The Foundry - Soon To Be Gone?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/03/foundry-gallery-set-to-close

Yeah, yeah, get yr "fucking Shoreditch hipsters" jokes out of the way. It was one of the few genuine, interesting, egalitarian spaces left in all of London, let alone Hoxditch.

That bank vault had the best 7-second reverb I've ever heard in my life. And spinning on the spinny-van thing! They let ANYONE and ANYTHING go on in there. Rubbish art and brilliant art, they let anyone have a go, and even if it was shit, it was always interesting. You could hear the Worm Lady reciting poetry or run into anyone from experimental soundartists and end up drinking with bedroom dance acts who'd accidentally ended up in the charts.

Not to mention on a personal note, I practically lived there for some of the most interesting years of my life. I met two future bandmates there. Went on my first date with my long-term partner down in the vault. Haven't been there anywhere like as much since moving to Sarf London but I have a huge sentimental attachment to the place.

I know London is only as vibrant as it is changeable, but this feels like a bit of history has gone.

Anyone else want to share any fun or scary or interesting or yes, shit-Hoxditch-hipster moments they experienced there?

Guess there aren't any Londoners on this forum

i'm curious about all love is unrequited

It's a quote from the character who is displayed as my avatar, from a 90s SciFi series called Babylon 5.

None of which is anything to do with London art galleries, performance spaces or pubs.

yes, i'd love to talk about london

i was hoping for you to eleborate the above concept, it sticks into my head

I don't know about any of this, but I find it intriguing that they replace art with a golden deodorant.

It's such a hideously ugly building. Not that the Foundry is a work of stunning architecture, but its grimness really did inspire people to do what they wanted with it. It's hard to fuck up a bank vault so you might as well have fun with yr exhibition.

p.s. I'm really not qualified to talk about love, requited or unrequited. I've either fallen in love every 6 weeks or else I've never really been in love at all. COuldn't tell you which.

ah, ok

Everyone knows that no-one hangs out in Shoreditch these days. Its all about Stoke Newington since like 2006

If you're going to play that game, Stokey was over by 2005 - all the real cool kids had moved to Hackney Wick, and Stokey has been naught but posh baby carriages every since. Do keep up.

I suppose I should really be amazed that the Foundry stayed going for so long in an increasingly gentrified part of town. It was like some kind of last stand...

i went there a few times in my year living in london. saw the worm lady, saw some squarepusher type playing live, saw some terrible art downstairs. great place for a night out. nowhere else like it. i always through the KLF burnt money in the vault but apparentely not.

ah a hotel! yes not enough hotels in london

lol @ saving the banksy. fucking idiots

London

  On 2/4/2010 at 7:57 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

i went there a few times in my year living in london. saw the worm lady, saw some squarepusher type playing live, saw some terrible art downstairs. great place for a night out. nowhere else like it. i always through the KLF burnt money in the vault but apparentely not.

 

ah a hotel! yes not enough hotels in london

 

lol @ saving the banksy. fucking idiots

Nah, apparently it was co-founded by Bill Drummond, or he was a partner in the finances, or something like that, but the KLF burned their money on an island off the coast of Scotland - I think Jura if memory serves.

That just says it all about the mentality of the council, though, doesn't it? Save the Banksy momento, rip out and preserve a piece of the fucking wall, but fuck the whole concept of having a space where "The Next Banksy" could actually walk in off the street and get a place to display their art or anything like that.

(And hey, I still actually quite like Banksy despite the terrible overproduction, but I guess it was just such a time and place. And that time and now that place has gone - or hopefully moved somewhere else that I'm too hopelessly old and outdated to ever have heard of. I just hope and pray that's the truth of it coz otherwise you kids have got a shit deal.)

it must be terrible being outdated, all i know about is old .. ;-]

I bet that place has seen many Heroine ODs

My mate Joe's tribute to the place:

http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=919:klf-bar-closes-foundry-britart&Itemid=29

And I would imagine before it became an arty-farty space supported by the national lottery / local council, it was a proper decent foundry where real men made proper things out of big heavy steel.

Ahh, those were the days. That was when London had real soul.

No. It was a bank, actually.

Ahh, bankers. Real working men.

The soul of the real city. The lifeblood of London. This place wasn't built on bricks and mortar, it was built on cash and crushed dreams.

Did you ever wonder why so many important London artistic things have happened in converted bank vaults? It's not because of the soundproofing, it's because of the thwarted imaginations locked away down there leaving psychic traces that scream as they die.

Top pub, shame to see it go. The mock up picture of the new hotel looks dire.