What to take home Wednesday: Blue Plaques

W2 are the London-based design team behind the clever Pantone mugs (oh, how I desire one in every colour) and they're also the the official licensees of English Heritage, who are responsible for the iconic blue plaques posted on buildings around the capital. The plaques mark the historic home or working place of a Very Important Londoner (VIL).

Blue plaque tea towel, £6, by W2.

The girls at W2 have produced a fabulous collection of Blue Plaque tea-towels and fine bone china mugs, which includes such VILs as Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Enid Blyton, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx. I only have one question: is it an oxymoron to hanker after the suffragette Pankhurst women tea-towel as well as the Enid Blyton?

W2 shop
www.w2products.com
1.22 Oxo Tower Wharf
Barge House Street
London SE1 9PH
Tel. 020 7922 1444

Opening hours:
Monday to Saturday 10am -6pm

Nearest tubes: Waterloo and Southwark

Design Museum: Designs of the Year

Two new things I learnt about London over the weekend:
1. It snows in spring, not winter; and
2. Marks & Spencer Hot Cross Buns and Cadbury Crème Eggs are key items for holiday survival.

Fighting the urge to hibernate under the duvet, I headed over to the Design Museum with some friends on Easter Sunday to look at the 100 works nominated for the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year. This year’s decision to change the title from “Designer of the Year” to “Designs of the Year” was inspired as it really opened up the competition to new and innovative design from all disciplines.


Amongst the iPhone, Nintendo Wii, and a cheap and energy-efficient laptop for children in developing countries (Yves Behar’s One Laptop Per Child was the winning design), I was particularly (and predictably) taken by the Hussein Chalayan LED dress from his a/w 2007 Airborne collection. Encrusted with Swarovski crystals and 15,600 LEDs, multi-coloured patterns flickered across the fabric as if lit by psychedelic fireflies. Quite beautiful.


Also up for nomination in the fashion category are Pierre Hardy’s fashion accessories from s/s 2008; Giles Deacon’s s/s 2008 collection; Uniqlo’s cashmere project with Pantone; Issey Miyake’s innovative Dyson vacuum cleaner dress (complete with male and female parts) and Osman Yousefzada’s a/w 07/08 collection.

My other favourites include Anthony Dicken's clever interpretation of the classic Anglepoise Fifty lamp, Marigold’s genius (and nomadic-friendly) Make/Shift shelving, and the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions (for dazzling new illustrated covers like a comic-strip version of Lady Chatterley's Lover).




The museum's shop is a must-see (and worthy of its own post), especially if you fancy design-led products and books. In fact, some of nominated products are available to purchase in the shop (as well as online), including the Anglepoise Fifty lamp (£39.50), Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions (£12.99), Make/Shift shelves (£120 for a set of two), and Naoto Fukasawa's calculator (£25.95).

Design Museum
www.designmuseum.org
Shad Thames
London SE1 2YD
Tel. 0870 833 9955

Tickets: Adults £8.50; Concessions £6.50; Students £5; Under 12s free

Opening hours:
10am - 5.45pm daily (last admission 5.15pm)

Nearest tube: London Bridge

Last minute Christmas treats

If you haven't started already, now is the time to start digging into all the seasonal goodies. There's nothing cosier than watching all those ultra-cheesey Christmas specials on TV by candlelight, whilst feasting on some warm Christmas pud. Here, my favourite sweet treats in London:

Ultimate Christmas pudding, £32.95, from Harrods. Packaged in a black ceramic basin and matured for six months.

Brandy butter, £3.95, from Harrods.

Meg Rivers Christmas Cake and tin, £38, from Cath Kidston. £5 of the proceeds from every sale of this award-winning cake goes to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Hope and Greenwood suitcase, from £24.95, from The Conran Shop. Each suitcase is filled with a selection of nostalgic English sweets.

And I'll be heading to Konditor & Cook this weekend to pick up some of their infamous handmade mince pies. Apparently Nigella fancies them very muchly. Merry yum yum!

Stockists:

The Conran Shop
www.conranshop.co.uk
The Conran Shop Chelsea
Michelin House
81 Fulham road
London SW3
Tel 020 7589 7401

The Conran Shop Marylebone
55 Marylebone High Street
London W1
Tel 020 7723 2223

Harrods
www.harrods.com
87-135 Brompton Road
Knightsbridge, London SW1

Cath Kidston
www.cathkidston.co.uk
Click here for store locations.

Konditor & Cook
www.konditorandcook.com
Waterloo:
22 Cornwall Road
London SE1

London Bridge:
10 Stoney Street
London SE1

Chancery Lane:
46 Grays Inn Road
London WC1

Curzon Soho Cafe:
99 Shaftesbury Ave
London W1

The Gherkin
30 St Mary Axe
London EC3