London has had SO MANY openings this year that we’ve found it pretty hard to keep up and that’s where Just Opened has coming in pretty handy. Who better than to be the final Londoner of 2014 than Editor Adam Bloodworth.
How long you lived in London, where and why?
I’ve lived in London since September 2013, so a little over a year. I started off on a minute part of the DLR, at a station called Langdon Park. I spent a year there, surrounded by real east end culture, the type of people that’ve lived there long before I was born! It was comforting to know that if you needed to borrow sugar (not that I’m a good cook!) then you always could. Now I live just off New Kent Road.
Working for Just Opened in London. Must be HARD work given there’s so many openings. How do you keep up?
Lots of walking around! Lots of listening as you go, and the less glamorous part – LOTS of checking emails! Although most of the people that contact me are openings with budgets, I do occasionally get locals linking up and asking about being featured. The answer’s pretty well always Yes! There’s tonnes of great large scale openings, but we really love finding underground projects from people that don’t understand how the press system works. If we can find those types then we’re helping each other out hugely!
What’s been your top opening of 2014?
We’ve actually just unveiled our Top Openings of 2014 in our weekly email. The nominees, and why they’re so great, is all listed on the Features page of the site. Overall, we had to go with The Hoxton, Holborn as our Top Opening. It’s homelier than anywhere I’ve found in town, probably more so than my own room. It has this sort of eye for detail that’s rarely seen in public. I often work in the Shoreditch one, The Hoxton. Otherwise, I loved Dandelyan, and all the great work going on at Town Hall Hotel. Culturally, it’s about Golem for us at the Young Vic. We fell in love with theatre troupe 1927 when they first performed The Animals and Children Took to the Streets at the Battersea Arts Centre. Top stuff.
What are you most looking forward to opening in 2015?
Alan Yau’s Duck & Rice has been on everybody’s lips all year. Apparently that’s set to drop early in 2015, so it’ll be cool to see how it pans out. Sky Garden on top of 20 Fenchurch Street sounds intriguing, I’m always up for some rooftop snooping, but more generally, my eyes are always on the fringe Arts scene, for my work as Editor of Just Opened and as Editor of reviews and debate site Culture or Trash.
Finally what would you perfect day in london be?
I’d start with a wander through Exmouth Market and maybe stop for something somewhere (all that choice means you don’t have to decide!), then I’d head for a catch up with a friend at the Foyles Cafe. I’d wander down and catch a matinee somewhere near Shaftesbury Avenue, perhaps at the Soho Theatre, then go for wine and cheese at Gordon’s. I’d head to Dalston, hit up Merci Marie’s for dinner, then either go for a cosy pint at The Shacklewell Arms or check Resident Advisor for stuff on the clubbing scene. I’d probably end up with a hearty kebab and a long walk home.
www.justopenedlondon.com
Feature image by Amber Napthine