Mylène is a French art director, currently based in London. She’s currently art director for the books and gifts lists at Laurence King Publishing, part of Orion/Hachette UK.
Though the city is amazing with a lot to offer, of course it’s great to have your own hideaway. My room is essentially my studio/desk space too and the hub of my creative activities.
The Lambeth Walk is not as billed in the song. Quite a bleak but somehow beautiful mishmash of architectural accident–or–design; a legacy of stray WWII bombs intended for more auspicious near-at-hand targets, such as the Houses of Parliament. I study sculpture here each Monday; a lovely workshop inside. The exterior features one of only a few examples of an outside pulpit, apparently for the minister to take his message direct to the shoppers, in the Walk's heyday.
The most special and charming cinema (probably most deprived too) in London. A place to catch a classic or a new release. You can get a lifetime membership for £50, weekly £1 member screenings. A place where staff are as passionate about pictures as its visitors. A must visit for movie buffs.
The Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library, mostly dealing with medecine and social history. The exhibitions are unusual and engaging, and the permanent collection includes bizarre items such as medieval masks and human remains.
I love the architecture of the Barbican - it is so important to its historical context, at a time when London was being shaped for modernity after the war - they also aspired to make it a bold art centre. We need bold, always.