citylikeyou — Chelsea Physic Garden — London by Louisa Bailey

London / Museum

A walled secret garden, the Physic Garden is like a time capsule, founded in 1673 to allow apprentices of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London to study the healing properties of plants, it is now a living museum. Tours are offered by volunteers with immense knowledge of botany and the cultural history of the garden or visitors can wander the grounds alone and spot odd and fascinating plants such as the mystical Mandrake.

Website
chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk

Address
Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London, United Kingdom

Creative Director

Current city: London

luminousbooks.co.uk

Louisa is the founder of Luminous Books in East London, an artist curated bookshop specializing in second hand fiction, philosophy, art and curiosities. Luminous also stocks a range of artists’ books, limited run zines and hosts regular literary events, combining music, films and readings alongside pop up projects throughout the city and two Luminous collections at the ICA Bookshop SW1 and Andor Bureau E8. Louisa studied Fine Art Sculpture at Brighton University before moving to London working in both new and antiquarian bookshops including Foyles and as Book Buyer for the ICA Bookshop. Luminous is a specialized bookshop full of personal preoccupations, a love of the object of the book, printed matter and of visual thinking.

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London / Theatre

The Almeida, in Islington, is a small theatre with big influence. It's an intimate place to discover groundbreaking theatre and get up close to some of Britain's leading actors. The cafe/bar across has a constantly-changing tasty menu, relaxed atmosphere and free wifi. Open all day and great place to spend time even if you're not going to catch a production.

London / Gallery

A non-profit organisation, Raven Row focuses on developing an engaging and intelligent contemporary art programme outside of the highly commercial London art scene. The gallery exhibits established international artists alongside those whose work is often overlooked by the mainstream venues.

London / Restaurant

My all-time favourite place. Whitewashed ex-smokehouse where Fergus Henderson pioneered the resurgent interest in offal dishes. The restaurant is brilliantly unfussy, retaining lots of the smokehouse’s original features, and the food very British, making St. JOHN something of a London institution. The restaurant has a winery and bakery.

London / Cafe

I found out an amazing fact recently about this place which weirdly enough relates back to my interest of analogue TV distortions in my work. The building where the restaurant stands is where John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of Television. If that doesn’t want to make you go there, the band Pulp also wrote a song of the same name on their Different Class album. Apart from these two great facts their food is pretty darn good too!

London / Bookstore

Great selection of books and magazine with a big focus on rare. out-of-print books Japanese photography. Can sends hours in this little shop. I'd try to avoid on Market day (Saturday) if you want to have a good look as it can get a bit busy for such a small space.