1919 was the first time street parties were organised by residents en masse. These were sit down formal affairs and were part of the Peace Treaty celebrations. Thus began the unique British tradition of the street party held on all major national days of celebration and now whenever we feel fit, or can get a long-tern weather forecast.

The Chelsea Design Quarter is bringing back its King’s Road street party, last held around six years ago when one of the best antique showrooms in town (that will remain nameless) served the best cocktails in town.  The focus is now on beautiful furnishings, but fun it must be and it welcomes the great and the good of the design world.

Orchid are even staging the dance of the Chinese Dragon – for one night only!

The Chelsea Design Quarter’s Summer Street Party on Wednesday 4th June, from 6-9pm is the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of the summer season in London.  Enjoy a relaxed summer evening having fun strolling with the stilt walkers, dancing to the Dixieland Jazz Band and just browsing the showrooms in this design hot spot.

This interiors Mecca is home to more than 45 showrooms where classic and traditional sit cheek by jowl with contemporary and modern. Partygoers can chat to well-know names behind the showrooms such as Christopher Sharp of The Rug Company, Sally Storey of John Cullen Lighting, Rupert Cavendish, Charles Edwards and Julia Boston to name but a few. Check out what’s showing at The Trowbridge Gallery and Thompson’s Contemporary, and visit the newly opened Drummonds and Waterworks and the newly expanded Lapicida.

After 9pm the music and party move to The Jam Tree!

chelseadesignquarter.co.uk

Everything’s coming up Roses and as the FT remarked recently  ‘there’s a veritable seed catalogue’s worth of floral prints from designers this season.’ This is fashion speak, but let’s talk interiors.

The English grow beautiful roses and Bennison print beautiful rose fabric. Launched in 1985, Bennison Fabrics reproduce original 18th and 19th century English and French textiles that were discovered by the late, renowned antique dealer and legendary decorator, Geoffrey Bennison. 

Roses was first used by Geoffrey in 1979 and he adapted this design from an English document dating from 1840. Bennison Fabrics continue to print the deliciously faded original colourway but more recently has introduced the not-so-traditional lipstick pink.  Whatever the colourway the knack is to be brave with your bunches and not let the ‘c’ word enter your decoration bible – that’s co-ordination to you and me.

Last week’s Chelsea Flower Show was brave and very beautiful, introducing new plants, naming a hosta after Andy Murray and a unveiling the Gucci garden.

In our homes, wardrobes and gardens flowers are blossoming and the rose will always be this country’s favourite.

Now where did that Zebra come from?

bennisonfabrics.com

It’s a bit like the princess and the pea. There are no royals here but if finding the perfect dining chair demands quite a bit of physical sensitivity then just think of the pressure of designing one.

Chairs have become as familiar as friends as we refer to the names of their makers in casual conversation – Eames, van der Rohe, Le Corbusier.  Like the fairy tale these are great classics, so creating a new iconic chair is a daunting task.

I am glad to say that Ochre has risen to the challenge and their first dining and desk chairs make their debut along with the Celestial Pebble light at Clerkenwell Design Week. 

Sable is a beautifully made, exquisitely simple dining chair.

 ‘We wanted to create a discreet dining chair to sit with our elegant Whippet table with its delicately proportioned legs. Sable’s refined-yet-practical design draws many around a table without feeling crowded.’

Harriet Maxwell Macdonald

The slim metal frame is clad head to toe in the finest hand-stitched leather. The purity of form gives focus to the tones, texture and quality of the Italian leather with its pinched seams and scalloped corners. Signature Ochre shades include earthy brown, distant grey and carmine red.

Sable is designed for dining but equally at ease used singly as a desk or side chair.

The curvaceous Caribou desk chair exudes cool elegance.

Again you can almost smell this fine leather, which is handcrafted onto a metal frame that glides around this s-shape chair with its low-slung seat. Its curvilinear shape creates a sensual aesthetic and provides perfect comfort from desk to dining. Colours are black and brown.

Ochre is showing at stand one Detail, the Order of St John and opening the doors of its Britton Street showroom for the launch of these classic yet forward-looking designs that deftly blend function, matchless craftsmanship and modern aesthetics.

ochre.net

clerkenwelldesignweek.com