Up to Date

Week... we’ve forgotten.




As you will have seen from our last blog the main space is now completely stripped out.

We have relocated the office into the attic, the views are spectacular; MI6 on one side, trees and greenery all around, cows being taken for a walk every day, a regular flock of Goldfinches and a play area which is good but could be better (more on this later). We are ticking all the boxes on regulation. Planning application and building controls are in, the structural engineer has been in. There is a lot of official stuff that needs to be done. Once upon a time I would have sniffed at this red tape but I now realise that this is all very necessary for the correct and safe running of a public space. We want to restore this old lady, not cut corners.

Update: Mike came round on Sunday and the three of us went at the lean to with sledge hammers, crow bars and elbow grease. Man’s work. Here’s the pictures.

Building work hasn’t started 'due to financial reasons' but the hiatus has given us time to look at the details. We know where every plug socket and light fitting is going. We are looking at colour, blue and nicotine yellow, the subtle variations of which one can get lost in. We will study each sample in great detail, searching our souls for the perfect resonance and feeling of perfection letting us know that our choice is just right. Or we could just open the first tin, Oxford Blue, and just get on with it.


All the designs are done, the elevations are done, the lavatories have been designed, the major works are ready to go we just need to pull the trigger on the starting pistol.



Financing takes forever, we are all in we have mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and sold our nearest and dearest into slavery. Everything is coming in and the next phase will commence soon.

Update: Monday 14th March, Week 7 of the calendar year of 2011, 4 days before the full moon, the Christian feast day of Mathilda of Ringlheim, birth date in 1933 of Sir Michael Caine and in 1879 of Albert Einstein and the Opening of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado in London in 1885. Phase Three will begin with a twelve week lead time, we open 1st June.


This delay is unfortunate but we are planning a Royal Wedding Street Party for the 29th April. We want to get to know everyone who lives in the area, let them know more about what we are doing and have a blooming good time celebrating a fantastic national occasion at the same time. There will be food and drink and games and music we will toast the health of Prince William and Princess Catherine, entertain and be entertained and hope it doesn’t rain. There will be a full blog post on this exciting event coming soon.

Update: Prince William and Catherine will be coming to our party, they will leave the church, cross Westminster bridge and join us for tea and cakes. The palace has requested this, so we have had to reserve two chairs. They will change out of their wedding garb into pearly King and Queen outfits and we will all do the Lambeth Walk, Oi.



Sniper, our favourite photographer, has been in touch. He is about to embark on a fantastic journey. He is the best festival photographer in the business The Edinburgh Fringe Photographer and he has got a great gig photographing a festival in Dubai. We are extremely chuffed for him, all he needs to do now is get on that plane, best thing that could have happened my friend.

Update: Edinburgh’s looking dodgy this year and T.V.G. might not make an appearance for the first time in 6 years.



The Glasshouse walk play area right beside us has become a political hot potato it is in the running for a grant for refurbishment. For this playground to be brought up to date at the same time as we are creating a family friendly Tea House will be a great boon for this little corner of London. This whole park is earmarked for serious green space improvement work. The new gates are imposing and modern. This should encourage more people to use this fantastic place. Over the next few years the council and the Friends of Vauxhall Gardens will be spending lots of money to make this park better and better. We wholeheartedly support the Vauxhall Gardens Residents and Tenants Association campaign to win this funding for the play area and would like to offer help in any way we can.

Update: that bloke Hal Iggulden who wrote that famous book about dangerous stuff or something has given his backing to the cause. We hope that helps.



One set of contractors fired.



Fred went on a Food Hygiene course to make sure that all our kitchen stuff will be tip top.  While on this course he met two cake girlies.  It was like fate bringing two lives and dreams together over a free cuppa, some very plain biscuits and a multiple choice exam. They are an emerging cake baking business and we now, after meeting up and tasting their wares, have the very pleasant task of designing our cake menu with them.  It turns out that they work out of  a kitchen locally and therefore we will be using local produce in the tea house.  They are also surprisingly thin for girls who make such delicious cakes. Man I love the cake.

Update: They have sent us a preliminary menu. Girly cakes, fliffy, pretty, dainty, fresh, delicious, creamy, girls; no low fat thinking here, we need double cream ruminations. Spoil yourselves, you deserve it.



We met a marketing team on Monday. They are from a local advertising industry partnered marketing school. Interesting vibe. The strange thing is we don’t need creatives we need technical, but we have given them the brief to help find our logo and graphic and change of colours from the theatre black and red to the tea house blue and white. It is fifty-fifty whether they will get anything we can use, but they are creatives and we want the tea house to be a place for them so we will try and keep a good relationship with these young locals.



Had a meeting with mood board woman we made it clear that in our light fittings the one thing that we didn’t want was Victorian gothic or ultra modern. So she gave us two options...

Update: Totally changed the ladies WC doubled its size, now looking absolutely brilliant, going to make it light and feminine, it is going to cost more, but it will be worth it.

 

I sense a beltane fire coming on.  To mark the beginning of spring, the renewal of the Annie in honour of the goddess.  A pyre will be built, a beacon of light and life.  New energy, renewed passion, this is still a house of the goddess.  For many years she danced her dance in this sacred space.  It returns as a safe and welcome place for the mother and her child, with high chairs and soya milk and a relaxed atmosphere over breast feeding and baby changing.

Praise be the Goddess.