East End Review

Tag: Nest Collective

  • Buskers and musicians are taking over vintage shop off Brick Lane

    Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    Busker’s paradise at No 14 Bacon Street. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    A couple of Sundays ago, I was on Bacon Street looking for the Vintage Emporium. Outside Des and Lorraine, a genuine East London junk shop, I asked a couple of men the way and was redirected next door. “Ask for Olli,” they said. “You’ll see he is really nice!”. It took me just a few seconds to realise I had stepped into the close-knit heart of East London’s Brick Lane community.

    Pushing through the door of this intimate coffee shop, I instantly felt at home. The vintage furniture was harmoniously displayed and the smell of fresh lilies heightened a sense of delicacy as I was welcomed by numerous smiley faces.

    On a small stage in the centre of the room was Jess Collins, who co-owns the place with her partner Olli Stanion. She was singing and playing fiddle with another musician, Alastair Caplin. Encircled in thick curtains evoking a baldachin, the look and location of the stage was a give away. “This place is a kingdom for musicians,” I thought to myself.

    Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    Bacon Street blues. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    Over a month ago the Vintage Emporium was renamed No 14 Bacon Street as Jess and Olli just managed to obtain a two-year lease extension from their new owner, the Truman Brewery.

    Fiddle player Caplin is already part of the furniture, programming sessions of acoustic folk, jazz, swing and old time bluegrass music.

    He explained: “The biggest change of the rebranding is the glass of wine appearing behind the bar so anyone can come with a bottle, pay the £3 corkage fee and listen to music.”

    Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval
    String ensemble at No 14 Bacon Street. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    All afternoon, musicians kept on entering a venue that was already packed. “They are all buskers from Columbia Road market and come here to play for fun and to enjoy the tea and cakes provided by Jess and Olli,” I was told later. “Between 15 to 20 musicians can turn up in one afternoon; this is the closest thing to community I have ever felt in London,” insisted Caplin.

    Before I knew it daylight had long gone and people started dancing in the remaining free corners of the room, their faces illuminated by candlelights evoking paintings from the chiaroscuro period. Whilst I was taking pictures, I started daydreaming about how Caravaggio or Rembrandt would have depicted the scene, as a musician started playing harp, accompanying me as if by magic in my travels back in time.

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  • Sam Lee’s Campfire Club takes live music back to its roots

    Sam Lee of the Nest Collective (left, in shorts) stokes the passions of crowds at Campfire Club
    Sam Lee of the Nest Collective (left, in shorts) stokes the passions of crowds. Photograph: Eleonore de Bonneval

    The smell of fresh firewood burning is one of the most nostalgic smells for me. It instantly evokes my childhood, camping and fun. So when I heard that renowned folk music impresarios the Nest Collective, led by the Mercury Prize-nominated musician Sam Lee, had started a Campfire Club, it immediately captured my imagination and I made sure to join them at their next event.

    The Campfire Club is hosted by art and botany project Phytology in the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve throughout the summer. According to records, the location was a market and nursery gardens in medieval times, and in 1846 a church with active social functions was erected there before being totally destroyed in the Blitz. “The land was left dormant for 50 years and only just being used as a community space” explains Lee.

    The old Second World War bombsite now feels like a little gem hidden away in buzzing London. Lee points out that “as a species we’ve existed every night for thousands and hundred of thousands of years around a fire. It is only now that we don’t do that anymore. I think people see the romance in it and are connected in a way that we don’t get an opportunity to do.”

    On entering the nature reserve for the first time, I was invited to take a seat on the log benches of this intimate amphitheatre. Without amplification, the performers began to sing by the fire and their voices sounded timid. The sounds of the city seemed to override theirs: people talking in the street and cars passing with their horns sounding, constantly reminded me I was in East London.

    But as the sun set and the night came, I leaned closer to the fire, and listened better. The city seemed to have calmed down and the performers’ voices became more audible. By that point I was captivated by the music, mesmerised by the flickering flames and –  just as I was as a child –  enchanted by the smell of the wood smoke.

    Next Campfire Club with Bridie Jackson and the Arbour and Daniel Green Saturday 12 July at Phytology, Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, Middleton Street, Bethnal Green, E2 9RR

    www.thenestcollective.co.uk