy Café? What differentiates it from any other kind of caffeine-oriented place? Well, there’s a clue there—it’s less about the lattes served and more about what this space creates, the connections and the activity that happens here. 

From the outside this yellow splash of a storefront just off Brick Lane is not exactly what it seems. You can just treat The Canvas like any other café—and if you do we recommend the freakshakes, unbelievably a slab of cake perched precariously on top of a ceramic mug of your choice (we chose the cloud/ rainbow one) filled with a creamy, non-dairy milkshake. But there are hints of something else afoot with the invitation to draw on the wall and answer questions like ‘what does community mean to you?’ and ‘what’s your happy place’.

There’s also the pay-it-forward board which invites you to add a drink or meal to your order for someone who might not be able to afford it. And this café is 100% vegan and all the food served is homemade. A mission to do good, to be good, determines everything in this café. All those buzzwords: sustainablilty, local, low-footprint, form the foundations of the Canvas Cafe. This extends to the suppliers that it works with, which includes local coffee purveyor Square Mile Coffee and Pip+Nut which doesn’t use any palm oil.

Beyond its café appearance it’s kind of the dream of positivity, exactly the kind of place that we find ourselves longing for at If Lost Start Here. The Canvas puts people—their ideas, their needs, their lives—at the center of what it does. That means there’s true generosity in how it operates. And if there’s a bit of cynicism there, let’s get that out the way right now. This isn’t some wishy-washy place that makes nice aphorisms and cute branding. It fundamentally operates from a place of living its values and combats such lifestyle nasties as loneliness, mental ill health, and climate change.

This is all encapsulated in the Community Hub, a white-walled blank canvas of a space for individuals, organizations and charities to try out their ideas for positive activitism. Renting space is expensive in London but this one room is offered for free to incubate ideas that can make people’s lives better. In return The Canvas just asks for donations to its Pay It Forward program.

The Community Hub has become a vital early supporter of innovative ideas for those things that we’re now finding we need in our lives to function better. Future events on the schedule include Hugs and Cuddle workshops, free meditation sessions from Inner Space, and improv for life. It already has an impactful history of supporting great causes in their early days: Places like the Museum for Happiness and Mike’s Table (which serves refugees) got their start here. 

Since it was founded in 2014, by Ruth Rogers (not River Café, but the actress and puppeteer) as the blank space for the community and an outlet for both creativity and positivity, The Canvas has flourished. It now has an active program of partnerships. Each month sees 50-60 events with everyone from the perfectly named Revolting Vegans Supper Club—which offers a 6-course menu while taking on issues around food waste and the environmental impact of what we don’t get to eat—to Raining Sessions, where twenty-somethings get to share their stories and receive support. And The Canvas roams off-site too: over the summer they provided free meals and sport and craft activities to kids in Tower Hamlets. 

Exhausted yet? The Canvas wants to do even more. They have just completed a fundraising campaign to renovate the Community Hub space which means more events, more support of great ideas, more people helped, more grass roots beneficial social change. Add another 5-years, we hope, and The Canvas will have brought even more people together in that big ole-city of London around positivity, innovation and creativity. 

To find out more: website www.thecanvascafe.org / Instragram @thecanvascafee1 / Twitter @thecanvascafe / Facebook @thecanvascafeE1

Teatulia | A Literary Tea Bar with A Living Bookshelf

“Teatulia is an organic tea bar in the heart of London’s Covent Garden with a literary twist.”

A blend of fresh mint and lemongrass entices you into a stylish jewel-colored space with a cozy living room vibe. The manager Valentine greets you warmly. At a small curved terrazzo-topped bar hot and cold organic teas are served as well as beautifully executed tea cocktails (and best of all mocktails). A small complimentary food menu of pastries and colorful tea-infused cakes accompanies the selections. A buzzy mix of families and couples fill the mid-century-influenced vignettes. It’s all designed to encourage intimate conversation. This is Teatulia.

Given that my favorite things in life are tea, books and cocktails, you can understand my excitement when I discovered this gem, located in Covent Garden, London. Conceived as a ‘tea shop like no other; a space for conversation and contemplation’, Teatulia delivers. It’s a tea house, cocktail bar and literary salon all rolled into one. And it’s all in the details: Every hot tea is served with an infuser and a timer so you can be involved in brewing the tea yourself, what a novel idea in being present and slowing down.

The piece de resistance of Teatulia’s offering is its ‘Living Bookshelf’, a rotating selection of book titles curated by authors, actors and celebrities. The brainchild of actor Tilda Swinton—who curated their first bookshelf—it was inspired by her own experience: “Reading and tea leaves go together like breathing in and breathing out. Go slow. Take time to brew yourself some harmony. Separate the signal from the noise.” You can hear more from Swinton on reading, tea and her early career on Teatulia’s new podcast, which also features Lionel Shriver and collaborations with Granta Magazine.

Beyond its literary ambitions (writer Elizabeth Day also records her podcast here), Teatulia has an important social justice focus: it’s tea is organically produced by 3,500 women who run a garden in Northern Bangladesh. The tea garden provides jobs, education and healthcare for their workers and their families. 

We know its usually all about coffee, but you know sometimes its needs to be about tea. Definitely treat yourself to this cozy respite, and be sure to check out their literary events and tea pairings while you’re at it.

To find out more: Website www.teatuliabar.com / Instagram @teatuliauk / Facebook @Teatuliauk

The Newt

“The Newt in Somerset is a country estate with magnificent woodland and gardens. The core is Georgian, with limestone buildings the colour of burnt orange, the seat of the Hobhouse family for more than two centuries. Innovative design is paired with the freshest produce from our gardens, beautiful country walks, superb service and a world-class spa – wrapping you in a sense of wellbeing.”

The Newt is a chic kind of Arcadia. A 300-acre Somerset estate transformed into nature pristine, the English landscape given a contemporary makeover. From the walk along a wooden platform that takes you up through the woods from the car park, through to the stunning Threshing Barn that marks its entrance (note the waving ceiling sculpture), to the open courtyard dotted with apple press, Cyder Bar (which serves 6 different varieties of ciders produced on the estate) and Farm Shop, you are cossetted in a dreamy version of the natural world. 

That’s before you even get to the gardens themselves, which is the real reason you are here – though you might think that’s lunch at the stunningly situated Garden Café where you get to enjoy food created from the bounty of what’s around you and in-house charcuterie, breads and pastries (also check the covetable chef notebook style menus). 

But it is the landscaping that is supposed to be the main draw – the 30 acres of finely crafted gardens that recently opened to the public after years of work. They serve as a serene escape from it all, as well as taking you through a carefully constructed horticultural history that reaches back two thousand years (and The Newt shows this through the plants, trees and design itself rather than any non-immersive signage). 

Highlights include the walled Parabola gardens conceived to function as a maze once it gets going and that also contains apples from every county in England and the sensory delight of a walkway made of crushed sea shells. We had soft spots for the fantasy of a Victorian greenhouse dotted with ferns and the joy inducing woven egg sculptures that the kids curled up in by South African designer Porky Hefer. The woodland walks contain hidden interventions in nature, including a spiral pathed heap of a hill, with views down the valley from its perfectly placed telescope. And there is an abundance of apple motifs - one ambition of the place is the have the best apple collection in the UK. It’s worth booking a daily tour by one of the estate’s gardeners to get a true understanding of the complexity contained with it.

The startling thing is this is oh but Phase 1 of The Newt, which only just opened to the public earlier this year. This August saw the opening of the country house at the center of the estate, Hadspen House, restored into an inviting hotel with all its Georgian glory in tact, The Stable Yard to bed down in similar luxury, and a stunning, ‘garden-scented’ Spa for soaking away worries. Later phases include a gardening college and museum, a succulent garden, as well as a lake inspired by King Arthur (!) amongst other ambitions for the site 

The Newt—named after the four-legged amphibious creatures who cross the estate—is the lavish imagining of South African billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos. From the moment they bought the estate in 2013, they have used their means and have found the ways—enlisting French architect Patrice Taravella and gardeners and chefs of a similar pedigree—to make real their ambitious vision for the place, and then share it with us.

But the key here, and we kept forgetting this as we wandered around and the kids played in the fountains, is that this is a working farm and a sustainable enterprise in which much of the produce grown here is served here, even the deer provide venison for the restaurants, the roaming hens eggs and the grazing water buffalo mozzarella. The Newt prides itself on careful cultivation, not just of craftsmanship and artisan practices, but across the whole project. It’s a finely conceived ecosystem of its own. And they have designed a place for you in it. 

Lose yourself at The Newt for a day. Slow down here. And lean into the magazine spread beauty that is England, utopian.

Find out more: Website www.thenewtinsomerset.com/ Facebook @theNewtinSomerset / Instagram @theNewtinSomerset / Twitter @theNewtSomerset

Top tip: The Newt can be a little pricey - when we were there, we were able to convert our day pass into a season pass through the app Candide – it’s worth asking if this offer is still current. 

Dartington

“Dartington is not one thing, but a complex unity of activities.”

The whole time we were here we kept saying, ‘wait, what is this place.’ Is it a learning center? A dance school? A festival site or wedding venue or camp ground? An indie cinema, maybe, a vegan café, an outdoors playground? A walled garden and a great hall? What is it? And why is it here on this stunning, rambling estate in Devon?

Dartington, we found out, is one of those special places that are many different things to many different people, some of which we’d guessed at, and many of which we hadn’t. It’s like a polymath of a place. Covering 1200 acres just outside of similarly independently spirited Totnes, Dartington is all the things that it would take to put thought into practice. It’s the thinking piece brought together with the doing piece of living a multifaceted life in a multifaceted world.

You know all that talk of ideas changing the world, that we hear about again and again. Well here that actually happened. Way back in 1925 when Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst bought the house, the conversations and the connections that they nurtured amongst leading thinkers, politicians, and creatives of that day had real-world, lasting impact. The NHS, The Arts Council and Open University all had their start here. That’s a pretty impressive heritage. It’s also a progressive, forward-focused experiment that continues today. 

Dartington is not an anachronism. That spirit of innovation and exploration, of bringing together change makers and thinkers, of nurturing creative entrepreneurs and impactful practices—is still as urgent given the ever-pressing realities of our modern lives. Now though the focus is brought across several categories— identified as arts and culture, agriculture and architecture, learning and making, socially minded business, social justice and sustainability— that ultimately interconnect and inform one another. Dartington is still pushing its agenda forward to a public that seems ready and very much willing to participate within it. 

There are multiple ways to engage: Dartington offers programs, classes, workshops, and events that take myriad forms and can shape ‘a many-sided life’ that is really the goal at its heart. The appeal is looking through its strands and finding your thing, maybe even your Self, within it. Bringing its disparate elements into play in your own life as Dartington evolves and shapes the wider world. Whether that’s a slight dip with an indie movie at The Barn Cinema, a vegan lunch at The Green Table, or even a wild swim in the actual River Dart that flows through the estate. Or a longer engagement with a course, or mentorship, or partnership. Here you’ll find the brilliantly named The Craft Revolution, the School of Social Entrepreneurs, the summer literary festival Ways with Words. You can volunteer in the walled garden, attend the acclaimed Summer School that partners amateur musicians with professionals, and even camp within the grounds.

You can also just day trip, and seek out The Shops of Dartington, itself an experiment in social enterprise and community renewal. We recommend coffee at Bayards Kitchen and the quirky The Re-Store. Don’t let the many coaches belie its innovative intent.

We’re convinced that places can change the world. Dartington proves this theory in practice. What will it do for you?

To find out more: Website www.dartington.org / Facebook @dartingtonhall / Twitter @Dartington / Instagram @dartingtonhall

The Sheppey

“Five minutes from Glastonbury and ten minutes from Wells, England’s smallest city, The Sheppey is a pub out in a world of its own, amongst the peat beds and murmurating starlings of the Somerset Levels. We offer brilliant modern European food, a constantly changing roster of beers and ales, and a bar covered in casks of local ciders that’ll knock your socks off.”

Sometimes when it feels like there is nothing there, we stumble on something. Driving down narrow single lanes across the Somerset Levels, the feeling is very much of absence – of being lost on the flatness of it all, of peet moors and dairy farms and not much more. But then you arrive, at an unassuming white fronted building and you are here, in someplace. Which here means a location of eccentricity and bustle, and a pub called The Sheppey.

We’re huge believers in the good ole English pub to hold us as people, but it takes a special kind of pub to hold us beyond the pint. The Sheppey rewards those who seek it out with character in abundance, and music to pay attention to, thoughtful rooms to suit your different moods and barrels of cider on the bar to blurry away your day.

There’s whimsey to be found here: the fish wallpaper, signs declaring LOVE, the plastic horror dolls (or is that just our reading of those things!), the vintage finds, retro furniture and Hockney prints. You get to self-select where you want to be: cute cubbies for lounging, a more traditional pub bar, an outside courtyard to soak in the hoped for sun and a more grown-up light filled indoor space conducive to conversation. And let’s get back to that music which is built into the tongue-in-cheek DNA of this place: the DJ sets, the different music for different decades (yes, that includes an 80s dance party where you get to dress up in that rara skirt you’ve been holding onto) and an eclectic line up of live bands ranging from folk, soul, jazz funk and, err, poaching music.

Bought by Mark Hey and Liz Chamberlain in 2010, The Sheppey has been lauded for a while as one of the best of the west, its pull equivalent, maybe, to that famous site of pilgrimage, The Glastonbury Tor, that sits within its sights. Ok, maybe that’s going too far, but this is a place that has draw. We came with kids and cousins, and probably wrongly used the flea market toys on display to distract them while we munched on our ale battered fish and chips on the sun-filled balcony beside a round shiny ball that said appropriately ‘Globe’.  For an afternoon, seated beside a river, with food and family, that was our whole world. That was enough.

By pouring their commitment and personality into this space, Hey and Chamberlain have created a context where magic of a different kind can happen too. Yes, they have manifested a situation of welcome and hospitality, a context that invites joy and relationships, an environment that is cosy in its crammed arrangements. But when this all gets out of the way, when you are seated or dancing or eating amongst its glory, there’s that other spark that can happen, the one where we come together as people and help make The Sheppey sing too.

To find out more: Website www.thesheppey.co.uk / Facebook @sheppey

[Oh and if you need more of this and want to stay longer, there are three bedrooms on site and two cottages close by.]

Jodrell Bank

“Take new and exciting approaches to presenting the wonders of science in a way that engages our visitors emotionally as well as intellectually, evoking wonder, surprise, humour and, above all, curiosity.”

We’ve been coming to Jodrell Bank Discovery Center since we were kids. And now we take our own kids. That sense of awe and wonder that we experienced way back then (even though we went there on school trips which somehow make everything boring), that hasn’t gone away for us, and now it captures our younger generation too. 

Since we came in our school uniforms (we won’t say exactly when that was), Jodrell Bank has undergone a bit of a revamp. Our kids get a much nicer café then we ever had, though we get the benefits of that too, as well as majorly remodeled visitor buildings. The striking Planet Pavilion contains the world’s largest clockwork Orrery (a to-scale working model of the solar system) and in the Space Pavilion you now get to hear the Big Bang.

But Jodrell Bank is one of those truly special places for a spectacular, constant, reason. Right here is one of the biggest and most powerful radio telescopes in the world. The giant, Grade-1 listed, Lovell Telescope. This monumental white bowl has been sat in the green fields of Cheshire since 1957. Positioned right beside the Manchester-Crew train line, I’d pass it every day on my way to school, and it has never ceased to blow my mind. Looking out of a train window, the Lovell Telescope would denote an escape from the quotidian, from the banal, from our diminutive human lives. It would signify space and the universe, the capacity for us to know the unknowable, mysteries of an astronomical scale. It would communicate escape.

At a distance, the Lovell Telescope is symbol of authority for what man-made science can do. Much, much closer —you can walk right up to its base—it maintains that sense of awe, but it also conveys our humility, our very much non-man-made place in the universe. As it transcends time, the Lovell Telescope is beginning to show the wear and tear of its own life, it begins to feel fragile. When we last visited, the train-track base was covered in scaffolding, which seemed surprisingly prosaic when you think about what this thing can do. It felt oddly like it might break if moved [sorry all those Uni of Manchester science hearts that just died when I typed that]. And it does move – it’s one of the largest steerable telescopes in the world, with the bowl changing position depending on which part of the sky it needs to track.

Jodrell Bank is a place full of these kind of dichotomies. It’s an analogue escapees dream: while here, you are asked to switch off all devices, so that they don’t interfere with the powerful radio observations. Which is a permission giving of a kind we like. There’s a sense of play, of curiosity, in the exhibits on display, and the grounds that allow free-roaming, but there’s also the weighty responsibilities and ambitions of the science authored here to further our knowledge and capacity to get beyond dreaming. And now there’s even camping, bringing the vast imaginative possibilities of this place to a 4-day annual summer festival, appropriately called bluedot. With an audience of 25,000, science just got way more accessible, as it plays with music, art and culture, and bands like The Chemical Brothers, Flaming Lips and Elbow, as well as Manchester’s own Halle Orchestra, get to drop by. But best of all—we think anyway—bluedot takes place right next to that giant telescope (sometimes incorporating it into the show) and you get to unzip your tent, probably on a frosty Mancunian morning, and be right there with it.

We can majorly lose our minds on that. As we always have done, a bit, just being here with the Lovell Telescope and its universal pull.

Website www.jodrellbank.net/ Twitter @jodrellbank/ Facebook @JodrellBankOberservatory