design junction

It is the London Design Festival, the week when London is crammed with too many events to possibly see. Yesterday I was in town so I looked in at the big new show on the circuit - Design Junction in Holborn. It is free to get in and showcases an impressive collection of furniture and design brands some familiar, some new. Themes among the newer brands seemed to be wood, ply wood, pale wood, turned wood, copper details, recycled materials, ceramic, coloured cable, and lots of tables that were a bit like the table that you just saw in the stand next door.
The star of the show was the venue, a vast decommissioned post office sorting house. Three floors of exhibition space, the ground floor rather gloomy but all changes on the first and second floor where the sorting equipment, conveyor belts, over-head tracks, shutes and slides still hang above your head looking ready to go at any moment.
I found a corner of calm up some metal stairs in the Klaus Haapaniemi stand where the richly detailed, folklore themed textiles from Finland provided an uplifting contrast to the industrial surroundings and crafted austerity of much of the design on offer. (Also a bar and masses of seating, wearing new boots was not a good idea)
On the whole, definitely worth a visit if you want to go west rather than east. Tomorrow, I will be heading east to Tent London where Lucy will be manning the press office. My home grown PR girl has moved on to more exiting things!