Regent Street supports the London Festival of Architecture (19 June – 4 July 2010) with a series of exciting events that are free and open to the public.
Regent Street, Europe’s first purpose built shopping street (1830) will launch a Regent Street walking tour App and printed guide to illustrate an exciting and informative route along Regent Street; an instant almanac of architecture, history of the shops, restaurants, cafes and bars.
The App can be downloaded from the Apple store for free and the printed guide picked up at some of the Regent Street stores or at regentstreetonline.com. The tour begins from the Duke of York’s Steps, Pall Mall and finishes at the last remaining Nash building, All Souls Church, next to the BBC. It will examine the external features and structures of entire buildings along highlighting unusual details that all provide clues as to how time and the changing tastes have influenced the street.
There are many interesting locations on Regent Street such as Points 26 & 27 Habitat used to be known as the New Gallery, the principal gallery for the Arts and Crafts movement later re-fashioned as an ‘electric theatre’ or cinema and today the original fixtures and fittings are still visible including the original Wurlitzer organ and renaissance gallery.
Point 41 is Palladium House constructed in 1928/9, for the National Radiator Company and is a reduced version of the American Radiator building on Bryant Park, Manhattan. This is the only European building of Raymond Hood, the Art Deco style he used on this development was very fashionable in this period, following the Paris Exhibition of 1925.
Point 45 is Regent House formerly the site of the Hanover Chapel, now Apple, which is one of the most important buildings in Regent Street. When Regent Street was re-constructed the height of the new buildings was allowed to be built to the height of the chimneys of the former chapel. The beautiful Venetian glass mosaic can be seen above the doorway. Today the building has a beautiful modern glass interior and is once again a place of worship, the home of Apple.
>From 17 June there will be five retail stores that will have window displays created by internationally acclaimed architects and design agencies to show a range of intriguing and diverse concepts.
There will be an opportunity to listen to a short talk at each of the shops on 22 June:
Austin Reed - Tonkin Liu, 5.00pm
Anthropologie – Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, 5.30pm
COS – Spacelab, 6.00pm
Banana Republic – Moxon, 6.30pm
Oasis – Hawkins Brown, 7.00pm
(Attending the talks will be on a first come first served basis)
T.M.Lewin will be at the Sofitel St James hotel from 19 June to 1 July displaying their Heritage. Dressed Mannequins showing Classic Business dress and pictures of T.M.Lewin heritage will be displayed in Brasserie Roux the hotels restaurant by Chefs Albert Roux and Vincent Menager. Shirt doctors will on hand from 12-3pm each day from Monday 21 to Saturday 26 June measuring men’s collars and offering advice on shirt and tie combinations.
Fashion and design emporium Liberty will be organising an architectural treasure hunt and self guided tour of its Tudor building, echoing the overall ethos of the London Festival of Architecture, highlighting Liberty being synonymous with luxury and great design since 1875. Complete the treasure hunt for a chance to win a Liberty gift card worth £250. Guides will be available from Customer Service on the third floor.
In Regent’s Park there will be an open-air exhibition, ‘Following Nash’ which runs from 17 June to 4 July at Broad Walk, Regent’s Park, looking at the legacy of John Nash produced in association with The Crown Estate.
www.regentstreetonline.com
