A green oasis in Hackney, offering affordable, beautiful plants. A jungle full of inspiration. (Pic from meltingbutter.com)

I trust owner and director Tamsin Clark completely with what I could and should be reading.

I love this building and always visit if I’m in the area to look at their great window displays, travel up in the beautiful wood paneled lift and wander down the creaky oak staircase. The exterior and interior woodwork is from two old Men-of-War ships, the flooring made from their deck timbers. I normally head straight to the fabric department to see what new seasonal prints they have in, though only buy a metre’s worth so not quite sure what I’ll ever make from them. My most treasured prints are those designed by Grayson Perry of polluted factories, teddy bears, knuckle-dusters and hand grenades. They also sell oversized gift coins produced by the Royal Mint and packaged beautifully in a velvet pouch, which appeal to my love of all things out-sized.

Not been in many years, but spent a large part of my childhood watching people row and sail back and forth. It freezes over in winter and in February 1893, Jack Selby drove a coach and four horses across the reservoir.

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.