citylikeyou — London / Vanessa Pelz Sharpe

Vanessa Pelz-Sharpe is a writer and broadcaster. Born and bred in London, she has written for a number of independent magazines and newspapers, including The Guardian, Illustrated Ape, and Pen Pusher, and was Contributing Editor for literary magazine Full Moon Empty Sports Bag. She co-hosts Letters You Never Sent, a monthly literary radio show on NTS. Pelz-Sharpe recently won a Cosmopolitan Magazine Blog Award for her blog Nightmares and Boners and is currently working on her first novel.

http://www.pelzsharpe.com

Writer

Current city: London

pelzsharpe.com

London / Park

The thing I love most about London is the juxtaposition of urban and rural, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in Lea Valley Park. A genuine wilderness where I’ve seen everything from ponies, to a rogue Costco outlet, and all less than 20 minutes from my front door.

London / Shop

I’m not sure what I like best about this deli: the speck which was so good that I ‘accidentally’ ate the whole package of it before I got home, or the fact the staff are always so friendly even when I ask for my order in my terribly rusty Italian.

London / Library

There are libraries full of screaming children and strip lighting, and then there are libraries like The London Library. Whenever I’m there it’s hard to believe I’m not caught inside a wonderful dream, because everything about this place is so perfect as to be almost unreal.

London / Shop

As preposterous as this sounds I think there are few ills that can’t be cured by sitting lazily on a stack of rugs in Liberty and allowing the patterns to wash over you in a warm, and slightly itchy, haze. If you don’t believe me try it. The second you step off the main shopping area the sound and lights dim, the rugs beg to be touched, and all your worries seem to disappear.

London / Museum

You might think the Tate Britain is the less interesting of the two London outposts: full of crusty oil paintings and pensioners on day-trips, but you’d be wrong. Not only is the building a delicious warren of interconnecting rooms, each more beautiful than the last, but it also houses a collection of pre-Raphelite works that has me in tears of awe every time I swing by.

London / Photographer

I am a photojournalist from London, and founder of ‘Cheer Up Luv’ a photo and interview series documenting women’s accounts of sexual harassment.

London / Illustrator

I am an artist and illustrator based in London, originally from Lublin, Poland.

London / Graphic Designer

Johanne Lian Olsen is a Graphic Designer working within type design, editorial design and illustration. She is flexing between working at projects in the UK and Norway.

London / Photographer

I'm a London-based documentary and travel photographer, dividing my time between commercial commissions and personal projects.

London / Artist

Nigel Howlett lives and works in London. He has developed a graphite cartoony style of drawing which references early Disney movies and painters such as the American artist Peter Saul. Howlett depicts hairy characters, acting out scenarios that reflect familiar social anxieties and conditions. Always humorous and sometimes sinister, common themes in the work include our obsession with technology and our relationship with social media. Nigel also runs a set design practice working with clients which include the BBC, channel 4, Issey Miyake and Nike. In 2015 he co-founded Nan Studios, a Photographic and creative studio in Clapton East London.

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