office bloggins

Hello, John again. Back for my monthly (yeah right!) appraisal of all things furniture. This week… Road Trip!

Q. What do you get if you cross 2 beer loving men, a handful of London furniture showrooms and St. Patrick’s Day?

A. Home at 10:30 in the evening…

Showroom tour 09

That is the short hand of the story of what happened but the longer version is now going to be related to you. We set off on the morning of Tuesday 17th with upbeat vigour at the thought of getting out of the office for a day but also the thought of St Paddies at the back of our minds, it would also be a good opportunity for me to get a proper look at the furniture in the flesh and have a valid reason to quaff copious amounts of Guinness without fear of public scorn!

Brue sofa

We mounted the train at Tiverton Parkway and found our reserved seats then settled into the 2 hour 25 min journey taking in The Independent newspaper, the whirring of laptops  and that most traditional of institutions – the hideous British Rail tea.  After drinking my lukewarm tasteless water and defeating the urge to use my MP3 player I took the opportunity to stare at the inside of my eyelids till pretty much journey’s end!

John at Vitra

We arrived in Paddington at around 11:25 so right off from the start; time was going to be a factor, that and the ongoing battle that we seem to continually have with Google Maps and it’s random destination generator!

We got on the tubes each of us with one thought in mind. FOOD quickly followed by the thought GUINNESS…  We began our search to find a suitable location in which to eat.

Track Lounge

We found a lovely pub on the corner of Turnmill St and tucked into a fantastic lunch of sausage and bubble and squeak plus 2 pints of the black stuff in glorious sunshine. Marvellous!

X&Y Table

After lunch came the more serious business of the showroom visiting, so off to Clarkenwell we trudged wondering where Google maps would put us. The showrooms we visited were Boss, where we were both allowed toilet facilities, the brand new Allermuir studio as it had only opened earlier that week and Vitra were I posed on some fairly artistic and stylish chairs while Peter did his David Bailey stuff and snapped away. I was pleasantly surprised walking around the showrooms by just how much variation there is in the world of office furniture and why Pete remains as enthusiastic and passionate as he’s always been.  After much more walking and a few showrooms later we made our way, via the tube stations to find our way back home.

Dune table

As I mentioned earlier, time had always been a factor and now, at 16:34 it had become our enemy causing us to miss our train and only allowing us to catch a later train due to our ticket type. This unfortunate turn of events resulted in us having to spend another hour and a half in a pub? A cruel twist of fate that was almost too much to bear!

Eventually we boarded our designated train and sat down to a further 2 + hour journey listening to the phone calls of the great British public, the slamming of carriage doors and thankfully my MP3 player before arriving back safe and content in Devon after a very full but rewarding showroom pilgrimage. Bring on the next one!