Guidebook for San Francisco

Sophie
Guidebook for San Francisco

Arts & Culture

The members’ arts club I co-founded hosts about 10 events a month that are open to the public: parties, poetry readings, movie screenings, performance art, vintage discos. Here you can strike up a conversation with anyone, famous or not, without them asking snootily, “I’m sorry, do I know you?” It’s about meeting interesting, open-minded people. The Stash Art Gallery within the club hosts around eight shows a year by members, as well as life-drawing classes, dance events, and book launches, also open to the public.
Vout-O-Reenees
30 Prescot Street
The members’ arts club I co-founded hosts about 10 events a month that are open to the public: parties, poetry readings, movie screenings, performance art, vintage discos. Here you can strike up a conversation with anyone, famous or not, without them asking snootily, “I’m sorry, do I know you?” It’s about meeting interesting, open-minded people. The Stash Art Gallery within the club hosts around eight shows a year by members, as well as life-drawing classes, dance events, and book launches, also open to the public.
Specific, unusual, and mostly unknown by Londoners, this museum is often empty. Full of branded boxes and packaging from all sorts of stuff—food packets, televisions, bikes, makeup—going back to 1800, it’s great for stirring up memories, especially useful to a writer. And artists love the retro graphics. It’s easy to think a product has always looked as it does now, but this place reminds you that it’s actually changed enormously over the years. It reminds you that your memory is never as fixed or accurate as you think.
84 locals recommend
Museum of Brands
111-117 Lancaster Rd
84 locals recommend
Specific, unusual, and mostly unknown by Londoners, this museum is often empty. Full of branded boxes and packaging from all sorts of stuff—food packets, televisions, bikes, makeup—going back to 1800, it’s great for stirring up memories, especially useful to a writer. And artists love the retro graphics. It’s easy to think a product has always looked as it does now, but this place reminds you that it’s actually changed enormously over the years. It reminds you that your memory is never as fixed or accurate as you think.
Damien Hirst’s gallery puts on great shows of his fellow artists. Love him or hate him, Damien has done so much for modern British art, making it marketable and giving it a voice. Openings here are filled with artists, which is unusual. At the shop, you can buy the work of living artists for a few hundred quid, not thousands. Mark Hix’s restaurant, Pharmacy 2, a collaboration with Damien, is also in the building. It’s a factory conversion, and it looks really good. It’s not cheap, but the gallery is free.
62 locals recommend
Newport Street Gallery
9 Newport St
62 locals recommend
Damien Hirst’s gallery puts on great shows of his fellow artists. Love him or hate him, Damien has done so much for modern British art, making it marketable and giving it a voice. Openings here are filled with artists, which is unusual. At the shop, you can buy the work of living artists for a few hundred quid, not thousands. Mark Hix’s restaurant, Pharmacy 2, a collaboration with Damien, is also in the building. It’s a factory conversion, and it looks really good. It’s not cheap, but the gallery is free.
At this national film and TV archive, the best of contemporary and classic old movies are shown in a four-screen cinema. Watching a great film in a proper setting that you can’t find anywhere else makes it special. Immersing yourself in the experience sparks creativity into a bonfire of ideas. Why wouldn’t artists and writers be here? A great digital resource, where I did loads of research for my book on Soho, is the institute’s Mediatech, which has booths with television sets where you can watch short old films and TV shows. You’ll find treasures, such as the films Evelyn Waugh made as a student at Oxford in 1929. Booking is essential.
109 locals recommend
BFI Southbank
0 Belvedere Rd
109 locals recommend
At this national film and TV archive, the best of contemporary and classic old movies are shown in a four-screen cinema. Watching a great film in a proper setting that you can’t find anywhere else makes it special. Immersing yourself in the experience sparks creativity into a bonfire of ideas. Why wouldn’t artists and writers be here? A great digital resource, where I did loads of research for my book on Soho, is the institute’s Mediatech, which has booths with television sets where you can watch short old films and TV shows. You’ll find treasures, such as the films Evelyn Waugh made as a student at Oxford in 1929. Booking is essential.
With movies, a photography bookshop, vinyl for sale, food, and a bar, this is a great place for a night out and a lovely place to hang out on Sundays—it has that Sunday feel to it. Just turn up and see what’s on. Founded by an architect with amazing vision, most locals are unaware of it, but it does attract a mix of writers, artists, and musicians. Sit at the bar made out of an old plane, then catch an offbeat film in the comfy little cinema. I’ve seen some great short surrealist films by Magritte, rather than the usual Buñuel and Dali L’Age d’Or.
20 locals recommend
Number10 London
10 Helmsley Pl
20 locals recommend
With movies, a photography bookshop, vinyl for sale, food, and a bar, this is a great place for a night out and a lovely place to hang out on Sundays—it has that Sunday feel to it. Just turn up and see what’s on. Founded by an architect with amazing vision, most locals are unaware of it, but it does attract a mix of writers, artists, and musicians. Sit at the bar made out of an old plane, then catch an offbeat film in the comfy little cinema. I’ve seen some great short surrealist films by Magritte, rather than the usual Buñuel and Dali L’Age d’Or.

Drinks & Nightlife

Soho is touristville, but you can still see artists and writers propping up the French House bar, drinking Pernod or a small French beer—no pints here! It’s where Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, and Lucian Freud used to drink back in the day. Nowadays, you might see filmmaker John Maybury or Kevin Spacey, but I’m not going to promise! This atmospheric pub, dating back to 1891, is where the Free French Forces gathered during the Second World War. De Gaulle worked from here, and this is where he wrote his rallying speech to the French when the Germans were overcome.
15 locals recommend
Dean Street
Dean Street
15 locals recommend
Soho is touristville, but you can still see artists and writers propping up the French House bar, drinking Pernod or a small French beer—no pints here! It’s where Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, and Lucian Freud used to drink back in the day. Nowadays, you might see filmmaker John Maybury or Kevin Spacey, but I’m not going to promise! This atmospheric pub, dating back to 1891, is where the Free French Forces gathered during the Second World War. De Gaulle worked from here, and this is where he wrote his rallying speech to the French when the Germans were overcome.

Food Scene

It might be the art deco decor that initially appealed to the artists, DJs, musicians, writers, and directors who hang out in this fantastic, old-school Italian cafe. But it’s the atmosphere created by the loving Italian family who have run it for over 100 years that keeps regulars faithful. They talk, enquire, joke. It unfailingly lifts your spirit. Nev and Anna run E Pellicci for their mum, who’s cooking in the kitchen. They serve home-cooked food like mama used to make, and still does, like great lasagna to make you feel human.
160 locals recommend
E Pellicci
332 Bethnal Green Rd
160 locals recommend
It might be the art deco decor that initially appealed to the artists, DJs, musicians, writers, and directors who hang out in this fantastic, old-school Italian cafe. But it’s the atmosphere created by the loving Italian family who have run it for over 100 years that keeps regulars faithful. They talk, enquire, joke. It unfailingly lifts your spirit. Nev and Anna run E Pellicci for their mum, who’s cooking in the kitchen. They serve home-cooked food like mama used to make, and still does, like great lasagna to make you feel human.
Sister to the Wolseley restaurant, where you can never get a table, less snotty than the Ivy, Brasserie Zedel attracts artists, writers, and West End actors with its art deco interior, reasonable prices, and occasional burlesque nights. Lots of theatre actors. It’s where I go when I need to feel West End old-style glamorous. If you go wearing a fabulous vintage hat and outfit, they’ll give you a complimentary glass of Champagne. Well, they do to me!
49 locals recommend
Brasserie Zédel
20 Sherwood St
49 locals recommend
Sister to the Wolseley restaurant, where you can never get a table, less snotty than the Ivy, Brasserie Zedel attracts artists, writers, and West End actors with its art deco interior, reasonable prices, and occasional burlesque nights. Lots of theatre actors. It’s where I go when I need to feel West End old-style glamorous. If you go wearing a fabulous vintage hat and outfit, they’ll give you a complimentary glass of Champagne. Well, they do to me!

Shopping

All of Charing Cross Road used to be filled with secondhand bookshops, but now there are just three. I come here for the smell, the atmosphere, and to while away the hours. All artists love old books, something real, not an intangible screen image that disappears. I shouldn’t give away my favourite place for unearthing rare first editions, but this is it. I’ve found more here than anywhere else. I always find something amazing.
Any Amount of Books
56 Charing Cross Rd
All of Charing Cross Road used to be filled with secondhand bookshops, but now there are just three. I come here for the smell, the atmosphere, and to while away the hours. All artists love old books, something real, not an intangible screen image that disappears. I shouldn’t give away my favourite place for unearthing rare first editions, but this is it. I’ve found more here than anywhere else. I always find something amazing.
Probably the best art supply shop in the world. When I first came to London, it changed the way I painted, because you can buy pure pigments, great big magical jars of colour. It looks like the Old Curiosity Shop or an artist’s sweet shop—you just disappear in time. And the people who work there are incredibly knowledgeable, a rare thing these days. What could be a nicer follow-up to a visit to the nearby British Museum than spending an hour here, buying gorgeous little vials of amazing colours, beautiful brushes, and great paper to create your own take on the masterpieces you’ve just seen?
L. Cornelissen & Son
105 Great Russell St
Probably the best art supply shop in the world. When I first came to London, it changed the way I painted, because you can buy pure pigments, great big magical jars of colour. It looks like the Old Curiosity Shop or an artist’s sweet shop—you just disappear in time. And the people who work there are incredibly knowledgeable, a rare thing these days. What could be a nicer follow-up to a visit to the nearby British Museum than spending an hour here, buying gorgeous little vials of amazing colours, beautiful brushes, and great paper to create your own take on the masterpieces you’ve just seen?
Two men’s obsession, this shop is a collection of special hats, dresses, and all things vintage. It’s where anyone into 1940s and ’50s clothes goes. The guys and gals who run the place are vintage cuties, circa 1952. Everything is of the highest quality, yet there are still plenty of bargains. Being poor, artists love a bargain and to dress up; life’s a party. There’s more downstairs, lots of bargains that you might have to sew up a bit or take to the dry cleaner’s—but a snip of the price.
Hunky Dory Vintage
226 Brick Ln
Two men’s obsession, this shop is a collection of special hats, dresses, and all things vintage. It’s where anyone into 1940s and ’50s clothes goes. The guys and gals who run the place are vintage cuties, circa 1952. Everything is of the highest quality, yet there are still plenty of bargains. Being poor, artists love a bargain and to dress up; life’s a party. There’s more downstairs, lots of bargains that you might have to sew up a bit or take to the dry cleaner’s—but a snip of the price.