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This week eccentrically «so British» has flourished a host of informal events, Lon- don Design Biennale, Design Junction London Design Fair, and more formal ones. Surprising scenographies have taken place in galleries, trendy hotels and art schools. The year ended with a fanfare with the opening of the new Design Museum in Holland Park at the end of November.
Most of the trendy exhibits and installations took place in the pop-up areas of Shoreditch, Spitafields, Brick Lane and King’s Cross, the city’s former industrial centers. The brick factories or hangars have gradually been transformed into showrooms, cultural spaces and residences.
Among all these «events», the first London Design Biennial 2016, in the magnificent Somerset House, marked the spirits by the diversity and level of the creators presented. Following the 500th anniversary of the work «Utopia» by Thomas More (1517), the talents of thirty-seven countries offered their very personal interpretation.
An example of an idealized mutation, the area of King’s Cross on the outskirts of the center had become, twenty years ago, an ill-fated district after experiencing Victorian splendor at the time of the Industrial Revolution.
It had seen its economic and criminal activities seriously jeopardize its luxurious archi- tecture. She was marvelously saved thanks to Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect of St. Pancras Station and St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Opened in 1873, the hotel is known for its gothic revival style with its sublime red brick structure, double staircase and first Ladies’ smoking room in Europe.
The St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel deploys its world of luxury and glamour in an irresis- tible cinematographic atmosphere.
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