Product and furniture designer Thorsten van Elten shows us around the historicaly bohemian areas of Fitzrovia & Bloomsbury, as found in the LONDON DESIGN GUIDE (the book) walking tour. Once renowned for its famous writer inhabitants, the area is now home to a variety of quirky shops, pubs and hidden cobbled streets – all of which are dominated by the looming BT Tower.

Fitzrovia & Bloomsbury: Take a Walk with Thorsten van Elten

“Walk down Warren Street and turn left into Fitzroy Square, the heart of Fitzrovia and London’s only square designed by Neoclassical architect Robert Adam with fantastic views of the BT Tower through the trees.

Fitzroy Square

BT Tower, 60 Cleveland Mews

Turn right and take Conway Street back onto Warren Street. There is a beautiful, old blue-tiled dairy on the corner, which is now an Italian café.

Italian Cafe, 35 Conway Street

Keep walking until the end and turn left into Cleveland Street, then right into Carburton Street, which will take you into Great Portland Street. Turn left, and at No.109 is one of my all-time favourite shops in London: the Aquatic Design Centre, where they have amazing tanks of fish and very knowledgeable (although sometimes a bit grumpy) staff.

Aquatic Design Centre, 107-109 Great Portland Street

Bear left into Langham Street, which turns into Foley Street. On the corner with Cleveland Street is the King & Queen Pub, which has an open fire in the winter and is one of the nicest pubs in the area.

The King & Queen Pub, 1 Foley Street

Keep walking and turn right into Howland Street, then take the second right into Whitfield Street and the cute Pollock’s Toy Museum and toys shop.

Pollock’s Toy Museum, 25 Scala Street

Keep walking, crossing Goodge Street, until you see Colville Place on your right, a little stone-flagged pedestrian street with lovely 18th-century houses.

Colville Place

This will lead you to the restaurants and galleries of Charlotte Street. Turn left. If it’s a nice day, have a pint outside the Fitzroy Tavern. It’s perfect for outdoor drinking, not so great inside.

Fitzroy Tavern, 16A Charlotte Street

Always worth checking out is the Contemporary Applied Arts gallery and shop in Percy Street.

Contemporary Applied Arts, 2 Percy Street

Then walk down to the end of Rathbone Place and turn left into Oxford Street and again into Hanway Street, an old lane cutting behind the major crossroads of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street. Once you get used to the smell, you’ll find it’s home to some cool second-hand record shops, flamenco bars and the fantastic Bradley’s Spanish Bar, which is charmingly shabby and devoid of pretension.”

Bradley’s Spanish Bar, 42-44 Hanway Street

This extract was taken from page 87 of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE. To enjoy similar tours of other areas in London, complete with maps, why not order a copy of the guide?

New Designers exhibition is the leading showcase of graduate design talent as they emerge from the UK’s design courses, presenting everything from architecture to animation, furniture to fashion, graphics to glass. Hosted under one roof at Islington’s Business Design Centre (BDC), visitors can access over 3,500 new talents across the two-part event.

NEW DESIGNERS 2010

PART 1: 1st-4th July 2010 >>> Textiles; Fashion & Accessories; contemporary Applied Arts; Ceramics & Glass; Jewellery & Precious Metalwork.

PART 2: 8th-11th July 2010 >>> Product Design; Furniture; Visual Communications (including Graphic Design & Illustration); Spatial Design.

BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRE

52 Upper Street, London N1 0QH (08448 480 139)

Due to the sheer volume of work being exhibited, New Designers is split across two shows with each show focussing on the creative disciplines listed above.

2010 is a landmark for New Designers, which will have been running for 25 successful years. To mark this anniversary, ‘Where are you now’ celebrates the success of a number of New Designer’s alumni with work displayed (and for sale) near the upper café.

Alongside the graduates’ exhibits is a special showcase of design entrepreneurs entitled ‘One Year On.’ As the name suggests, it presents a selected showcase of designers whose work has matured and progressed in their first year in business. Thorsten van Elten curates the 40 contributors.

An extensive talks and seminars programme adds further interest with sessions offering advice for professional development and insights into some of the key issues of the day.

We will be selling copies of LONDON DESIGN GUIDE at New Designers Part Two.

Design producer and distributor, Thorsten van Elten, is clinching the Christmas market with his own pop-up shop in the Brompton Design District. The event is called “Thorsten’s 12 days of Christmas” and is a good spot to pick up well-designed gifts.

THORSTEN’S 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS, 2nd-13th December 2009

THE GARAGE

1 North Terrace (off Brompton Road), London SW3 2BA

As you would expect, Thorsten is selling classics such as the Pigeon Light by Ed Carpenter; Antlers coat hanger by Alex Taylor; taz ah mugs by Attua Aparicio Torinos; and Plant Cup by Gitta Gschwendtner.

There are also plenty of newer items to choose from. Upside-down SKY planters by BOSKKE; Cushions, Blankets, and Creatures by Donna Wilson; Kippford Hook Set by Jon Harrison (in brass and stainless steel); HemDing platter by Andreas Fabian; and Date Ruler by Andre Klauser.

For those hunting a bargain, Thorsten is running a Sample & Seconds Sale for three days from 4th-6th December, located on the other side of town in Bethnal Green.

Address: Units 14+15, 10-14 Hollybush Gardens, London E2 9QP (020 7739 7237)

It’s December and the Christmas season is well and truly upon us. The annual dilemma as to what to buy our discerning friends and family is here, and to make life a bit easier, we have searched the stores featured in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE to bring our pick of the top 20 products from 20 great places.

Start as you mean to go on – kick off Christmas day with Champagne and sausages.

Above: Champagne Glasses by Ilse Crawford & Michael Anastassiades. £85 (sold in pairs) from Sigmar, Chelsea (page 19 in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE)

Of course, no day begins properly without a caffeine injection.

Above: Coffee & tea maker by Naoto Fukasawa. £149 from twentytwentyone, Islington (page 119 in LDG)

Right, breakfast over, its time to change out of your dressing gown and make an effort. Its Christmas day after all.

Above: Hinged Facet cufflinks in sterling silver by Hannah Martin. £335 from The Modern Gentry, Mayfair (until 5th December) or online from Hannah Martin London (page 84 in LDG)

And for you ladies, a beautiful ring should do the job.

Above: Grace Round silver ring with crystal by Jacqueline Rabun. £1500 from Jacqueline Rabun, Knightsbridge (page 15 in LDG)

Its not just how you look. What about how you smell?

Above: ‘Standard’ Comme des Garcons Artek perfume (100ml). £70 from Dover Street Market, Mayfair (page 54 in LDG)

Winter days can be rather gloomy so its important that you can see what you’re doing before plunging into that pile of pressies.

Above: Chimney Lights by Benjamin Hubert. £295 each from Viaduct, Clerkenwell (page 106 in LDG)

OK, if the kids don’t open some presents soon, they’re going to climb the walls. Perhaps that goes for the adults too? 

Above: Playshapes by millergoodman. £79 for a set of 74 wooden shapes from Aram, Covent Garden (page 76 in LDG)

Feeling peckish already? Time for a mid-morning snack served in style.

Above: hemDing platter by Andreas Fabian. £109 from Thorsten van Elten pop-up shop, Brompton (2-13 December) or online (page 72 in LDG)

Christmas is a time of celebration so do just that, and assemble and scatter illuminated balloons.

Above: Balloon Lamp by Kyouei. £25 from placesandspaces, Clapham (page 154 in LDG)

Argh, is that the time?! Must be time to start cooking the almighty roast…

Above: Red Wrist Watch by Uniform Wares. £85 from Uniform Wares online store (available from 4th December – its that new!)

OK, pots and pans to the ready…

Above: 20cm Casserole by Jasper Morrison. £38 from Jasper Morrison Shop, Shoreditch (page 131 in LDG). The other products in the image are also available from Jasper Morrison Shop.

So, who is going to set the table for lunch?

Above: Tonale tableware range by David Chipperfield. Prices from £13 from Alessi, Mayfair (page 52 of LDG)

After a long boozy lunch, it is time for a snooze on the sofa wrapped in warm blankets.

Above: Nos Da cushions, throws, and blankets. £60, £160, and £275 from SCP, Shoreditch and Notting Hill (pages 31 & 136 in LDG)

Wake up sleepy head!

Above: Braun Alarm Clock AB5 by Dietrich Lubs. £29.95 from Design Museum Shop, Bermondsey (page 150 in LDG). Be warned – these clocks are out of production and have been sourced from a savvy collector in Japan, so they are strictly limited!

If you’re not the snoozing type, have a read of your latest cultural tome.

Above: Anish Kapoor, published by Phaidon. £59.95 from Phaidon Store, Mayfair (from 6-7pm on 11th December, Anish Kapoor will be signing books in the store. To secure a place in the queue, pre-order your copy with a 20% discount)

Time for some Christmas cake already?

Above: Pedastal (grey) by Harri Koskinen for iittala. £329 (limited edition) from Skandium, Brompton and Marylebone (pages 20 & 42 in LDG)

Of course, you can’t have cake without a cup of tea, right?

Above: Adonde stoneware teapot. £79 from Mar Mar Co, Brick Lane (page 134 in LDG)

OK, revived, its time for some more presents. 

Above: Wallet by Porte Monnaie, made from paper-like flash-spun high density polyethylene. £69 from Darkroom, Lamb’s Conduit Street (new store opening 8th December)

Wow, a knockout sculptural centrepiece if ever I saw one.

Above: Yellow Loop by Merete Rasmussen. £780 from Contemporary Applied Arts, Fitzrovia (page 89 in LDG)

At the risk of being really boring, I’m off to bed…

Above: French tin candle box with drawer of refills. £19 from Few and Far, Brompton (page 14 in LDG)

So that’s the end of our pick of 20 great Christmas presents from 20 great places. Explore over 100 more fantastic design destinations that are featured in LONDON DESIGN GUIDE 2010 – buy your copy for Christmas! Only £10 directly from this website.

We’ll leave you with a nerdy statistic: each year Britons spend on average £435 on Christmas presents, but now researchers have calculated £36 of that will not be appreciated. Last year, eBay saw two million unwanted Christmas gifts listed, but a huge number are discarded and end up in landfill. 

It is predicted that Londoners will be given £86 million of unwanted gifts this Christmas. Don’t be one of them. Buy well, buy quality… don’t buy crap.

Source: Western Union via Evening Standard

MERRY CHRISTMAS!