Get thee to The Glade.

A few of the ladies and myself celebrated a birthday with Traditional Afternoon Tea a la Sketch in The Parlour just recently and recommend you do the same if you have a thing for sweet, like me. Plus great people watching if that thrills you, we were fascinated with an abominable and immaculately dressed five-year old beside us. While there we poked our noses into the wonders Martin Creed has created with the restaurant space but mostly were enchanted with the magic both Carolyn Quartermaine and Didier Mahieu have made happen with The Glade, both artists have international reputations for the installation of dream-filled, memory laden spaces and this modern primitive fairy tale forest is no exception. All the while, we three discussed the fact that the pods are still the best loos in London and how we will never tire of their future beauty.

The Glade does good with decoupage, a craft that is a guilty secret from my past and one I never imagined could ever look so good. The mix of densely and delicately decoupaged walls  – the image taken from early C 20th stationary and printed onto hundreds of metres of paper and then hand cut, vintage French rattan furniture of which I am a massive fan, and luscious green soft furnishings especially the lavish curtains that fall all over the floor combine to make an easy and elegant space, smack bang in central London. All the greens included within the space which range from acid through grass to forest and beyond combine effortlessly as they do in nature. Green is good.

All photos courtesy of Sketch. With thanks. x