26 Inspirations is an exhibition featuring writers working in partnership with a wide range of artists. The show features writing, sound, illustration, photography, art, pottery and even perfumery.

Writers’ group 26 has been a Bloomsbury Festival partner for a number of years now. This year their writers were asked to focus on what inspires them. The dictionary definition is ‘from in + spirare’ “to breathe”, the theme of this year’s festival. So ‘inspiration’ is closely related to breath – and perhaps the simplest definition of the creative process is ‘inspiration leading to expression’.

Opening times:
9am – 6pm Mon – Fri; 10am – 4pm Sat (closed Sunday)

FREE – Just Turn Up

The Building Centre, the Architectural Association School of Architecture, the Museum of Architecture, and the British Council have come together to bring the 2021 British Pavilion from the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at la Biennale di Venezia – to London.

Commissioned by the British Council and curated by Madeleine Kessler and Manijeh Verghese of Unscene Architecture, the exhibition calls for new thinking around privately owned public space in cities across the UK. Taking inspiration from Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, the exhibition explores the UK’s privatised public space.

Open Friday 10am – 4pm & 6pm – 9pm, as part of the Festival opening event, the Store Street Global Garden Party
Saturday 10am – 4pm 

FREE – Just Turn Up

Alfred Place in central London was an unremarkable back street, car dominated and with narrow pavements.

Now it has been transformed into a tranquil green oasis. Renamed Alfred Place Gardens, it is the first park in the area for over 25 years and part of Camden Council’s £35m West End Project, which radically overhauls traffic and public realm. As part of this LDA Design are transforming streets and spaces for people and nature.

The park creates lounging lawns, spaces for play, biodiverse planting, with better air quality. Elegant, curved timber seating along a meandering path is designed to encourage sociability, providing an antidote to city life.

The project team wanted to set the highest design benchmark. The Gardens provide a variety of experiences for users, and the planting creates cohesion. A series of outdoor rooms provide woodland and play glades, lounging lawns and a flexible events space. The street’s mature London Plane trees have all been retained and are joined by a line of Amelanchier and Birch, which provide dappled shade.

Tim South, Associate and landscape design lead for the Alfred Place project will describe the journey through the development of the original concept, the technical challenges of design development, construction, and the joy of delivery.

Walk: 11am – 12 noon, starts at Alfred Place Gardens
Talk: 2pm – 3pm at The Building Centre

FREE – Just Turn Up

Image @studio.maple / LDA Design