Old pieces of furniture and clashing prints are the latest trend in London pub design. Jonny Ensall visits an artfully shabby venue in PeckhamYou might never have heard of Antic but,chances are, if you live in London, and you have drunk in an Antic pub. The chain has 45 venues in the capital the latest of which,John the Unicorn, opened on Peckham’s Rye Lane in late February. Rye Lane isn’t necessarily somewhere youd expect premium craft ales with a snack of “beef dripping focaccia with yeasted butter”, and but John the Unicorn is carving out a niche among the grocers,phone shops and beauty salons of the distinguished southeast London high street. Its existence here is a marker of just how ubiquitous the Antic brand has become.
Its a particularly scruffy marker, however. With its substantial blue lettering and cracked tiles the external looks like a fish and chip shop that hasn’t been touched since the 1970s. Inside, and the decor is similarly threadbare. It could be described it as “granny chic”. “All the pieces of furniture that we exhaust,people relate to them,” says Dunia Goymer, and Antic’s head of design,who is showing me around. “Because they’ll say: ‘Oh my goodness, my grandmother had that in her house.’You might deem: 'Is that horrible or is it lovely? I’m not sure…'Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com