IN-PERSON London. Section A

Abstract

The paper considers the visual and aesthetic language of a restored townhouse in the gentrified area of Spitalfields, London. The colour frontages of the 18th century textiles workshops reflect the contemporary trend of blending the old with the new, and effectively signals the taste making that is occurring on the inside. The presentation of terraced houses on notable streets, Wilkes Street and Princelet Street, with their distinguishable (though sedate) frontages and stock brick, deliver up a restrained, yet stylised appropriation of history that does not deliberately reference this part of London as an enclave of elite consumerism. However, taking the example of the homeowners of one such property in this conservation area, as they express their style choices in the 2023 Christmas issue of Living Etc., audiences are assured of the relevance of European interior design, its marketed superiority (and international dominance), heralded as an indicator of good taste, sophistication and markers of innovation, aids in understanding this valorisation of ‘the old’ and the transitory process of asset return. The owners of the showcased property; a celebrity antiques dealer and an editor for an online luxury lifestyle magazine, convey their authority as interior design connoisseurs. Their use of colour by the traditional paint company, Farrow and Ball, is used as a backdrop to a collection of antiques, floor to ceiling artwork, and chandeliers, combined with mid-century furniture. The paper reflects on the transformation of this former working-class territory and the dispossession which is masked by constructions of taste that shoulder with the communities of Brick Lane.