There were two things that blew my mind when I visited my old school friend in Paris years and years ago: Her tiny perfect rented flat, filled as it was with flea market furniture. And, the discovery of the city beach…

I read that 5,000 tons of sand is transported by barge from Normandy to make the annual Paris Plages. The scheme started in2002 and although you’re not allowed to swim in the Seine, there is a floating swimming pool, free concerts, go carts and even tango lessons.

Berlin was  supposedly the first city to copy Paris, creating its city beach along the Spree.

Then we got into it in the UK in Edinburgh, Bristol and Cardiff among other places. Nottingham’s looks pretty good.

London’s offerings are quite small scale, but in my experience of the Southbank’s annual beach, always busy. This year’s is  part of the larger Festival of Neighbourhood, which includes a village installation by artist James Bowthorpe.

And I just learnt that the beach at Camden’s Roundhouse opens this weekend.

My cat will pay for this

Here she is, doing what she does best. Now, here’s the project she has been working on for six years. It’s her primary form of exercise. I’ve come to love these chairs because of their unfashionable floral upholstery rather than in spite of, but the cat has worked hard to show that she has other […]

Herne Hill green roof project

The roofs of some shops in Herne Hill. Actually, just a handful of the 30 roofs along Norwood Road and Railton Road, which The Urban Wild Project plans to plant with sedum over the next 3 years. The ambitious green roof project is the first of its kind from the organisation, which is run by […]

Tools for thinking

That rather grand title is in fact the name of a stationery collection. I know I’m not the only one to find Alain de Botton’s tweets as deep as the lyrics from a Stereophonics song.* So I doubt I’m the only one to emit a deep sigh at the thought of reading such sentiments as […]

Real reveal: Linen cabinet

At first, I had to walk past it quickly, eyes in the other direction. Any other direction. But, after a few weeks of  ignoring what I feared to be a pretty large-scale decorating blunder, I can exclusively reveal that… I’m pleased with my upcycled linen cabinet! And its weird curtain front. Wanna see? That thing […]