citylikeyou — Lost — London by Polly Brown

London / Other

Getting lost is an age old suggestion but a good one. Put away your cell phone or your A-Z and just wander around. I still do this regularly even though Ive lived here for nearly 10 years. London is a big city and it drip feeds you its secrets sometimes. You will come across things you wouldn’t usually, in amongst the Starbucks and pret a mange there are some amazing sights. Just ‘being’ somewhere is a great experience and one no guide book can help you find.

Address
Lost, London, United Kingdom

Artist Photographer

Current city: London

pollybrown.info

Polly Brown is a London based artist, and photographer. Having graduated from Central St Martins in 2009, after studying Fine Art & Conceptual Theory, Polly has worked throughout the art, fashion and music industry, creating concept lead visual projects. Polly’s work often looks at the small unnoticed aspects of life and the world around us. Unpicking and re focusing on the small elements that make up a greater whole. Projects range from editorial, photo essays to short films. Clients have included ICA, Dazed and Confused, Kris Van Assche and DIESEL to name a few. Polly has an ongoing project called PLANTS which sees her photograph iconic brands office foliage. Originally commissioned by Ronnie’s Woods Whisper Gallery the project includes some of the worlds largest corporations and is ever expanding.

More Places in London 471

London / Shop

I am definitely not precious about the materials I use to make my work, but every so often I find myself in need of something more specialised. L.Cornelissen & Son is a beautiful and well stocked art supply shop with extremely knowledgable staff.

London / Pub

The Princess Louise, was a Victorian Gin Palace, with mirror and tiles galore, segregated seating and extraordinary urinals. With pints of beer just over £2 you're laughing. It gets packed so we come for a lunchtime pint.

London / Bar

My friend Guillaume opened the swankiest rooftop in London that still feels like a house party. Louie is a French-Creole restaurant, live jazz music venue and oyster bar too.

London / Music Venue

The Roundhouse was built as a steam-engine repair shed in 1846, and then became a warehouse before falling into disuse for 25 years and reopening as a performing arts venue in 1964 hosting acts like Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Pink Floyd. It was redeveloped between 2004-2006 and is one of my favourite music venues in London; it’s a beautiful building, has a great sound and isn’t too huge so feels fairly intimate. Some highlights for me this year were The Flaming Lips, David Byrne & St.Vincent and the Timepiece installation by Conrad Shawcross.

London / Gallery

At the end of the Victoria line at the Walthomstow station, and then a 15 minute walk through some suburban streets with some lefts and at other times rights is an industrial estate. Through the gate and buried at the very end of the units where you are convinced you are lost and doubting it's existence at all is God's Own Junkyard. It's a worthy pilgrimage and actually sort of where you expect God would put a junkyard. The warehouse is a monument to neon and the life works of the late Mr Neon, Chris Bracey. It's littered to the rooftop with cables, plug sockets and choice words with neon epigrams, the whole collection is stacked, I suppose how a junkyard of the sort would be. Full of sex, religion, americana, sci-fi and nostalgia that all blend together surprisingly well, It's a visual feast that you can take in with a coffee and an open mouth. It is a gem of a place. It is really great.