Here comes another ephemeral concept just when I was about to blog about serious pop-up fatigue. Wish You Were Here Swap is an interesting NY-LON experience: 30 designer shops in Newburgh Quarter (Carnaby Street) and the Lower East Side swap places for a month… London designers visited New York this August and London is now welcoming 12 Lower East Side designers until 31 October – like a good old fashioned high school student exchange. Ok the yellow taxi is a bit corny but I am going this afternoon – I immediately spotted shirtmaker Robert James in the list…
More seriously, are we so over pop-up shops (to paraphrase Johannes, our creative consultant)? Yes, these guerrilla tactics have had their day and the concept has been bastardised by too many brands trying to keep up with youth culture, but there is something resolutely grassroots about the whole idea and we certainly haven’t seen the end of it in London. Part of it is down to economics I guess – finding affordable space was impossible 2 years ago but in the aftermath of a full-blown recession, London high streets feel decimated, not just in the West End but also in Shoreditch and in the posher parts of town (I mentioned how desolate Westbourne Grove feels in a previous blog but I also spotted 2 bailiff notices stuck on windows on Saint John’s Wood High Street). It is estimated that 15 UK retail chains are on the verge of immediate bankruptcy. It is very tempting to take over say Woolworths’ huge empty premises for an experimental project because I can’t see anyone else moving in…
It reminds me of Berlin’s Zwischenmieter movement (a proper translation would be “in-between tenants”): until recently there was no shortage of empty buildings in Berlin and landlords have always been prepared to let out their space for free to desirable trendoids who can boost the cachet of an area. If a small Produzentengalerie sets up shop for free say north of Torstraße, flashing shiny Macs and ic!berlin eyewear at passer-bys, within months the area gets a media company or two, a fashion store, commercial galleries, a restaurant and designer bars. And before you know it the former no man’s land calls itself NoTo (North of Torstraße), the Bavarians move in, Berliner residents feel alienated in the Toca Rouge-Reingold-Birnbaum triangle, and the landlord laughs all the way to the bank… So there is a rationale for keeping rents low for low-key creative outfits (London and Paris landlords take note). In fact many venues in Berlin still operate on such low rents that they don’t even need to sell anything, a few even feel compelled to give things away for free. So I wasn’t surprised last year when Wedding Dress, a fringe fashion and urban arts festival, occupied three entire blocks at the very unfashionable end of Brunnenstraße in Wedding. I was even less surprised to hear that it was organised by the building landlords. And at this stage I need to disclose that the whole Carnaby Street-Newburgh Quarter is not what it used to be – the entire area belongs to the same property developer…
Back to Turnleft – I’m very tempted to coincide Turnleft SS10 guide collections with maybe a pop-up or two in various cities, where guides would be available for free, with exhibitions, social events and fantastic us making the street shiny and happening. If there are landlords out there willing to offer some space, contact us. Oh, and a drink sponsor 
London (West End): Wish You Were Here Swap. Newburgh Quarter (Carnaby Street area), W1. 1-31 Oct
Berlin (Mitte): Birnbaum Bergstraße 25 – Reingold Novalisstraße 11 – Toca Rouge Torstraße 195
New York (Lower East Side): Robert James 72 Orchard St, NY 10002
