There are ghosts here, so beware as you tread the slippery stairs down into another world, a world of darkness, of ancient and dark brick vaults, dripping water and old cells, once alive with chatter when it was full of criminals waiting trial at the nearby Middlesex Sessions House. You can imaging Charles Dickens visiting to gain inspiration for his novels.
A unique relic of the 19th century criminal system in London, today the House of Detention provides a unique dark eerie setting for a multitude of events, including Clerkenwell Design Week and, recently during the London Design Festival, architectural jems from Wilkinson Eyre, with models of many of their projects such as Battersea Power Station and the Forum at Exeter University beautifully etched in glass and carefully lit. You might almost think you were in a Bond Street jewellers’, but you are not.
Then, moving across London to Fiztrovia, things became more colourful at Feilden Clegg Bradley (FCB) with Architecture Illustrated, a collaboration with Jelly, where six top illustrators presented their views of six of FCBStudio’ projects – very brave indeed -, and including several university projects – the University of Roehampton Library, the Plymouth School of Creative Arts, the Manchester School of Art and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Both great initiatives in different ways.
