The Great Green Rooms
5 reasons why Folk is quietly flipping over the new arts hotel in London.
1) Concept. So this guy Nick Hartwright decides he wants to turn a stunning art deco building – Haringey council’s housing office – into an arts hotel. Not only that, he decides he wants to create an affordable space for artists, creatives, style enthusiasts and the wider community to stay, work, learn, play and collaborate. Dream project or what?
2) Vibes. Nick decides he wants the hotel to be a creative hub, which will host artists, exhibitions, performances and also a free programme of events every month. It’s not for no reason that this man is being hailed as an ‘artrepreneur’.
3) Sleep. Part of the Green Rooms' mission is to be affordable for artists, actors and other creatives. It will include several dormitories, charging £18 per night for a bed. It will also have small double rooms and a handful of larger en-suites.
4) Food. The ground floor of the hotel will include a large café, where street food vendors will be offered space on a rotating basis. That’s OK Bahn-mi.
5) Design. The hotel has created an exceptional interior. Brilliantly, Folk was asked to design into some of the existing rooms, so we’ve created a bit of a Folk landscape and the rooms now feature elements such as the hand-crafted wooden Folk rocking chair, footstool and bedside light.
Green Rooms is set to open in Wood Green in May. Folk furniture is currently only made to commission. For more information please email Olivia@folkclothing.com.
Want to smile next time it rains?
Get your hands on this bit of bike kit.
You never know who you are going to bump into at the Institute of Making in London. Here makers, designers, creators and imaginative individuals gather to do things like create clay murals or do some fish printing. It’s sort of like a playground for adults, minus the drugs. When Cathal McAteer was last there with his junior tribe (Bobby 9, Minu 7 and Annie 3) checking out the Ceramics Open Day he bumped into none other than Patrick Laing. And a fortuitous bumping into it was too as Cathal found out all about the plume mudguard – an essential piece of bike gear Patrick and his pal Dan McMahon had just invented.
You bike lovers out there will know that clean lines are essential to any bike aesthete, but that getting your arse covered in mud on the way to work is not an option either… The eternal conundrum of a bike lover, non? Not anymore. Patrick’s plume – which is French for feather by the way – is a slinky and slick functional number, which recoils when not needed. A bit like a snail with its feelers. In and out in no time. Now you see it (sexy), now you don’t (slick).
Punk poetry and other gems
Chris Stoker – DJ, record producer and Folk’s international sales manager – talks poetry, punk and pioneers in this month’s bedside table talk. Here’s what he’s been reading…
Ten Years in an Open-Necked Shirt by John Cooper Clarke
“I love this man. I’m a big fan of his music and was delighted when I happened upon a book of his poetry, which is essentially also a book of his lyrics. He gives an amazing social commentary, which is both witty and scathing and he is affectionately referred to as the punk poet.”
“This became an instant favourite of mine. Despite being a music lover I’m not such a huge fan of music biographies. They tend to be full of facts and figures and not particularly well written. This is the opposite. Whether you’re a Patti Smith fan or not, this is simply a beautiful story poetically written and all off the back of a promise.”
Barbara Hepworth, Tate Britain
“I went to see the Barbara Hepworth exhibition at Tate Britain last year and loved it. This book was a Christmas gift from the person I went with. I’d be lying if I said I’d read much of the text in the there but there are some great images of her work from the exhibition.”
“Also in current circulation is Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse but I’ve only just started it so can’t give it much of a critique. So far so good though.”
Where Hemsley and Hemsley fear to tread
The dirty stop out banana loaf that has people queuing outside Lowry & Baker for more.
If you’ve ever had the chance to stop in at Lowry and Baker in London, you know it’s hard to walk out without buying cake, even if you came in to eat poached eggs. The one that always gets us, is the just-popped-out-of-the-oven banana and pecan loaf. It just sits by the till looking all like ‘you know you want me’, and before you know it you’ve bought the entire loaf. A slice for me, one for him, maybe that lady over there wants one too. Yes, it’s that good. And the best bit is, it’s got sugar, it’s got flour, it’s got gluten. It’s an old school cake that tastes just like a cake should. Dirty and delicious. Now you can make it too, because we begged and pleaded until they shared their secret recipe with us…
Ingredients:
- 175g softened light salted butter
- 175g soft light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 260g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100ml milk
- 3 overripe bananas
- 50g roughly chopped pecans, plus extra four topping
- Sea salt
- Vanilla Essence
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180°. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one by one
- Sift and stir flour evenly into the mixture
- Mash bananas into a pulp and add with milk, pecans, baking powder, vanilla essence and healthy pinch of salt.
- Pour mixture into tin adding finely chopped pecans to top. Bake for 45 mins until golden and risen, then cover with tin foil and continue to bake for another 20mins or until a knife poked in comes out clean. Cool in tin and rest on wire rack.
- Slice and serve with a knob of melting butter. Delicious.
Lowry & Baker are now open Thursday and Friday evenings for small plates and wine. https://www.facebook.com/lowryandbaker/
Better than the Easter bunny
The three-way collab between artist Isvald Klingels, Folk and the Bayou Blue Family.
At Folk we like to get involved with things that create good vibes; that promote the feeling of Ubuntu (Zulu word for humanity towards others). Back in the July issue of our newsletter, we told you all about the amazing Bayou Blue Foundation, founded by the musician Mo Morris and his wife Adia following the birth of their beautiful girl Bayou Blue, who was born with an extremely rare chromosomal condition called Trisomy 18/ Mosaic.
Bayou Blue is a charity, which supports children with a life-threatening or terminal illness as well as their families. This month we are proud to present the long sleeve rabbit T-shirt, featuring artwork by Isvald Klingels, made in collaboration with Folk with all proceeds going directly back into the Bayou Blue foundation.
This T-shirt is currently sold exclusively on www.ln-cc.com.
Folk Playlist III
March mix tape exclusively curated by Mo Morris of the Bayou Blue Family.
This month’s Folk playlist comes to you courtesy of Mo Morris, the musician, father and founder of the Bayou Blue Foundation. This guy knows a thing or two about music. Let him play you The The’s Love is Stronger than Death, Guiding Star by the New Age Steppers and other beauties…