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.
I love the George and Dragon Public House. Cluttered deco of silly artifacts and memorabilia and slightly scuzzy around the edges. Great drinking characters, DJs and The White Cubicle gallery in the ladies toilets is difficult to beat.
I walk a lot; the best way to experience a city. So it's sometimes to do with the way places join up. This cast concrete letterform is a part of the Lycée's gateway. Each of the form's facets arrives at a different character, so six possible letters come from each cast object. I've never been inside the Lycée but always walked through this way up to the V&A, in order to examine again and again how each form works. The surfaces set the tone for the V&A and its incredible Ceramics floor, a perennial inspiration.
The power station is a ghost like ruin that stands on the banks of the Thames. Its right next to the train tracks rolling out of London to the rest of the south of England. I pass it every time I go back to where I grew up and every time I arrive back in London. It has become symbolic with arriving and departing, a constant in my life. I used to joke and refer to it as my lover - seeing me off and welcoming me home.
It's a members-only library but you might be granted access with a research request. The writer's room is great but there's a few special, hidden corners among the bookshelves to tuck yourself away in.